Up again at a very reasonable 0730 to do another couple of hours work - primarily due to my new hire in Montreal - before shutting down to blog about what would turn out to be a very good day sightseeing over on Hilton Head (HH) Island during Memorial Day, yesterday, 5/28/2012.
Both of my children, Meghan and Conor, sent me notes or called me to thank me for my service. I was touched... they're wonderful young adults. :-)
On this morning, instead of going out, Chuck made a tasty breakfast of scrambled eggs, Jimmy Dean sausage and, re-heated leftover roasted potatoes which we all enjoyed. We'd decided as a group to head out to Hilton Head Island to go tour Harbourtown and the fake Lighthouse there. Because of Tropical Storm, Beryl, we would not be going out on Chuck's boat this visit. Ahh, so is the game of chance we play with Mother Nature... next time!
As we were prepping to leave, I spend a little time outside taking pictures of the grounds and various vehicles - including Chuck's Sea Hunt Triton 207 - parked around their property.
Left home base at ~1100 for Hilton Head in BJ's Infiniti G35... destination: Harbourtown. We'd also planned on doing at late lunch at a restaurant recommended by someone that worked for me: Skull Creek Boathouse, basically at the opposite end of HH from Harbourtown. Listened to Jimmy Buffett all the way to HH. Took about 45mins to get there by car.
One must pay a $5 entry fee to access the end of the island. We guessed it was due to the PGA golf course located there amongst other tourist attractions, including Harbourtown. Eventually made our way to a parking area, parked, and disembarked just to sight see around the harbor. The actual harbor is relatively small and man tailored into a perfectly round shape. Lots of very expensive yachts and sailing vessels are moored about. We strolled over to the red lighthouse - which it turns out is a fake - but paid the entree fees to walk up the 114 steps to the top. Didn't want Chuck to tax his foot but, he insisted on climbing up too. As with other tower structures I'd been in before, the entrance at the base and the exit at the top both had gift shops.
On the way up, every other landing had a penny smashing machine. Needless to say I ended up buying about 7 different coins after getting change from the 'Tower' keepers at the bottom and top. :-) Also on every landing, there were placards with a lot of history inscribed on them. I took photos of most of those placards. Once at the top, we all enjoyed a great, gray view of Harbourtown. It was quite windy.
Strolled around the top enjoying the view and taking photos. BJ and Rosie headed back down before they knew that Chuck and I had found a webcam! I called up Conor and had him log-on to check us out... he did! Was very cool watching him manipulate the webcam to look at us on top of the lighthouse and around Harbourtown. Chuck called Bubba but, he was at work and couldn't jump on a workstation for a look. We headed down after that and joined the girls back at the base of the lighthouse.
Just a general observation about HHI: there's a lot of money on this island and there was plenty just walking amongst us in and about Harbourtown. :-) Definitely can check off Harbourtown, Hilton Head Island, from my bucket list! Strolled on back to the car and went in search of the Skull Creek Boathouse Restaurant and Bar off of Squire Pope Rd. We needed BJ's Garmin to find it nestled on the northwest coast of the island about 7 miles from Harbourtown. The restaurant was sandwiched between a Chart House restaurant and a large, 3-tiered boat storage warehouse, the Hilton Head Boathouse. Skull Creek's Lat/Long: N3214.8 / W8044.9. Plenty of pier space for future docking. Inside and outside dining and bar. The bar outside was called: Marker 13, Buoy Bar! Had to buy a t-shirt... Chuck bought 1 for both his sons.
Anyway, we headed on in and asked for outside patio seating and were told it'd be 10-15 minutes. No matter, we sat at the indoor bar and enjoyed some cold beverages before getting seated for our late lunch. The restaurant has a lot of very cool ambiance! :-) Took our seats under a sparse but sufficient canopy of tree limbs and leaves. The skies were overcast but no rain. Ordered our lunches - all of them were quite tasty - and enjoyed our repast while people watching around us. Chuck, once again, sneaked off to pick up the tab, damn him! :-) After lunch we strolled around the boat yard, ramp and pier area just for future reference.
Left HHI quite full and headed back to the house. Had a very good day. Got back to the house at around 1600 and finished off the day just relaxing, all of us catching brief catnaps, until around 1800 when all we could muster for dinner were some light hors d'oeuvres. Turned in early ~2130. Believe Chuck stayed up until at least 2300 waiting on Hunter getting home. Hunter, by the way, graduates High School this coming Friday, 6/1. Congratulations to Hunter and all the Cozarts!!!
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