Final Day

On the very last day of our vacation, knowing I had to be off the beach by eight, I finally woke up early. I had meant to do this nearly every morning, but never managed to get out before 9 or 10.(The time zone shift didn't help.) The water was still quite far out, although not as far as the day before. The waves were very mild, so I just did a bit of relaxed boogie boarding/floating. I didn't want to overexert myself anyway, since I was feeling only a bit stronger than the day before and had the kayaking trip coming up. And then came the moment I had been hoping for all week, when the black dorsal fins of dolphins popped up on our own beach at last! They were about 20 yards out from me. They didn’t hang around for more than a few minutes, but itwas a final parting gift of the beach.

I certainly think that it is a different feeling being in the water with the dolphins than watching it on from a boat or shore. Actually physically sharing space with any large animal is always a bit of a humbling experience. Plus in the water, where man is clearly not the dominant animal, it’s such a rush in those first moments when the dorsal fin first pops up out of nowhere nearby in the water (and any of our astute readers will know that a certain dark dorsal fin breaking the water is one the most primeval fears of mine), but also being in the water with these graceful and powerful creatures makes one feel like such a clumsy guest in their territory. This brief encouter was such a nice way to end our stay.

We packed up our hotel belonging and loaded them in the minivan. I swear we had brought nearly 400 pounds of stuff. Not sure what all was in there. We then drove out to the kayaking launch site.

JPD and I went out in a tandem kayak. Sorry there are no pictures. After our last digital camera gave up the ghost mid-way thru a canoeing trip, I am leery of bringing the camera unless I can waterproof it well. Our guide’s full time job was as a history professor at U. South Carolina-Beaufort, so he gave us lots of interesting history tidbits. One of the first things we paddled out to was the wreckage of an old dock that had burned with a large abandoned catamaran sailing ship (the starting point of the fire). JPD and I actually paddled underneath it, it was a bit of a tight fit for my head. After leaving there, we paddled to the shrimp boat docks and our guide told us that all the shrimp boat scenes from the movie Forrest Gump were actually shot around here. (Apparently the Viet Nam scenes were shot a little farther in, and of course the Savannah Georgia scenes were shot nearby at Savannah.)




We then starting see dolphins across the channel near the Pickney Island side, so we started to cross the channel, but in the meantime, we stopped at one of buoys floating in the channel. Our guide then pulled up a crab trap which contained a couple of blue crabs and a large stone crab. (Maybe a foot in diameter.)Our guide told us that it was common practice to remove the large claw of the stone crab for food and then return it back to the wild, because it would then regenerate its claw, thus making a "vegetarian" crab dinner, as no animals had been killed. (I'm sure that some vegans would object to that definition.)

We then continued in our pursuit of the dolphins, but they moved off and we never got really close. So we headed into one of the creeks of Pickney Island and ended up bushwacking kayaking style through a lot of sawgrass in creek/marsh to get over to a shell road that was our only portage. Here we received another history lesson. Turns out that Pickney Island was originally owned by Charles Pickney, signer of the declaration of independence. Originally they raised European cattle, as it turned out these bovine refuse to cross salt water, so they would stay on the island rather than swim across to greener pastures. They could also live off the bountiful sawgrass and the Spanish moss on the palmetto trees. All of the cattle were shipped to the Carribean to feed slaves. After cattle was no longer as profitable, the island became an indigo plantation, as the British Navy had a huge demand for indigo to dye their uniforms. Then came the Revolutionary War and for some reason the British Navy no longer wanted South Carolina indigo. At that point, the island switched to cotton. Eventually the island was abandoned and then finally became a natural wildlife reserve.

After that little history lesson, we hopped back in our boats on the other side of the road and explored the marsh a bit. Mostly because of the low tide, we were bushwacking through the sawgrass again. Coming off the island we saw some large birds, but I have to admit I still can't tell the difference between a egret, an ibis, or wood stork at a distance, even though our guide tried to talk me thru a verbal dichotomous key. We did sneak up on a blue heron, which I was able to ID easily from a distance thanks to their abundance in TN. Then we paddled back across the channel to our dock and we were through.

I think JPD was getting the hang of paddling the kayak by the end and we were able to move pretty quickly. It certainly seems easier to keep a sea kayak tracking where you want to go than a canoe, but its a lot easy to accidentally have your paddles clash.

Sidenote: I felt really bad that we didn't tip our guide. He was friendly and interesting and he apparently was a fill-in for the regular guide. But I hadn't brought any extra cash besides the $50 for the kayaking trip, and I absolutely hate when you find out that tipping is expected (there was a sign at the kayak shack) but you are not prepared for it. (There was no mention on the web-site.) I don't know if its standard practice to tip your captain or guide on paying trips or not, I have never really understood why tipping is expected in some settings and not others. After all, you don't tip at fast food restaurants, but the people there do pretty much as much work as at most fancier restaurants. Requiring employees to make their wages off tipping seems like an underhanded way for business owners to cheat their employees and falsely advertize the actual cost of something. I know that some wait staff make out like gangbusters, and in theory (but not practice) it encourages service employees to be helpful, but it seems to me that if a place offers a service for a price, the entire price should be put upfront and the people who do the actual work should be guaranteed to be compensated from that instead of being at the mercy of the customers. My friend DF tells me there is no tipping in Japan and I think that actually ends up creating a better service and work environment. But enough on that.


AMD and the girls picked us up and we started the long drive home. We had originally planned on staying in Atlanta overnight at our friends home, but we just felt vacationed out. I admit I was starting to feel kind of sick again and the kids were getting on each other nerves, and it just felt like it would be best if we got back home and kind of got back to our normal routine. So we drove home and all slept soundly. (In my case, I pretty much slept all of Sunday since my cold finally hit with full force.)

Day 4

Friday morning brought the best waves of our entire trip, driven by a looming storm coming up the coast. There were consistent four to five foot waves building up about 100 yards out from shore and holding their strength almost all the way in. This was so much bigger than the usual set of waves that there was actually a real surfer out in them, the only one I ever saw who actually surfed. (I know our most astute reader while be asking, why, since learning to surf is a bucket list item, why I didn’t give it a try, but in my defense, they didn’t rent real surfboards on the beach.) But really, thanks to new found speed of the skim board, riding these decent size waves was almost like surfing. Unfortunately for JPD, he was too short to take full advantage of these gift waves, as you still had to be tall enough to launch into them properly way out. Still, he had some nice rides, just for a shorter distance.

At the end of this rather strenuous session, I was wiped out, so much so that I felt like I was coming down with something. We all took a bit of a nap, but this only helped a little bit for me. After waking up, I tried to find a reasonably priced kayaking trip to Pickney Island.that I had promised to take JPD on in place of going parasailing, which was just too expensive. (To even up the deal for AM and the girls, I promised them they could hit the big expensive seafood buffet offered by the hotel.) However, it turned out that the kayaking trips to Pickney Island only went in the mormings, so we had to reserve a time for the next day when we would be checking out of our hotel. Since we weren’t going kayaking, JPD went back out into the waves, while I still tried to recover by sleeping some more. AMD came back in and said that there was a big storm brewing, so I went out to check on JPD.

When I got outside to the beach, and I was shocked at how far away the waterline was. Where in the morning the water had been running up within 5 yards of the more permanent beach structures, now it was probably 150 yards away. The whole underlying structure of beach that gave rise to the complicated waves sets of the previous days lay revealed. Some of this I had begun to surmise. The main key feature was a long shallow trench, one to two feet deep and ten to twenty feet wide that ran somewhat parallel to beach shore about 70 to 80 yards out. This feature clearly underlied my observation that at about 150 yards out, waves would build up and crest, but then die out and then a second set would build up around 60 yards out. Only with the strongest winds, were the bigger waves from 150 yards out able to maintain power sufficiently while crossing the trench to provide good rides across the entire distance and then there was always still a second cresting that provided a nice boost half through the ride.

The storm drove the lifeguards to wave everyone off the beach. I choose to sit by the pool underneath a rubber leaf tree and watch the storm come through while reading a book in the rain. I admit that I was glad for the storm, that I was feeling under the weather, and that we couldn’t go kayaking, because it finally gave me an excuse to simply relax. I guess when it cost as much to stay at a hotel at the beach as it does, I feel like simply sitting around and doing nothing is wrong, and yet that is one of the points of being at the beach and of a vacation. So I feel like the storm was a bit of a gift to me. I resolved to take advantage of it.

After AM and the girls had their big dinner, JPD went back out in the waves, and AM went window shopping at the tourist trap near our hotel. She called to say I should bring the girls because they were having some singing and entertainment for kids. Of course, JA didn’t want to go (I think she spent most of the vacation in the hotel room when she could.) But ME was game. It was a short pleasant walk on the nice ped/bikeway that run all over Hilton Head. ME enjoyed herself while we walked around.

Then I went out and watched JPD boogie boarding. Just sat and didn’t do anything, while the sun set. It was calm and peaceful and majestic, and I was glad I simply let it be. I saved it as one of my Double Arch memories, a name I have been using since the first time I watched a sunset at Double Arch in Arches National Park. While sitting on the ledge under this arch while the sun set, contemplating the many thousands of years the arches had stood there, I had thought to myself, “Here is a memory that if ever I feel to overcome by failure, or the criticisms of naysayers, or the proud and haughty that I will remember this ancient and majestic place and know that it was here for thousand of years before and will still be standing long after all of us are gone, and any human claim to greatness seems utter vanity in comparison." So I have been storing up these Double Arch memories and this sunset on the beach was one of them. Later on, AMD came out and we walked along the beach.

Day 3

Day 3 of vacation began late, as once again we all had a hard time waking up in the morning. This was true for me (SD), especially since I had woken up at ~3 am, couldn't go back to sleep and resorted to reading Harry Potter 7 until about 7 am when I finally crashed back asleep.

After a glorious and rigorous morning session in the waves, (every day seemed to improve the wave set), we all took a very long nap.

Our big adventure for today was our evening dolphin tour. We got to see a bit more of the island and its fantastic bike paths, as we drove out to Broad Creek Marina. After about long walk on the pier crossing over the marsh area, we met our skipper, paid our fare ($16 per adult, $8 for the two girls), and then boarded our boat.

While waiting for others to arrive for our 5 pm tour, we were treated to two very close encounters with dolphins, including two that came up right past the boat.



When we finally got under way, we actually spend the first ten minutes pretty much chasing the dolphins that were at the dock trying to get closer, so it almost seemed like it would have been cheaper just to stay at the dock and look for dolphins.

Eventually we headed up Broad Creek and out to Calibogue Bay, but didn't see any dolphins on the way out. Our skipper, lacking much wildlife to report on, regaled us with tales of real estate prices of the homes we were passing.

Turns out that there was some real deals available, including a house appraised at $17 million going for $6.5 million because of foreclosure. We will be checking with our realtor and banker to see if we might be able to swing this.


Once out in the bay, we eventually turned around and headed back in. At this point, the captain of the ship had had enough piloting for awhile and decided to let ME pilot the ship. She drove it mostly straight and steady, eventhough here legs were shaking a bit from the responsibility. Eventually, she gave command back to the skipper.


On our way back, we finally started to see some more dolphins, including one that was trailing right behind a speed boat, swimming with its head out of the water and looking for a handout. Apparently this particular dolphin is quite famous for this behavior.

We also saw a small family of dolphins feeding together.


At one point in our cruise, our boat was in danger of being overrun by a pirate sailing ship, but fortunately, the little band of pirates on our boat was able to scare them off.

We saw another dolphin, just as we were heading back to the dock, probably one of the ones we had seen while we had originally been docked.

We bid our captain adieu, ate a quick bite at Subway and then were going to head out to one of the northeastern beaches at Hilton Head plantation. But we found the gates guarding the way against peasants like us, so we turned back to our own beach.

This pm session of waves was excellent. I discovered that the skim board we got for JPD to try to learn skim boarding (which so far he hasn't got the hang of) makes an excellent boogie board, far better than the standard boogie board we had. There were some fantastic large waves and the skim board served up excellent runs time and time again.

After night fell and our weary bodies gave out, we sat on the beach and watched the stars come out, as well as some illicit fireworks that somebody was shooting off further down the beach. A nice pleasant night on the people's beach.

Day 2

After finally waking up very late in the morning of Day 2 of our vacation, we drove over to the lighthouse at Harbour Town. Turns out there is a $5 toll charge to enter the Sea Pines Plantation (which includes Harbour Town). SeaPines was one of the first planned communities in the United States. At that time, the idea of preserving green space and the historic characteristics of an area simultaneously while developing them was a novel idea. For better or worse, it has certainly maximized the price of real estate in the area.


The Harbour Town lighthouse was much smaller than I thought it would be. The lighthouse is iconic everywhere in the South, so I thought it was one of these massive things, but it really isn't that big. (Sort of like the sphinx in Egypt.) Still, there is a lovely view at the top. (Price $3). JA didn't want to go up (a recurring theme) and of course AM is terribly afraid of heights, so it was just JPD, ME, and I. ME didn't last for very long with her mommy.

We then drove over to the South Beach Villa shopping area, trying to find some public access point/parking for this beach. We never did find any, but we bought some ice cream ($3.25 per cone) so felt justified in using the parking lot even though it said no beaching parking.

JPD and I walked along the lovely greenway/bike path for a ways until we found an access point to the part of the beach that lies on the intercostal side. (Hilton Head is shaped like a running shoe, and South Beach is the toe of the shoe, being the the farthest eastern point the intercostal water way is a large river/bay opening sitting between Hilton Head island and the rest of the coast. When we got in the water we discovered a very fast current pulling us parallel to the beach and towards the opening to the ocean. We float in the current for about a quarter mile or more, down to the point of the "toe". Here as the current rounds the toe and meets the regular tide, it creates a pretty strong rip tide running diagonally out to sea.

Strangely, we were getting ready to walk back to our towels and stuff, we heard AMD and the girls calling our name. They had finished looking around the shopping place and had found another beach access point.


The girls found this beach better because of less reeds, and for finding shells, making sand castles, and floating in the water because this beach was sloped so gently that the you could walk out along ways and still stand up, as long a you avoided the area with the rip current.

After awhile, AMD started calling out that she could see dolphins. After a while, we finally saw where she was pointing at, probably about 75 yards off shore, just beyond the riptide. They were essentially treading water, not changing their position much at all and surfacing every 20 to 30 seconds. I assume they were feeding off the fish riding the current.

After watching for awhile (and confirming they were dolphins and not sharks), I decided to brave the riptides as far as I dare to get closer to them. Upon venturing out further, I discovered that did not go over my chest and I was able to maintain my balance by leaning into the current and digging in my feet.`After getting within about 15 yards of them, I decided not to go closer to avoid disturbing them.



There turned out to be three of them, one a baby, that stayed very close to the larger one that I assume was its mother the whole time. The third dolphin stayed farther away, but still was holding its position with the other two. At one point, a fourth dolphin came through from the intercostal waterway, riding the current and moving extremely fast. But he (or she) just went right on past the other set. For about twenty minutes, I watched the three dolphins and they stayed more or less in the same position. None of them ever jumped, they just slightly surfaced enough to breath and returned under. Sometimes I could see almost the face to the snout, often just the area near the dorsal fin. The older dolphin looked to have a scar or something caught on it that ran from the top of the back near the face to back behind the dorsal fin and under the belly. Its dorsal fin looked like it had small notches in a few places. The baby's dorsal fin was much smaller and maybe more symmetrical. I never got a super good look at its face as it was always next to the mother near her far side. The third dolphin was clearly larger and surfaced less frequently. It seemed a bit more barrel chested. Seeing three dolphins at close range (priceless).

After about twenty minutes, of standing in the rip tide (which took a fair amount of effort) a large group of people from the shore decided to join me. (JPD stood about about 10 yards further back in a place were he felt secure in the rip tide this whole time.) After this group came out, the dolphins moved away almost immediately.

As JPD and I were walking our way through the rip tide back to the shore, I was using the hand on the sand to help steady me and I felt a sand dollar and brought it up to look at. JA had been finding broken ones on the shore, but this one was alive and whole. I brought it in to shore for the girls to look at and then released it back out in the ocean.

After returning back to our hotel and grabbing some lunch, we went back out to our beach, which now had nice boogie boarding waves and we spent a couple of hours catching the waves. JPD also tried skim boarding, but wasn't really able to master the trick of it. I found an entirely intact but dead sand dollar to add to JA's collection.

By the time we got done with our evening session, it was already 8 pm and we found in our restuarant guide that most restuarants closed at 9 pm. So we hurriedly changed and then drove all our the strip trying to find a place to eat. We finally found a wing place and then had to wait something like 45 minutes for our food. By the time we got back to our hotel it was 10 pm.

Sherman's March to the Sea

For day one of our vacation, we recreated Sherman's March to the Sea (except we didn't burn a 60 mile wide swath,) by following the freeway from Chattanooga. After storming through Savannah (actually the storm had cleared by then,) we detoured over to Hilton Head Island, SC where we checked into our hotel near North Forest/Coligny Beach.


The beaches at Hilton Head are not as not as sandy white as those at Myrtle Beach. The sand here is a bit more grayish, with the consistency of concrete. (Which of course makes it excellent for making sand castles).


One thing that ME found troubling is the large amount of sawgrass reeds that wash up in the waves. The entire tide line of the beach was covered with them, making a little bit of a wooden wall one must cross over to get to the water. She didn't want to go in the water with the sticks.


We hope that this will be made up for by more things to do and see.

A Bountiful Garden

While recovering from my surgery, I am allowed to walk around. The first thing I do in the morning is I go in our backyard and pick some vegetables and fruit for the day. I love and enjoy gardening. Watching plants grow and blossoms and have some yummy harvest is the best thing in life. Growing our own garden has been wonderful. I was able to make homemade pesto, cooking our own Thai Basil Beef, Japanese eggplants dipped in eggs and fried for breakfast, popping some yummy cherry tomatoes in my mouth, sweet blackberries for snacking, serving red and yellow tomatoes for dinner and they are all from our little garden.

JALAPENOS, BANANA PEPPERS, YELLOW AND RED TOMATOES, JAPANESE EGGPLANTS AND BLACKBERRIES

Recovering from Laparoscopic Gallbladder Surgery

On July 5, I (AM) had to get my body ready for my gallbladder surgery. The first thing I had to do is to drink 2 bottles(10 oz. each) of Magnesium Citrate. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. It was cherry flavor and it taste awful and taste like cough medicine. The Magnesium Citrate made me used the bathroom more than I would like to. Liquid diet also started that day. No solid food, just liquids. So I bought different drinks. After midnight, I am not allowed to drink or eat anymore. I had a priesthood blessing from SD and a friend from our ward. On July 6, we went to the Medical Center to check in and get myself prep for surgery. The nurse had a hard time finding a good vein to put my IV because I was dehydrated, but she finally found one. I am not a big fan of needles or pains, so I always asked the nurse what they are doing to me. I think my kids got that needles or pain phobias from me. I was suppose to have my surgery at 1 p.m. but they were running late with another surgery. The last memory I had was when the nurse was wheeling me out of the room to take me to the OR. When I woke up I was having a hard time gasping for air and the nurse had to calm me down. I finally was able to breath normal, but every time I opened my eyes I got dizzy and the room is spinning, so the best way to control it is to just close my eyes. The nurse asked me if I would like something to drink and I said yes. She gave me Sprite and started drinking it, but a few minutes later, I started vomiting the liquid. I stayed overnight at the hospital for observation. It was painful getting up to use the bathroom and getting back in bed, but I managed to do it by myself. SD went home to be with the kids.
July 7th in the morning I was doing fine and can go home. When we got home, I decided to lay down in my own bed, but that was a mistake because I was in pain trying to lay down. SD and I decided it would be better if I just sat down on the couch with pillows behind me and I was able to sleep. I slept at night in a sitting up position. I was prescribed some pain killers and I am also able to take Advil to help for the pain. Thank y'all for all your concern and prayers. Now it is all up to me to get better soon.

Celebrating our Anniversary

Its hard to believe, but AM and SD got married 17 years ago.


To celebrate, we took took a mini-vacation from the kids and stayed at a bed and breakfast on Lookout Mountain.


For dinner we took in a Murder Mystery, no pictures were allowed.










Then the next day we hung out at the Art Museum.

Happy Anniversary!!!

To my wonderful husband of 17 years. I can't believe we been married that long. Time sure flies by fast. We been through a lot and we have 3 adorable kids, a beautiful house and each other. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, SD!!!

WOW!!! I was so skinny then....years sure put some pounds on me(AM)