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)