Home from beach trip!

September 21, 2012

Can’t believe we slept 10 hours!  Guess this doing nothing grows on you – but that is what a vacation is for right?  Even retirees get to take a vacation!  Ben is on the phone organizing inspections for next week and Jane is actually writing blog entries and transferring photos to the computer.  Glad to report the new coffee pot works fine!  

After a quick lunch we headed to the beach for some fun in the sun. The water was too murky for Ben to see anything so he just enjoyed swimming. We watched some campers with their sail boat.  They were having a great time however, had to dismantle boat and carry back to their campground each night as nothing is allowed on the beach at night due to the turtles. It is also not legal to dig a hole and leave it overnight.  We saw several nesting areas but it is too late in the season for the hatching.

Jane made it over to the camp store and finally got the first few days of the blog posted.  They have two MIFI hot spots here for use by the campers. It was easy to use and able to upload photos – so no excuse for not posting each day other than I was lazy.

We drove up to the lighthouse and took a few photos and then headed across to St. Helena Island to buy seafood to bring home. 

We had been to White’s Seafood earlier in the week and while the shrimp was great the selection of fish was very limited. We tried Gay’s Seafood today and their selection was much better. We bought 5 pounds of shrimp, 2 packages of flounder filets and 1 of grouper.  That is about all the refrigerator freezer area will hold!  In fact more – I put some right under the freezer too!

We drove aways back on St. Helena Island and selected the Foolish Frog for dinner tonight.  It was perhaps even better than last nights’ dinner. Jane had Coconut Shrimp with two great dipping sauces and Ben had the special – Wreck Fish with scalloped potatoes and asparagus.  Both were fantastic.  We had never heard of Wreck Fish but it is native of Charleston. The cream sauce for the potatoes had a bit of thyme and the sauce on the Wreck Fish had some red sweet pepper and a little bit of heat.  The Foolish Frog is one of three restaurants in downtown (crossroads) of Frogmore - about 7 miles from Hunting Island.

Back at camp we managed to clean up most of the campsite and take down the fly tent over the picnic table. We wanted to make as early a start as possible tomorrow.  

September 22, 2012

Up at 7:00 for a change!  The dense woods is really great since there is always shade but it is dark early in the morning  - usually at the beach the sunshine wakes you up early – not the case here!  The campground began filling up all the empty spots last night. After we went to bed someone came into the site right beside us that had been empty since Tuesday. We were packed up and on the road by 8:15 – Ben had been able to find an easy way to handle both a bike and the kayak.  Jane did not take her bike – don’t know if we could have found room for 2 bikes and the kayak.

Sky as we leave Hunting Island

We had to pass over two draw bridges – one from Hunting Island to St. Helena Island and then another back into Beaufort. The one in Beaufort crosses the Inland Waterway.  We had only been stopped once during the week when shrimp boats were returning. This morning we waited at the Beaufort Bridge while a sailboat came into port. 

From there it was an uneventful trip home. We stopped between Columbia and Spartanburg for lunch at a Taco Bell. I had never had the Dorito Loco Taco’s – they are really quite good. 

We were home at 3:30 – about a 7 hour drive.  We had only stopped twice once for a gas/bathroom break and again for lunch.  We had sunshine all the way with only a very few trees beginning to have faint color.   We will be planning a trip back in a few weeks for the color!

September 23, 2012

Since we had only unpacked the seafood and a few essentials yesterday – today meant about 3 hours of work to clean out the Sprinter.  Funny how it takes nearly the same amount of time to move in and out for a 1 week trip as for a 6 week trip!  Only difference is a bit more food to plan and buy and perhaps a few more clothes for the longer trip.

Great trip and we are already planning a trip back to Hunting Island next fall.