After spending a wonderful day with The Vaughns (both sets), the Whatleys, the Adams, and the Gargis' eating at the FANTASTIC Barbara Jean's in the market in Charleston and going on a carriage tour with Mama and Daddy and the Whatleys, we headed to Hilton Head Sunday afternoon. It was dark once we arrived and we couldn't find our way around at all! There were no signs we could see, no street lights, and hardly any other cars on the road. It was so much like a ghost town that we actually pulled into a parking lot to find out where we were, and laughed for a good 30 seconds. We felt like we were in the "Twilight Zone".
Hilton Head has a psychotically strict city policy for building/land development. The stringent standards were set forth in 1956 by Hilton Head visionary Charles Fraser's master plan for the island's first resort community, called Sea Pines Plantation. The Sea Pines Plantation plan established Hilton Head Island as the first Eco-planned resort destination in the United States. Today, Hilton Head Island contains several environmentally planned residential and resort communities. Neon signs, bright street lights and tall buildings are not permitted, allowing visitors and residents to see the stars at night. NO JOKE! We saw plenty of stars, but not much else...haha. It's really neat in the aspect that the area is extremely quite and private, but slightly strange when you can't find the grocery store or even the condo you are staying in.
After waking up the next morning and driving around the small island for while to get breakfast, we found that it was really so nice and quaint! Difficult to find things due to the tiny low standing signs, but it was really nice once we kind of learned where we were.
The weather was so beautiful, we headed straight to the beach after breakfast. Are we like old people? You bet! We were the youngest people in the breakfast restaurant, Plantation Cafe, and everyone turned to stare and us "young bucks" walking in for coffee and breakfast at 7:30 am with the ol' time sharing retired tourists. And that's not a judgement, but it's the truth. As we sat there and ate some awesome french toast and crab cakes eggs benedict, we eaves dropped on an EXTREMELY loud 70-something Yankee trying to sweet talk to other "elders" into the perks of owning timeshares. We just listened and chuckled under our breath as they discussed the outrageous figures they spent on their travels. Watch us be the retirees that end up doing the same thing...God-willing we are able to work that long and receive the retirement we deserve (P.S. Nikki Haley's trying to cut state employee's retirement benefits! I will punch that woman! She better back off the education deal, or she's gonna find herself some angry/overworked teachers bangin' down her state house door pretty soon!)
THIS WAS AT EVERYWHERE...HEHE :)
Anyway, BACK TO THE BEACH!!! The weather was beautiful!
Blissfully Cheesy! But SO dang happy I could care less!
Okay, I know this seems extremely long, but blogging is seriously addictive and since Tyler is in North Carolina this week it kind of helps me feel like I have someone to talk to when I write about things. But I do have to finish with this tid-bit about Daufuskie Island and the Gullah people.
After the slaves were freed in 1865, a group of freed slaves from the Beaufort, Bluffton and Savannah areas fled to a small island directly across from one of Hilton Head Island's peak. You can see the island, but it you can only reach it by ferry boat. They were completely illiterate and formed their owned kind of language/dialect that was said to be called an African Creole English and is called Geechee. The Gullah people are best known for preserving their African linguistic and cultural heritage more than any other African American group in the United States. They were, however, illiterate until the 1960's when a white man named Pat Conroy traveled to the island to establish schools and teach the Gullah people how to read and write. He wrote a book about his experience moving to Daufuskie is his famous book The Water is Wide. I hope to read that book and get to visit the island in the very near future. Their history and culture is truly FASCINATING!
Tyler looking across the water at Daufuskie island from the marina at Hilton Head
My Inner tourist learning about and looking at Daufuskie
A Gullah woman carrying a food basket on her head just as native African women still do today. circa 1900
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