I’ve updated the wildlife photography page with new photos! Click the link below to view the gallery:
Four Days in the Bahamas: Part 4
On our last day we would be departing the Bahamas for home in the afternoon. But we still had the morning to enjoy. I wanted to get out to Cove Beach and spend some of the early morning in the Aquaventure Park, and made my way to the there while the park was just opening.
My visit to Cove Beach and the Lagoon I included in the Aquaventure video I posted in the previous post. I was momentarily hesitant to get my swimming trunks wet and sandals full of sand on the day of departure, but I decided to just go for it. I could always put them in waterproof bags in our luggage and clean them up when we got home.
After walking through part of the park I returned to the room. I knew Shelley wanted to visit Dolphin Cay (and so did I) and I didn’t want to go there without her.
I returned to the room and we quickly packed up our suitcases and showered. We decided to go to Murray’s Deli again for breakfast but found that it was closed. So we stopped at the Starbucks in the resort and got some takeout coffee and breakfast sandwiches to eat at Dolphin Cay.
I mentioned previously that the Aquaventure Park is HUGE and there is about a mile walk to the Dolphin Cay from the Royal Towers. But we did find our way there with our breakfast items in hand to eat while enjoying the dolphins.
Dolphins are another animal that we both love seeing and watching. Dolphins are intelligent and playful. We were seated at a table a distance away (we weren’t inside the Dolphinarium itself but just outside it) but could watch the dolphins interacting with the trainers.
While we ate we pondered when we might come back again as a family. There’s a lot of fun things to do at Atlantis and it would just be a matter of when it made sense to fit it into our schedule. We would actually have to pay for our hotel room of course 🙁
We returned to the room, gathered our luggage and checked out of the hotel. We had a Welcome Pickups driver already scheduled to take us to the airport (which is about an hour away on the other side of New Providence Island).
We had a good conversation with the driver on the way back to the airport. As I mentioned in the prior post we talked to him about our experience at the restaurant in Nassau the prior day and he encouraged us to come back and visit the Bahamas again. We likely will in the coming years.
One more interesting note: The US customs processing line was in the Bahamas, so when we boarded the plane from the airport in Nassau we had already passed US immigration. When we landed in Denver we were free to go without waiting through customs. It was nice to do this first rather than have it waiting until arrival when we were already tired.
We really enjoyed our trip. October was a crazy month for us and by the time we returned we were glad to be home. But I felt like everything that we did, with the week in South Carolina and Georgia, followed quickly thereafter with the Bahamas getaway was worthwhile no matter how crazy the schedule became. Sometimes you just have to take advantage of opportunities when they come and throw caution to the wind.
Our 11-year-old son was fine while we were gone (though he missed us and got bored) and my parents were able to get him to school, etc. Our 18-year-old son also helped and we felt good knowing they could step up for us when we needed help.
We don’t have a lot planned now for a while. The economy has affected Shelley’s job and we aren’t sure how long she will remain there. We are just planning a relatively easy roadtrip in the summer of 2025 as of now and leaving more complicated travel plans for the following years. There are a lot of places we want to visit or revisit. Its just a matter of time and opportunity.
I had no idea we’d be taking this trip to the Bahamas at the start of 2024. It came out of nowhere. We didn’t win a million dollars, but we got a free trip and that was a great win by itself.
Four Days in the Bahamas: Part 3
The previous day we had a great time snorkeling and enjoying the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort. Since Shelley had unfortunately not advanced to the next round, we decided to take a day to explore Nassau, which was just a ferry ride away.
Before we had left we had watched videos and read a bit about Nassau and had come up with a plan for visiting sites in the city. The path would take us from the ferry stop to Parliament Square, the Queen’s Staircase, Fort Fincastle, John Watling’s Distillery, the Pirate Museum, and back around to the Straw Market and Junkaroo Beach. It was intended to be a full day of interesting and fun site-seeing, with a lot of walking (6.2 km to be exact).
This isn’t exactly what happened, however.
We decided to have an inexpensive breakfast and the prior day we had seen that there was a Wendy’s near the Anthony’s Seafood restaurant just outside the resort. We agreed that I would go get breakfast at the restaurant and bring it back to the room. Unfortunately, when I got to the Wendy’s I found that it was closed in the morning and they didn’t serve breakfast.
The walk wasn’t completely wasted, however, as I did find this interesting crane and another lizard.
Returning to the room, Shelley and I decided that we would just walk to the pier, get on the ferry, and find breakfast in Nassau
Nassau
We arrived at the ferry and paid with cash. If you ever decide to take the ferry from Nassau to Paradise Island or vice versa try to have exact cash because the ferry operator spent several minutes trying to break twenty dollar bills amongst the locals to give change back to us and others.
The ferry is very basic and even boarding the boat is a bit rough as it bobs up and down with the waves and there is no gangway to walk on. We stepped down from the pier onto the boat and took a seat, wondering if we might have needed some motion sickness pills, with the boat rocking quite a lot in the wake of other ships as it waited at the dock before departing.
Once in motion, the ride was relatively comfortable and short. It’s just twenty minutes across the channel to Nassau harbor. Along the way we saw a fenced-off construction zone where Royal Caribbean is building a new resort area for cruise visitors, and we passed alongside a couple huge cruise ships that were docked in the port for the day. We would not be alone in Nassau.
Once we arrived, we stepped up onto the concrete pier and walked off to find breakfast.
We decided to eat at a restaurant right next to the Pirate Museum. Afterward we planned to go into the museum.
After crossing several busy streets we arrived at the Restaurant called Smuggler’s. We met the hostess and when she asked where we wanted to sit we asked if we could eat inside instead of outside on the open patio, where we assumed it would be air-conditioned and cooler. We had a long day planned and might as well cool off a bit between stops. She seemed weirdly annoyed by that question and we just agreeably took a table outside.
Smuggler’s Restaurant looked neat and the menu looked pretty good. But from the moment we sat down at a chair outside (because, again, they seemed strangely offended by us asking to sit inside), the staff seemed to completely ignore us. There were a few other diners at tables, and they were getting served, but we were getting completely ignored. We eventually gave up and left.
We told our Welcome Pickups driver who drove us to the airport from the hotel the next day about our experience at the restaurant and he was mad that we were treated that way. He said he would have demanded to talk to the manager. He says tourism is very important to Nassau and he doesn’t want visitors to be made to feel unwelcome.
There are times when we do ask to talk to restaurant managers in the place where we live if we feel we need to, but being in a foreign county, you don’t always understand the local customs or even know if it will help. In the end we just felt like leaving was the best option we had.
We were feeling rather dismal after that experience and no longer wanted to visit the Pirate Museum next door. Instead we walked over to a nearby McDonald’s and ate. The service wasn’t great there either. But it wasn’t non-existent.
After eating an uninspired breakfast, Shelley said she wasn’t feeling that great and that she would like to just go to the Straw Market to shop a bit and then take the ferry back to Paradise Island. I was good with going to the Straw Market first, and then I had the option to either go ahead with my original walking plan or go back on the ferry.
The Straw Market
I have to be honest, I was completely underwhelmed by the Straw Market. The shops were crowded and I just didn’t get a great vibe.
The locals we were encountering in Nassau seemed unfriendly or offish. They were pushy about selling us a shot glass in the Straw Market, but they were otherwise not welcoming, unresponsive, or seemed to be behaving oddly. There were the occasional people that appeared somewhat unstable or drunk (which we just ignored). It didn’t feel entirely safe to just walk around (although I’m sure it would have been fine).
We entered a fenced cruise port area to do some more shopping and it was crowded, but seemed a bit more relaxed. We bought some more souvenirs and then walked back to the ferry stop.
I no longer really felt like doing the walking tour I had planned out. I would be doing it alone, it was hot, and I just wasn’t getting a great vibe from Nassau. I felt disappointed, but at the same time, how did I really want to spend the rest of my day? Enjoying the resort or walking around the town.
Ultimately, I decided to go back with Shelley and we could just hang out at the resort and find some rum punch to enjoy. Plus there was a lottery that would be happening where five of the participants in the tournament that failed to make the second round would win a chance to play in the finals. And there would be a “white party” dinner in the evening and it would be good to go back to the resort and be ready for that as well.
Aquaventure Park
My favorite part of staying at the Atlantis Resort is the Aquaventure Park. I would come here even if I was staying off property. The park is huge and has so much to see and do: sea life exhibits, an aquarium, multiple waterslide, a lazy river, the lagoon, beaches, etc. If I arrived on a cruise ship and I wasn’t taking a snorkeling tour (which I highly recommend in the Bahamas), I’d go here.
I made this video on a morning before the park was fully open (you can still walk through it) to show some of the diverse parts of the park. I know my kids would enjoy it. More than snorkeling (which I really enjoy).
During and after eating at the Burger Shack in the park, we walked through the aquarium and realized what groupers really look like when not on a dinner plate. We also saw a number of other fish that we saw on the snorkeling tour. My biggest compliant is that there was no signage or information about the fish and we had to use Google to identify the various fish species.
After spending time in the aquarium we also enjoyed watching the sea turtles and rays in their special enclosures.
Stingrays are very charismatic animals. We’ve fed them and been in the water with them before (although not at this park). They are intelligent and friendly. Likewise, who doesn’t enjoy green sea turtles? We even saw horseshoe crabs in the same saltwater pools.
The White Party
We went to the raffle in the hopes of Shelley being one of the five eliminated participants that would get a chance at winning in the final round. Unfortunately of the 450 or so remaining, she was not one of them.
We didn’t see who eventually won the million dollars but we looked online after returning home and it was a woman around our age. It would be pretty amazing to have come home with around $750,000 dollars in winnings after taxes, to use for whatever life-changing purpose you saw fit. But our prize was the trip. And that was great all by itself.
That evening the Slots Tournament hosted an outdoor “White Party” dinner with steak, lobster, and an assortment of other options with an open bar. We all were asked to wear white to the party and of course we did.
Those white shorts I had bought prior to going to Europe in the summer for family portraits came in handy. And Shelley had a very nice dress that she had made before coming.
The food at the party was top-notch. I was surprised at how good the steak filets were. I knew the lobster would be fresh, but they don’t exactly have cattle ranches in the Bahamas.
We must have each had twenty free cocktails on the trip. It was great 🙂
The night wasn’t quite over for us, though.
We went back to the room to wait for a Beetlejuice-themed party at one of the nightclubs above the casino. Shelley had purchased tickets to the party and she made a red dress to look like Lydia Deetz. She had bought me a red tuxedo to look like Beetlejuice (although I didn’t go so far as to have white makeup and a wig).
We went down to the nightclub at around 11:30 PM and found that it wasn’t at all the party or the crowd that we expected. There was a line to get in even for those with tickets. But the line could be bypassed for certain people that were dressed a certain way. Rather than get in line we decided to call it a night.
Shelley had her dress ready for Halloween a few days later at home.
Four Days in the Bahamas: Part 2
Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island
During registration Shelley received her tournament competition time for the day which was 10AM. Since it was in the morning we were fairly confident that we would have the afternoon free. And with the afternoon free we could consider taking a snorkeling trip, since it’s a rare opportunity to be in one of the premier snorkeling locations in North America.
We looked on Viator for any afternoon snorkeling trips leaving from Paradise Island and found one for five hours that departed at 1PM. The meeting point was also only a half mile from the hotel. So after a brief discussion we booked it.
Of course, with a one-in-five hundred chance at winning one million dollars we would not risk missing Shelley’s slot tournament rounds, and IF she ended up in a competition that afternoon I would simply have to go without her. But as it was, the tournament rounds were only 3 minutes long and the second round wasn’t until the following day, so we were free to go.
As I mentioned in the prior post, the restaurants on Paradise Island tend to be rather expensive. While we were getting a free stay in the Royal Towers with access the the Aquaventure Park and were getting reimbursed for the flights out (actually more than the cost of the flights since we used some United miles as well), we would be paying for most of our meals.
Fortunately we found Murray’s Deli which served a good breakfast at fairly reasonable prices. The cheesecake pancakes were delicious. We ate plenty knowing we’d be burning a lot of energy swimming and walking throughout the day.
The Slots Tournament
At 10AM we arrived for the slots tournament and Shelley took her place at a slot machine. Slots are really just a game of chance and winning and losing is really just a matter of random luck. We were given tokens to cash in for drinks (more rum punch) and could help ourselves to sandwiches and cookies.
The tournament round was very fast-paced and though she was at one point as high as fourth place in the opening round of fifteen. she ended up in eleventh place. Again, other than hitting buttons there was nothing a person could do to control the outcome. The 100 highest scores in the first round would advance to the second round to compete for a million dollars. The rest would be free to enjoy vacation.
We assumed that she was out of the tournament, but the second round contestants would be posted at 7PM, after we returned from the snorkeling trip. It was a long shot, but maybe her group had just unusually high scores and she would still rank among the top 100 that would advance to the second round.
With the tournament round over in 3 blazing fast minutes, we went back to the room to change into our swim suits, apply sunscreen, and to gather our snorkeling gear and my go pro. We’d be on the water for 5 hours so we’d need to be prepared.
Snorkeling in the Bahamas
We wanted a really good snorkeling trip that would make up for some less-than-thrilling experiences we had in places like the Florida Keys a few years before. We are avid snorkelers whenever we have the opportunity, but it isn’t always a home run experience.
We wanted to see the famous swimming pigs of the Bahamas, to snorkel on a nice reef with many. beautiful fish, see some sea turtles, and get some beach time. This tour was supposed to offer all of these. And it absolutely did. It was probably the best snorkeling tour we’ve ever done over all.
The first stop on the tour was the Pig Beach, which was on one side of on Atholl Island, a short trip by boat away from New Providence Island.
The pig beach was fun (they are a bit aggressive about getting the offered fruit), but it did feel like we were there a bit longer than was necessary (45 minutes) and it was a bit touristy. Still it was fun and the pigs are friendly.
The next stop was the snorkeling stop (which you can see in the video above). It was terrific and very enjoyable. We spent about 45 minutes at the first reef spot off Rose Island then moved onward to Turtle Cay where we found a few turtles, a conch (actually I found it), and other sea life. The journey on the motor boat while enjoying drinks was fantastic all by itself.
The final stop was a beach break on Rose Island. The boat docked at an old pier and we walked across a stretch of the narrow island, past an abandoned home that was in disrepair that had been left by a past homesteader, and on a jungle trail to a secluded beach. Along the way we found a lizard and a peahen. The peahen may have been left by the owner of the abandoned home, and it was now a feral denizen of the island.
I’ve been to many beaches in my life and this one was one of the very best. If not the best.
Clear, warm water? Check.
Sugary, soft sand? Check.
Calm waves? Check.
Seclusion and privacy? Check.
Beautiful, natural environment / free of human development? Check.
We spent about 30 minutes in the waves, enjoying the location and the slowly setting sun. It felt great. On many levels.
After walking back to the boat we ate a late lunch and enjoyed some more alcoholic drinks. The ride back was as enjoyable as you would imagine, listening to music played on the motor boat, sitting at the back of the boat with the setting sun in the distance ahead.
I give this snorkel tour 5 out of 5 stars. Here is the link on Viator.
Back at the Resort
After returning to the resort we went to check on the list of those who would advance in the Slots Tournament. Unfortunately, Shelley wasn’t on the list. On the bright side, we would have all of Saturday free to do as we pleased.
We took a moment to sit in the giant throne chair.
After changing out of our wet clothing and showering, we decided to have dinner at a place called Anthony’s Seafood just outside the resort on Paradise Island. We sat outside. The food was good and we enjoyed a few celebratory drinks. The music on the outdoor patio was really loud (almost to a point of discomfort). It was also a fairly hefty bill. But we deserved to splurge a little.
The following day we would be free to visit Nassau and enjoy the Aquaventure Park. And maybe we could win a chance to reenter the tournament?
Four Days in the Bahamas: Part 1
This past August my wife Shelley got a surprising email. She had won a trip for two (herself and a guest) to stay on Paradise Island in the Bahamas for three nights in October. If she accepted she would be participating in an slots tournament with the possibility of winning one million dollars.
At first we weren’t sure if it was real and not a scam. A brief bit of research did reveal that it was in fact legitimate. The World Tournament of Slots was organized by MGM Grand in Las Vegas, and this was the inaugural tournament in the Bahamas. Second, though we have just returned home from an already booked and planned trip to the South Carolina and Georgia the prior week, those four days were free on our calendars. We could go.
So we were getting a free vacation to the Bahamas, staying at the Atlantis Resort at Paradise Island, receiving $1000 in cash for airfare, and we would have a 1 in 500 chance to win $1,000,000 if we accepted. So we accepted. It wasn’t really that difficult of a decision, really.
The hard part wasn’t whether to go. It was how we would manage things at home. We are used to traveling with our kids and for this trip we had a decision to make. Our youngest, Evan, is 11 and he would not be off of school. Likewise if we brought him we would have to pay for his expenses for airfare and an upgraded room with two beds. And we’d have to keep him entertained while we did various activities during the tournament which was intended for two people, and adults at that. Ultimately, it made more sense to keep him home and give mom and dad a chance to go take an adult trip.
Fortunately my parents were available to help with our son while we were away, as was our now 18-year-old son who lives a little ways away and goes to trade school. My parents are elderly and my son is busy with his job and school, but between them, we took a gamble that they could get Evan to school and to activities while we were gone. We wrote out detailed instructions for both and trusted that Evan would do his part to help them as well.
Having made our decision and all the necessary arrangements, we were set to go. Still a tad nervous, but ready to experience a few days of sandy beaches and tropical seas. With the chance to win a million dollars.
Red-Eye Flight to Nassau
On Wednesday night, we took Evan to my parent’s house and made our way to the airport for an 11:59 PM overnight flight to the Bahamas with a connection in Charlotte, North Carolina. We have gotten pretty good at packing with all the recent travel in the past few years, and we could get by with a couple carry-ons and one checked suitcase.
Red-eye flights are no problem for me. I would much rather stay up late and get on a flight then take an early morning flight. If a flight is scheduled for 6 AM I know we will need to be at the airport no later than 4 AM, and to wake up at no later than 3AM (usually closer to 2AM). We aren’t good at being able to force ourselves to sleep at say 7PM, so at best we might get about an hour or two of restless sleep before having to get up and on our way to the airport.
So Shelley and I got to the airport, checked in, and waited a couple hours in a largely empty airport terminal until it was time to depart. And off we went.
It’s about 3.5 hours from Denver to Charlotte, so with the time change we arrived around 5:30 in the morning. On a long-haul flight it’s much easier to get some sleep, but the crowded airplane (we did have extra legroom on 3 of the 4 flights) and relatively short duration before the connection meant we were pretty sleepless.
We got some coffees and some breakfast in the terminal then found the most comfortable chairs we could find by the gate, which were hard Adirondack chairs that sort of reclined to try to sleep. It didn’t work.
We saw that the flight to Nassau was filling with passengers bound for the same tournament. It was definitely an interesting assortment of people. One woman was drinking at a bar by the gate. She started chatting with us, offering more of her life story than we needed to know. Then we met some more people. People were friendly, if not a bit odd.
Once we boarded I took the middle seat this time, giving Shelley the window. She had sat next to an armrest hog on the last flight, and it was my turn to sit in the middle. It couldn’t be worse, right?
Well, it actually was. Imagine a heavily intoxicated guy with tourettes and no sense of personal space. He was drinking small bottles of liquor and shaking. He gorged on candy that I would imagine was not ideal for his jerky tendencies. He knocked a soda on the aisle floor and repeatedly bumped into me. For two hours I sat politely, wishing I could be moved. But the flight was completely packed.
When the flight landed I vowed to get us more comfortable seats on the flights back.
Fortunately, once we deplaned, the immigration line was easy and we got our luggage and waited for our Welcome Pickup to convey us to the Atlantis Resort. As I had done in Europe, I booked Welcome Pickups, assuming that the courtesy shuttles would be crowded and take a while to get us to the resort. Many of the courtesy shuttles left before us, but we had a really nice ride with a mini-tour of Nassau on our way to Atlantis.
The Royal Tower at Atlantis Resort
Once we got to the hotel we had to check in for the tournament the following day. Shelley got in line for the tournament while I took our luggage to the hotel room.
While waiting in line for the tournament registration, the staff gave us free rum punch drinks and cookies. We, of course, helped ourselves to as many as we could shamelessly accept 🙂
With registration complete, we made our way to our room and got dressed more appropriately for a tropical beach vacation.
Besides getting registered we went to find the location for the tournament the next day and to familiarize ourselves with the layout of the resort. It is massive.
Since we live in Colorado, we don’t often get a chance to enjoy beaches and we made our way out to the Aquaventure Park. It is huge and covers many, many acres.
Aquaventure Park
We initially made our way toward Cabbage Beach, but the surf was much too rough to enjoy. So we returned to the park lagoon, which is filled with seawater supplied by the surrounding ocean and sea life as well. We snorkeled and swam in the lagoon a while. I needed some practice using my snorkeling attachment for my GoPro.
In a subsequent post I’ll include my video tour of the Aquaventure Park. Needless to say though, it’s really exapansive and a lot of fun.
After a couple hours at Aquaventure we bought some food at a comparatively reasonable price at one of the waterpark food venues. We had read that conch was the choice of foods in the Bahamas. We bought both conch salad and conch fritters and enjoyed these in our room. Many of the restaurants at Atlantis and the surrounding Paradise Island are VERY expensive, so be sure to check out the prices of various restaurants beforehand.
We also saw that there was still a registration line and rum punch was still being served. And we shamelessly had some more 🙂
Evening Social Gathering
The tournament hosted an evening event on in outdoor area for guests that were celebrating events. Since Shelley and I had our twentiest anniversary this year and my birthday was only a few days before, we got to enjoy a few glasses of champagne and cupcakes.
We chatted with another couple who also had just taken another vacation and still made it out to the tournament. It was fun talking and enjoying the evening.
The following day Shelley would play for a chance at the million dollars and we’d try to book a snorkeling trip if there was time in the afternoon.
The Low Country: Charleston to Savannah: Part 7
Day 8: Hilton Head Island to Home
Shelley and I have been discussing opening a glamping resort for a while. We have much of the initial concept already defined. We just aren’t sure where we would most like to open the resort.
We have been considering the Carolinas or Georgia, and one of the reasons we prioritized on making this trip was to get an idea if this area of South Carolina or northern Georgia would be a place we would consider. Truthfully, I think we came away feeling more uncertain even if we enjoyed our visit to the area.
I don’t know if our concept will work particularly well in the coastal plain that runs between North Carolina and Florida. The marshland terrain is beautiful, but it may not be the ideal place for the camping resort we envision. That’s not to say that we have ruled it out. We just have more places to visit and to consider our options fully. Once we buy the land there is no turning back.
I did see some campgrounds in places like Tybee Island. And I know camping is popular in the area. Additionally, the camping season is longer in this region than in the mountain west. So there are many reasons to consider this region.
Last Day on Hilton Head Island
We were checking out and had a departure flight from the Savannah airport at 4PM in the afternoon. The Coral Sands Resort had an early checkout time of 10:00 AM, so we would have some time to kill between leaving the vacation rental and flying home.
As I had done the day before, I got up early and went out for a run on Coligny Beach. Like I mentioned in the prior post, I once spent nearly a year running each day on a beach and I enjoyed it. So I wasn’t going to miss out that day either.
I started a little earlier than the prior day and the tide was not quite as high. I ran a distance south this time on the sand, before returning back the way I had come. It wasn’t a long run. We had to get packed up and out so there wasn’t a lot of time to spare.
While I liked the rental townhouse overall, the rushed checkout (which included a maid thinking we were already out of the room at 8:30 in the morning!) and weird rule that the guests were supposed to take trash out by themselves made it a bit uncomfortable the last day. I’m not sure if we would stay there again or try another place.
For a quick breakfast we ate across the road at the Carolina Coffee & Crumbs. While at first it looks like just a coffee shop, they do have some good breakfast items. But they’re also a bit pricey comparatively.
We then had an hour to do some souvenir shopping and to add a shot glass to the collection and get some t-shirts.
Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge
I’m sure if you live in the Southeast US, seeing an alligator is no big deal. Much like seeing a prairie dog in Colorado or a pronghorn in Wyoming. For myself and my family, seeing these animals is a lot of fun. Sure, they might be dangerous if you do something stupid, but for the most part they are relatively docile and just fascinating to see.
I had a good feeling that if we visited Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, we might get lucky and find some more to cap off our trip. But of course there is no guarantee. Regardless, getting some outdoor time on our feet before sitting on a flight would be nice.
As soon as we drove in we saw a group of white ibises and we were off to a good start. We parked and walked down a roadway that led to the first side trail. A tricolored heron was perched in a tree above and soon after that more birds appeared in the surrounding marshes.
Alligators are not salt water denizens, so we had to find fresh water ponds if we were going to find any at the refuge. We knew they did exist in the refuge, it was just a matter of finding where they were. Following the map I saw that there were some freshwater ponds about a mile up the gravel roadway. We headed there and were rewarded for our effort.
A couple alligators were laying on the shore of the pond and we were able to get several photos of these gators. Additionally we found a cardinal, more tricolored herons, a gallinule (in the algae-covered water), and several egrets. If you want to see birds and wildlife in general on Hilton Head Island, this is absolutely the place.
Since people needed to go to the bathroom (there is no place to go in the refuge so do that before coming), we left after an hour, feeling pretty happy to have seen so much in so little time.
After sitting in some traffic because a fall festival had closed a main street, we arrived at the airport, turned in our car, and got through security. There is a Leopold’s Ice Cream at the airport and we were happy to have some before departing.
Arriving home we knew would be for only a few days. Another trip awaited on Wednesday night :). This time it would be just Shelley and I. We weren’t used to traveling without the kids, but we’d be doing just that.
The Low Country: Charleston to Savannah: Part 6
Day 7: Hilton Head Island
We have been somewhat beach-deprived over the last couple years. When we took the Mediterranean Cruise to Europe over the summer we missed out on any beach days due to our prioritizing historical sites and museums over sand and surf.
So when we were planning the trip to South Carolina and Georgia I wanted at least two days in a beach-front location. After studying all of the many options available from Kaiwah Island, to Edisto Beach, to Tybee Island, to even further south in Georgia, I settled on Hilton Head Island.
We had never been to Hilton Head before, though I knew it was a popular beach vacation spot. I also knew that the majority of the lodging were vacation rentals, and after looking at maps and various lodging rates, I picked one that would put us in walking distance to the beach (1/2 mile) while not being exorbitantly expensive and breaking the budget.
The Coral Sands Resort wasn’t spectacular, but the townhome rental was roomy and comfortable and quiet. It was nice to have separate sleeping areas and not feel crowded.
When I was in my twenties, my then girlfriend (now wife) Shelley and I rented a townhome in Morro Bay, California and just about every day I went for a run on the beach. Since I now had that opportunity for a couple days at Hilton Head I made a quick morning run a priority.
When I arrived on the beach I found it at high tide, but I was far from the only morning jogger. It felt great to just be outside enjoying the fall weather from the beachfront.
After returning to the townhome I took a shower and we set about finding some morning breakfast.
We ate at a place called the Plantation Cafe. The service was a tad grumpy but the food was pretty good. In terms of the service, we were starting to wonder if time had changed ‘southern hospitality’ since the people we encountered just didn’t seem as friendly and welcoming as they had seemed in 2020. They seemed much more like people you’d encounter elsewhere in the country. Places that aren’t known for friendliness.
After eating we didn’t have anything definitively planned for the day other than to go to the beach as a family. But we really wanted to do something interesting and fun. After considering our options we found a segway tour for two hours in the afternoon at a nature reserve. We booked it and then got dressed to spend the intervening time at the beach.
Coligny Beach
There was zero chance of us not going to the beach. Shelley had some lingering knee pain from a long hike a couple weeks before, but neither she nor we were going to not make the walk to the beach from the hotel for some time on the sand.
The three hours between my morning run and our visit as a family was enough time for the tide to have withdrawn considerably and the beachfront was much more expansive. The water was also a bit warmer and the sun was warmer as well. The cold front that had moved into the area the prior few days had withdrawn and we were able to enjoy warm, comfortable weather.
Instead of making sand castles, my son Evan and I like to make sand drawings. We sketched out at least a dozen in the time we were there. While we were at the beach the Segway tour operator called and asked if we would be able to come in at 1:30 instead of 3 PM. We said we could and so we left after an hour to change our clothes quickly and drive to the Coastal Discovery Center at Honey Horn Plantation.
The Segway Tour at Honey Horn Plantation
The Coastal Discover Center is a natural area on the northern side of Hilton Head Island with a museum on the site of a former plantation called “Honey Horn”. The oddly named “Honey Horn” came from the Gullah Geechee who mispronounced the name of the plantation owner, John Hanahan.
We really enjoyed the off-roading segwey tour. The segweys were pretty rugged and the tour led through forest trails around the expansive property. We learned a number of interesting things from the tour guide and showed off a bit of our acquired knowledge as well.
When the tour guide asked if we knew the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard, Evan responded that a graveyard is attached to a church, while a graveyard is separate. Yeah, he’s paid attention and learned a few things over the course of the week.
The photo that appears to just be of muddy ground includes a small crab called a fiddler crab. We waited patiently by a marsh to finally capture a couple photos of these small, elusive crabs. They are very sensitive to motion and hide quickly in the mud, so patience is necessary.
The garden plot is an indigo plant. I didn’t know much about indigo as a crop before, but the original process of creating the dye includes soaking the plant in urine, which contains ammonia. Indigo is used for dying blue jeans, of course.
After the 90 minutes of Segway riding we were ready to eat a good dinner. We had skipped lunch and wanted a seafood boil. Nothing else was acceptable. We asked the tour guide if she had any recommendations and she suggested Hudson’s Seafood House.
Hudson’s Seafood House
This seafood restaurant was exactly what we were looking for to enjoy a seafood boil. A no frills restaurant with great food and plenty of drinks to go with it.
The shrimp was right out of the water, that very day. Yeah we had to devein the shrimp, but they never tasted better.
The restaurant is pretty simple in terms of atmosphere, but the boil here hit the mark completely. And the cocktails were excellent too. I’m glad the tour guide recommended it or we would have had a hard time finding something this good on our own.
The following day we’d be flying home in the afternoon. We would have some time following checkout to do with as we pleased.
The Low Country: Charleston to Savannah: Part 5
Day 6: Savannah to Hilton Head Island
After a second night in Savannah, it was the day to depart for Hilton Head Island, across the South Carolina border. But we weren’t quite ready to depart Georgia entirely. We still had a few places to visit outside the city.
I like to take morning runs, and I decided to take a few photos along my route (which went from the Marshall House hotel to the edge of Forsythe Park and back). Along the way I saw the Mercer Williams House (made famous by the book and movie ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’), Monterey Square (which is across the street from the Mercer House), and the Sorrel-Weed House which was built in the early 1800s and was the home of a Confederate General named Francis Sorrell.
The Sorrell-Weed house is among the many supposedly haunted houses of Savannah owing to its history. Supposedly the house is haunted by Sorrell’s second wife Matilda who jumped to her death from the second floor of neighboring house, or the slave girl Molly with whom Sorrell may have been having an affair, and who may have hung herself in the carriage house.
After returning to the hotel we packed up and reclaimed the car from valet parking. The valet attendant was much more helpful than our experience on arrival and we tipped him according.
At this point I was enjoying Savannah much more and I do think we will be back again in the future, and we certainly have a lot more to see and do in Georgia in the coming years.
Bonaventure Cemetery
The first planned stop was the actual ‘Garden of Good and Evil’: Bonaventure Cemetery. Truthfully, it is a bit odd to go on vacation and spend time visiting cemeteries. Its not as if we knew any of the deceased personally.
But Bonaventure is a tourist attraction owing to the historic statues at many of the grave sites, the moss-covered oaks that often drip with rain water, and the aforementioned book. Unfortunately the Bird Girl statue from the book cover is no longer in the cemetery. It was moved to the Telfair Museum in Savannah.
We did see a number of interesting statues, however, after realizing that we were in the wrong section and not in the ‘old’ cemetery. The Corinne Lawton grave and the Gracie Watson grave are among the statues pictured below. I’ve linked to their tragic stories.
While I don’t know how much of this is myth and how much is reality, grave sites like Gracie’s have to be protected from people attempting to chip away from them and some of it is part of voodoo practices. This was one reason the Bird Girl statue was removed from the cemetery. At any rate, it’s a rather mysterious place but one that must be respected.
Tybee Island Light Station
After spending some time at the cemetery it was time for something a little less somber. We drove onward to Tybee Island to visit the Light Station.
As I mentioned in the prior post, it was a rather cold day for Georgia in October, with a brisk wind and temperatures in the high 50s on Tybee Island. Normally I would have included a stop at Tybee Island Beach, but the weather and surf conditions were not conducive to doing so.
We ascended to the top of the lighthouse (as you can see if the photos and videos), and Shelley and Evan (and I as well) took some time learning to tie some mariner’s knots.
We learned from watching a movie in the visitor’s center that the lighthouse dates back to the early 1700s, but originally it wasn’t a lighthouse at all. It was a ‘daymark’, which provided a visual marker for a location. The first lighthouse at the current location was built in 1790. Just before the Civil War the first fresnel lens was mounted on the lighthouse, but this structure was destroyed by the Confederates who viewed it as an aid to the Union navy.
After the Civil War the current structure was built along with the accompanying head keepers cottages. The head keeper’s cottage is actually a pretty nice house, in our opinion. Plenty of room, and let’s face it, there are worse places to be a head keeper than Tybee Island, Georgia.
Fort Pulaski
Just a short drive from Tybee Island is the Civil War-era Fort Pulaski. It was our next stop of the day.
We’ve been to a lot of forts over the years. I don’t know if I could even enumerate them all. But I think Fort Pulaski is one of the most interesting of them all.
Fort Pulaski was an American fort that was captured by the Confederate Army at the outset of the Civil War. The fortress was believed to be essentially impregnable, to the point that Robert E. Lee told the commanding officer at the fort that the Union guns on Tybee Island could not penetrate the walls.
However, Lee was wrong. The Union army had begun to use new rifled artillery. Using these rifled canons they managed to breach the outer wall, forcing the Confederate commander Olmstead to surrender or risk having the entire fort explode if a shell hit the powder magazine, killing everyone within.
A couple other interesting facts: there is a brick in the floor of the fort with a paw print from when the brick was made, close to 200 years ago. You can see that paw print in the photo above. And the first baseball game ever photographed took place in the central courtyard in 1862 (when the fort was under Union control).
Hilton Head Island
After Fort Pulaski it was time to drive an hour around the marshlands (as the crow flies the distance is only a few miles, but by road its around 40 miles) to Hilton Head Island where we would spend the next two nights before heading home.
We had a townhome rental with separate rooms and a kitchen which was a nice change from hotel rooms. We were staying at the Coral Sands Resort. With only a half mile walk to the beach it was in a great location and the price was very reasonable as well. There was a curious site of a tree growing in a gutter which I couldn’t help but photograph.
The weather was finally warming up enough that the following day would be beach weather. We stopped off for a pizza dinner and called it a night.
The Low Country: Charleston to Savannah: Part 4
Day 5: Savannah
After the prior day’s late night ghost tour and a night sleeping in the arguably haunted Marshall House hotel, we had a full day to explore the city of Savannah. We had a good breakfast at the hotel and then set off on foot for a tour of the Owens-Thomas House, before continuing on to the Georgia Railroad Museum.
The Owens-Thomas House
The Owens-Thomas House is one of the historic antebellum mansions that you can tour in the city. The house was built by an English architect William Jay and was first owned by the Richardson family. The Richardsons were planters and unfortunately they only lived there three years after enduring the tragic deaths of the wife Francis and two young daughters.
George Owens was a politician and he bought the house in 1830. He was a US Representative and also the mayor of Savannah. He invited the Marquis de Lafayette to stay in the house and the Marquis delivered a speech from the house.
Unfortunately, you won’t hear much about these families and the sad events that marked their lives, and certainly nothing positive will be said of them on the tour. The families were also slaveholders and the tour guide focused all of her time talking about the slaves and providing a provably distorted history of life in Savannah and the history of the people that built and lived in the house to make it appear as though the slaves were the only intelligent and capable people living in the home.
Yes, I think it is great that the Telfair Museum (who owns the house and runs the tours) puts time into telling the storing of the domestic slaves. That story needs to be told. But that story is now overly embellished and completely dominates the tour narrative.
For instance, the tour guide claimed that tabby was an African invention, and implied it was brought to the Americas by the slaves. While it is true that tabby construction appears to have come originally from North Africa (Morocco), tabby was not brought to America by the slaves.
Tabby is a form of concrete made by burning shells to create lime when added to water. The walls of the house are composed of tabby. Tabby was actually brought to the United States by the Spanish in the 1500s, who inherited the knowledge from the Moors. You can look it up if you want. Even the signage above the tabby display at the house says this.
That is just one of many false assertions made by the tour guide for political correctness. As visitors on the tour we had to go out of our way to ask about the portraits of the daughters in the upstairs bedroom to be told that they had died in a yellow fever epidemic and one of the portraits was made after her death. Sad. But the tour guide didn’t even want to discuss it. Their lives were made to seem completely unimportant beyond their existence as slaveholders.
Slavery was undeniably terrible but let’s also keep some perspective. Slavery existed worldwide in every culture and it was only because of the Enlightenment in Europe in the 1700s and the ensuing abolitionist movements that swept the Americas in the 1800s that it was brought to an end.
What you see in the Owens-Thomas house is a window into a past when slavery was a typical part of life. Just as Mount Vernon was also the plantation home of George Washington who was a slaveholder. But no one is attempting to say that the first president was nothing more than a slaveholder who relied entirely on their skills and expertise and survive. We know better than that.
Again, it’s great to see the names of the slaves that have been documented in the carriage house and to see their living and working quarters. However, the narration of the tour (which evidently changed in 2018 to focus on slavery) needs to be rebalanced to be more historically accurate and to discuss life in the house and in 1800s Savannah more accurately.
We were really quite disappointed with this tour and while I wouldn’t say I don’t recommend visiting (because it is a very interesting house and that includes the slave quarters), the tour is a huge disservice to the visitors who just want to learn honest history.
The Georgia State Railroad Museum
I told my 11-year-old that we would be spending the day walking all over the city and to expect to be tired by the end of the day. The walk from the Owens-House to the Georgia State Railroad Museum is a mile and we made our way there next.
Along the way we enjoyed the many park squares, churches, and moss-laden trees lining the boulevards. Even a lizard made an appearance on a brick facade.
It was unseasonably cold (low 60s) and we were dressed a bit lighter than we thought we would need to be, but we arrived there just fine, hopeful that the museum would be fun and interesting for our railroad enthusiast son.
Our first impression was a little dismal. The visitor center ran an introductory film for guests to view before exiting outside to the museum grounds. We quickly realized, however, that the film was of minimal value. It had little to do with the history of the railroads in Georgia and instead it was an overview of general American history.
We stepped outside and went to the roundhouse where there were several trains arrayed in a semi-circle. We quickly realized the only information about the locomotives was on the paper guide map that they gave us in the gift shop and that there was no signage in any of the various buildings or on the trains.
Unlike many railroad museums, the entire 1800s rail complex is part of the museum and following the map you can learn quite a lot about the service and operation of railroads in the mid 1800s.
I actually found the blacksmith shop with the steam-powered hammer and saws to be the most interesting site in the museum. A huge steam powered engine powered every tool in the building through a shaft that ran from an adjacent building. This was the era before electric power tools completely changed the way that we work.
Overall we found the museum to be interesting, but it still felt as though it could have been presented better. Without the paper guide map you had no way of understanding the museum and it simply looks a bit neglected despite the admission price.
Forsythe Park
After the museum we started back toward the hotel with the intention of getting lunch along the way. Truthfully, we weren’t feeling that enthusiastic about Savannah at this point. Both museums were somewhat of a let down and the overall vibe around the city from people we encountered seemed to be lacking in “Southern Hospitality”.
At this point it was also occurring to me that Savannah wasn’t quite like Charleston or really anywhere else. It felt like a mixture of New Orleans (a city that I visited twice the prior decade) and Charleston or Beaufort. New Orleans is a rougher place with historic charm mixed with tawdriness for those looking to let loose. Charleston is a more stately place with well-kept historic homes and parks. Savannah is the mixture of these two places, with a character all its own.
We found the Savannah Smokehouse BBQ and it was exactly what we needed to get ourselves mentally and physically back on track. Great BBQ pulled pork and I loved the friend green tomatoes. I think I ate the majority of them. Savannah has some great BBQ.
Revitalized after lunch we decided to walk the mile south to Forsythe Park. Forsythe Park is one of the largest parks among the dozens of squares in the city and is famous for the fountain in the middle of the park.
We decided to take the free trolley back to the hotel from the park and after about 10 minutes we caught the trolley as it pulled up on the street beside the park. We rode it to near the hotel then made a detour to Byrd’s Famous Cookies across the street.
We filled a couple boxes with Byrd’s little cookies and then returned to our hotel room to take a little break before finding dinner.
The Olde Pink House Speakeasy
We went out for a nice dinner and drinks in the evening. During the ghost tour the previous day I recalled hearing the tour guide mention the speakeasy hidden under the Olde Pink House and decided to see if we could get in.
Sure enough, there was a 30 minute wait, but we could be seated. When we were called to return they had a really cozy spot for us right in front of the fireplace.
Since my birthday was only a couple days away and I wanted to celebrate with some terrific southern food we imbibed on some cocktails, enjoyed a couple appetizers and had some great main courses. The food and service were terrific, but the atmosphere was really the best part.
I really enjoyed our evening dining at the Pink House speakeasy. It was a bit pricy, but you sometimes have to splurge to have a good time.
This was the Savannah I was looking for and found. When the day comes to go back, we’ll look for more of these atmospheric hideaways.
The Low Country: Charleston to Savannah: Part 3
Day 4: Charleston to Savannah
After two full days in Charleston it was time to make the drive south to Savannah, Georgia. The weather was unusually mild with temperatures in the mid 60s F, but the skies were sunny for a day on the road.
The journey down Highway 17 through the marshlands and countryside of South Carolina is rather pleasant. We stopped along the way for coffee, cider, and cookies at a roadside stand.
As we came to what would have been the intersection the I-95 for the quick jaunt into Savannah, we decided it was time to take a detour to another plantation that was on the map. Or so we thought.
Frampton Plantation
Frampton Plantation was right off Highway 17 and as you approach the house it looks quite nice. Unfortunately the house is nothing but an souvenir store and there is nothing to actually see and do at the house. Calling itself a plantation is only a way to get roadtrip visitors to stop at the house.
So in other words it’s a lame tourist trap.
Beaufort
We had some time to spare and I had read that Beaufort was really nice seaside city with historic houses and a plenty of good restaurants. We decided to visit Beaufort for a couple hours before finishing the drive in Savannah.
We parked in the Waterfront Park area and took a quick stroll along the bayshore before turning into the town to visit a souvenir shop. after buying a shot glass for my collection we asked the cashier if she had a recommendation for a place to have lunch. She suggested Plums across the street.
I had a shrimp Po’Boy sandwich and Southern Pecan Ale. The food and beer were both relatively good, but the service was pretty slow. I don’t think it would be our first choice if we returned to Beaufort.
We were kind of anxious after the long lunch to get to Savannah (one reason I have no photos to share other than a photo of my beer), so we set off to finish the drive across the Savannah River. We avoided the interstate highway, which was a win as well.
Savannah, Georgia
Crossing the Savannah River meant entering Georgia for the first time for Shelley and Evan, and only my second time in my life. Savannah and Charleston are often compared to one another but the two cities are actually quite different.
Savannah had a noticeably less sophisticated feel, geared more toward entertainment and more geared toward adults. The antebellum architecture and the city blocks full of statues and trees with dangling moss make the city unique and picturesque.
Arriving at the Marshall House hotel we were truthfully rather disappointed. Since it was Halloween season I thought it would be a fun choice since it’s regularly listed among the most haunted hotels in the country. During the Civil War it acted as a hospital and many soldiers inevitably died there.
The hotel’s historic charm is obvious, but the service from the staff on arrival was lacking. No one was attending the valet parking (really the only option) and the front desk staff seemed uninterested in checking us in. Usually the higher-end hotels offer assistance with luggage and help you to your room. They left all that to us until we exited the elevator.
The room was also not exactly as well maintained as we would have liked either. There was peeling paint and stains on a serving dish in the room. It should be a matter of pride to keep the hotel in as excellent a condition as possible, no matter how old the structure may be.
Despite these issues, we found out that on Tuesday nights there is trivia in the lobby and of course Shelley and I were willing participants. They offered wine to the players and we imbibed to our contentment. The trivia was entirely pop-culture so our performance in the game wasn’t up to our standard.
Ghost Tour
I had reserved a ghost tour for the night of our arrival in Savannah, and at 8:30 PM we made our way to the starting place at Chippewa Square. The tour was a much slower paced experience and had many stops at various houses along the way.
We did our best to try to photograph ghosts at the locations where they were purported to be found. One abandoned house in particular piqued the interest of my son and I and we tried various ways to capture the supernatural entities existing within.
Many plagues, wars, and bizarre murders have happened in Savannah over the centuries and these events have left a rather interesting legacy on the city. Trees that were planted in a town square brought forth the bones from people that were buried there a century before. And, according to the tour guide, nearly every square foot of the city sits atop a cemetery or graveyard.
Whatever the truth is, between the Marshall Hotel and the cemeteries of Savannah we had a few days to live amongst the ghosts. And in fact, we did hear some pretty weird things in the Marshall hotel overnight.
The following day we’d get a better feel for Savannah.