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.

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.

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.

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.

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.