Hilton Head, SC - December 2011

Over Christmas this year Scott and I went on vacation with my parents and our friend Jacob to Hilton Head Island, SC.  We have about a billion pictures from the trip (since we brought the new camera!), and I just tried to choose the highlights on here.

On the way down we drove to Elizabethtown, KY, and spent the night with Scott's brother and family.  It was nice to get a free night of lodging on the way down, and also nice to see them, since we have not seen them all year and didn't get to spend any of the holidays with any of the Platt family.

We spent some time on the beach, and saw a bunch of these things lying around.  We thought they might be jellyfish, but the next morning in the paper there was a front page article about them.  They are called "Portuguese Men-of-War," and each one is actually a bunch of different organisms living together--the "bubble" is an animal, the tenticles are each an animal, etc.  Apparently they sting, and are still poisonous even after dying on the beach and sitting there for a couple days.

On Christmas day we went to a local church, had lunch, and then decided to go walk along the beach.  Unfortunately it started raining shortly after we got there, so it was not a very pleasant walk, and we cut it short.

The next afternoon Scott, Jake, and I went to the beach and it was sunny.  However, it was only about 60 degrees, so I elected to just sit out of the win and in the sun and relax.

Jake and Scott waded in a tidal pool and found some shells.  That water was a little cold.  Jake also decided to go for a swim in the ocean right before we left the beach...on Dec. 26.  That was very cold!  I'm glad I decided not to go in!

Scott was wading in the water holding the camera at weird angles trying to get a good picture of the waves.  I was a little nervous that the new camera would get wet, but he did get a couple cool pictures!

We went to the Sea Pines Plantation on Hilton Head Island,which is where a famous golf course is.  We did not golf...none of us really golf, and I can't afford to pay $200+ for 18 holes of golf.

Harbour Town lighthouse.  This lighthouse has never actually been used to help ships, it was built as part of the planned community.  But it has become famous as a sight.

At the top of the lighthouse was a live webcam, so we called my sister and  she loaded it up on the computer and we waved at some of my nieces and nephew while they said hello to us on the phone.  They were pretty excited about that!

Mom searching for seashells

We also went on a hike in the Sea Pines Forest Preserve.  This is an Indian shell ring that is approximately 4000 years old.  The natives here would pile all their shells from their meals in a huge ring, and as the walls built up, the shell ring became a place for community gatherings.

I took a lot of pictures of Scott taking pictures...because he spent a lot of time with the new camera!

We went to Savannah for the day.  Here we are at Old Fort Jackson, which was a Civil War Fort.  One of the ironclad ships the Confederate Army built during the Civil War is sunk in the river right next to this fort.  I included this picture mostly because in it I look very pregnant.

We also went to the Savannah History Museum and the GA Roundhouse Railroad Museum.  The RR museum was cool because it had a turntable, and all the buildings and places where they worked on the old steam engines during the late 1800's and early 1900's.  We were looking forward to the train ride that was included in our entry...it was fun, but it was only about 600 yards of track.  Eventually they hope to connect to an 8 mile track and offer longer rides.

The railroad turntable.  The roundhouse used to be a complete circle, but when it closed in the 1950's,  the city took down half the building and sold off the brick for cash.

We went on a dolphin ecotour one afternoon.  We went out an a little boat from the marina by our condo, and out into the Broad Creek and the Bay.  We did see a number of dolphins, as well as a lot of birds.

Our boat captain said that a number of years ago the dolphin tours were allowed to feed the dolphins, and some of the older dolphins remember that and will come right up to the boat and swim by you for a while.  Fortunately, one of those dolphins did come by us, so we got close up view!

We also did some mini golfing.

Our last day in Hilton Head we went hiking at the Pinckney Island NWR.  

We ended up doing about a 4 mile hike...we weren't planning to go so far, but  the weather was beautiful and we just found ourselves a little further along the trail than planned.  Four miles was a little too much for me, unfortunately.  I did make it back to the car, but had to just go slow and steady, and didn't enjoy the last half of the hike quite as much as the first half.

This was a really big live oak tree. 

We left for home on Friday, and made it about 14 hours before we decided we were done driving--spent the night just east of Indianapolis.  We were so tired we were not even able to stay up to watch the Hawkeyes bowl game, which started at 10pm...turns out that was ok, because they kinda stunk it up.  It was nice to only have about 7 hours in the car on Saturday.  

The bad part about spending a lot of hours in the car with everyone is that if someone has a cold, everyone gets it.  Scott came down with a cold and a fever on Saturday, and gave it to me on Sunday, and we both spent the day on the sofa groaning and blowing our noses.  This is the 3rd cold I've had during this pregnancy, and it is miserable when you are not allowed to take cold medicines.  Ugh.