Alligators on Hilton Head Island Alive and Well

 How many alligators do you typical see when you're out for a bike ride?  One, two, or maybe three?  At least 3 would be my answer.  This is one pon/lagoon, one sunny spot further down the bike path/trail/road another pond/lagoon had 3 or 4 more.  They were further away so I wasn't able to get a picture.  I saw alligators several days in row, almost in the same spot.  Now being from Ohio, I'm not accustomed to seeing alligators.  But, after spending 2 weeks on Hilton Head Island, it began to seem the "norm".

The one in middle almost silver.  The one on the right was huge.  Probably can't really tell that from my little point and shot camera...AND, no......I didn't try to get closer for a picture.  Males are typically about 12 feet long and weight around 500 pounds, though last May, 2012 a 13 foot male weighing 1,000 was found in Bluffton which is about 45 minutes from Hilton Head.  Female's are smaller, around 160 pounds, but regardless of the size they have 40 teeth and can produce 3,000 pounds of pressure with their mighty jaws.  Normally they hibernate in the winter months, trying to stay warm in their mud dens from October to May, so my seeing them almost everyday in January is a apparently unusual.  I've seen them other trips there, also in January; but nothing like the number I saw this time round.

They will eat almost anything, and anybody if provoked.  There are signs everwhere warning people to stay away, to not feed them, and not harass them.  When out west in places like Yellowstone where wildlife abounds....you always see some idiot who thinks the sign means everyone but him or her.  I would imagine the same thing happens here on Hilton Head Island.  If you feed them, you will be heavily fined.  And once you feed them, you can almost bet the gator will have to be killed.  Why?  Because once fed by humans they will approach and become aggressive.  Even when not provoked small pets and children are at risk and should not be around lagoons, particularly not the edge.  In addition to the wild life they've been known to eat rabbits, small deer, and dogs.

The are cold blooded animals, so warm themselves with the sun, and cool themselves with the water depending on the time of the year.  Though they are a fresh water creature, they will travel through salt water to get to better food so can be found even on the beach, or in the marshes.  Spring and Fall is suppose to be the best time to see them.

Mothers protect their young.  Alligators can protect their young up to 3 years, and even a non aggressive Gator will go after anything and anyone without fear if they feel their young are in danger.   So, even if you don't see the Mother Gator; chances are she is there and you should be ware.

Alligators are very quick and very fast, they can outrun most people, even a horse for a short distance, something around 50 yards.  If you're being chased by one; you should run a zig zag pattern; as they can't make turns very fast.

Though the population is prevalent on Hilton Head Island, large gators are removed to protect humans on The Island.

Makes me wonder about Alligator shoes, and hats.....

One Hundred Miles of Bike Fun at Hilton Head Island South Carolina

Walk, Run, Pedal along with me on Hilton Head Island South Carolina.  This red bike with a nice comfy seat was my transportation during the first week of our 2 week vacation.  Rented this bike directly from Marriott's Monarch Resort for $30.00 a week which included the basket, the lock, delivery, and set up.  You really must rent a bike while on The Island.  It's loads of fun, easy, cheap and great exercise.  You can ride for miles and miles and miles.  The beach is nice and packed making it a wonderful place to ride as well as all the bike paths.  AND, as you can see wide open during the winter months.  We've traveled to Hilton Head now for the 4th year during either January or February.  Love it.  No, it's not the time of year to go if you want to bake yourself on the beach; but it's a great time of year to go for peace, quiet, fewer crowds, cheaper prices and there's much to see and do.

 This map shows the bike trails and the shared bike paths...both paved and not throughout the Island.  The part that looks like the toe of the foot is Sea Pines Plantation and they have their own map, showing the trails and paths there.  It changes constantly, but currently there are over 100 miles of bike trails/paths and shared roadways to enjoy.  Biking is easy as there very little up or down hill biking to worry about.  Staying on the bike paths also helps you avoid traffic and is safe for people of all ages.  Though I think you'll see more families during the traditional beach months, June, July and August when the kids are out of school.

Once again you can see the Island truly is shaped like a foot.  This map shows all the Marriott resorts in the area.  Marriott has a huge presence on the Island both with hotels, timeshares, and The Marriott Resort.  Click to enlarge so you can read the resorts names.  There are 3 time shares in Sea Pines, with a 4th near by that has easy access.  Some of the Marriott's are on the ocean, some on the marsh, some in the harbor area. 

Here's the bike trail map of the Sea Pines area where one can ride in a very picturesque setting of ponds, golf courses, ocean, marsh and wildlife areas.  There's shopping and dining by bike as well.  I've added some color dots to this map of locations where we've stayed.  Up by the lighthouse where the red dot is Heritage Club in Harbour Town where we've stayed twice.  Very nice adult oriented time share.  The purple dot middle bottom is the approximate location of Marriott's Monarch, the very first timeshare.  We spent our first week there this trip and really enjoyed it.  More on Monarch to follow in other posts.  Biking from there is the best of both worlds.  You're on the beach and in the middle of Sea Pines with somewhere around 17 miles of bike paths!  To the right bottom of the map is the blue dot which represents Marriott's Grande Ocean Resort.  This resort is also right on the beach and has it's own rather large bike shop.  It's a large resort and probably the most family oriented of the 3 with lots of extra kid friendly activities.

Will be blogging in more detail about the various resorts, what to see and do; but......hop on your bike and follow along; don't want you to miss anything.

**You'll be seeing some changes here on the blog, as this newer template doesn't work quite right.  Too bad, it seems perfect.  The previous blog template went by the wayside as many of the graphics on it weren't supported so I nabbed this one awhile back and see there's still need to keep looking, please bare with me**

Golf on Hilton Head Island

There are many who might say Golf is Hilton Head's middle name. They think of golf immediately when they think of Hilton Head. While others might think Beach. I think History, Civil War, Good Food, and more. For some good background on all Hilton Head has to offer, see these two post:
Meanwhile, back to golf. There are 26 golf courses on The Island with many more nearby. 20 of those 26 are championship courses. The Island, Hilton Head isn't all that large measuring 56 square miles, so 26 golf courses is Alot! That many courses gives you much to choice from. There are golf packages sometimes associated with a specific hotel or timeshare; there are packages which group certain courses together also.
These views are from the top of The Harbour Town Light House viewing The famous Harbour Town Golf Links Course where the prestigious Heritage Classic takes place.
The course is right next to the beach and the ocean, on land formerly a plantation. A plantation owned by The Lawton Family. A plantation that had owned slaves. Following the beautiful golf course along the tree line on the left, and you'll find a graveyard presumed to be mostly slaves, or freed slaves and their descendants. The Lawton Plantation then Stables has been moved to a new location within Sea Pines Plantation. The new and the old world with 2 vastly different uses.
It hasn't been a golf course all that long. I've read conflicting information about when the course was opened, one article said in 1969 and one in 1967.
The beautiful course offers views such as this sailing boat, and is open to the public. I'm not a golfer, though hubby is he's not played this course; but perhaps on another trip he will.

Enjoy the present, come and enjoy and play; but please remember and honor the past. They had a heavy burden and deserve our remembrance.

Harbour Town Hilton Head

Beautiful landscape, and The Lighthouse off in the distance. This is the view I had from the sidewalks edge from my accommodations at The Heritage Club. A short walk or ride on a bike through this path and you're smack dab in the middle of the shopping and dining area of Harbour Town.

One of the many restaurants. There are many, and most are opened both in and off season. Some have both inside and outside seating, many have great views. There's casual as well as more up scale dining options. Harbour Town Grill, C's, Harbour Town Bakery & Cafe, Quarterdeck to name a few. Want to combine dinner and entertainment, schedule a sunset dinner cruise on The Spirit of Harbour Town.

Enjoy the many sites as you walk, ride or sit and enjoy. Watch the boats, the fishermen, the golfers off in a distance. In season there are many activities such as The Junior Golfer's Program, Ghost Stories, and free concerts by Gregg Russell to enjoy in Harbour Town. This particular scene made me think of Captain John and his Salty Dog. (if you missed that post, click here).
Plenty of beautiful homes, condo's and ships to view. Lots of shopping options too.

Another famous photo opt, probably almost as notable as The Lighthouse is this statue, "Out to Lunch", by J. Seward Johnson installed in 1975. Amongst the beautiful scenery are rows of rocking chairs where you can just sit and enjoy the sites.

On trip is not enough. In fact, I've been to Harbour Town on 3 different vacations, and am looking forward to a return trip.

Harbour Town Lighthouse, Hilton Head Island

Due to the number of photo's in this post, I opted for small photo's, but do click to enlarge them. All pictures are always clickable so you can see them better. But, using smaller photo's helps bandwidth and blog loading issues.
A very famous lighthouse, that's really NOT a lighthouse. The red and white 90 foot lighthouse was built in 1970, never served as a lighthouse...not a beacon to welcome weary ships in from their dangerous journeys at sea. It was built at Braddocks Point after Lawton Stables (formerly Lawton Plantation) was moved; as development for the area was in full swing. Shops, lodging, boat docks and of course The famous golf course, Harbour Town Golf Links where the famous Heritage Golf Classic takes place. If you've ever viewed this on TV, you've seen this lighthouse. It's the most recognized and photographed item on Hilton Head Island.
In the inside of the Lighthouse is a museum with historic pictures and memorabilia, as well as 2 gift shops. A gift shop on the bottom where you purchase your tickets, and a larger gift shop at the top. One u-tube video claims there are 114 steps to the top. Pete Dye with the help of Jack Nicklaus (the one I recognize in the picture) helped design the course.

Tried to get a photo through the glass without the glare of the flash didn't quite work. But, light is limited inside the Lighthouse and time to take photo's with lots of folks on the steps coming and going is difficult. I count 45 stars on this flag. Our flag got it's 45th star when Utah was added in 1896. The 45 stars remained until 1908, 12 years later. 3 US Presidents served under that flag, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was the only one not from Ohio.
The views from the top include the shopping area, some forest area, and some lodging.It's quite windy on top, so flag is always blowing.Looking towards the golf course you can see the long boat dock area.This boat dock area is right off the front side of Lighthouse
To the right of above boat dock area is a parking lot and wonderful beach area. As you can kayaking is popular.
And at the very point, almost looking straight down from The lighthouse an outside eating area from one of the many eating establishments in Harbour Town.

Robert Irvine's Eat Hilton Head

Red, hot, and dark. Those were the first things that came to mind when we sat down in our private circle booth for 2 at Robert Irvine's Eat! It's small and in a little shopping mall; a bit hard to find...but then many restaurants are in Hilton Head. That's apparently by design. The restaurant is quite dark, which is why the quality of the pictures is poor. I was surprised to see it so dark as our reservations were at 7 and it was through the week. Plus watching him on his many TV shows, he's often talked about the importance of not having a restaurant so dark it's patrons can't see the menu or wonder how clean the place is. Everything is red and black, very um-comfortably dark. Even the food looks red which isn't as appealing visually as it could be.

These pictures would be even more red had I not made some adjustments on the computer to the picture. We were there during restaurant week, so that made the pricing less of an issue then it otherwise might have been. It was pricey, and quite pretentious. The tables are nicely spaced but still it was loud, causes me to have to lean in to hear my hubby. I don't like the new trend of loud being equated with hip and good. The restaurant was only half full, which made me wonder how loud and uncomfortable it would be on a good night.

Since they weren't busy, and we had reservations we expected much better service then we got. There seemed to be a prevailing opinion in the air. Because they're owned by a celebrity they don't have to perform, that you'll be wow'd by them, by the food, and by the experience. We weren't. I had red pork chops as you can see. Actually do wonder what they really looked like. It was Fennel brined double cut pork chops with asparagus. I'm afraid I don't remember hubby's meal which is the previous picture. The food was good. The atmosphere and the service, not so much.

We were full and took our deserts with us to have back at our condo. This was a Carmel something. We each had a bite or two and pitched. Really not good.

Chocolate, peanut butter raspberry something...don't recall the exact name. Again we each had a bite or two, but found it easy not to finish it.

Summary, glad we went during Restaurant week, makes the sting less. Would I return or recommend? No and No. It is suitable for family's with children? NO

Be sure and pop back in next Monday, for Monday Menu on the 21st.

Shopping in Sea Pines Plantation, Hilton Head

Most people love to eat and shop while on vacation, right! Hilton Head Island in South Carolina is no exception. Thought here is much to do to stay busy and or relax if you want to; there are plenty of places to shop and dine and enjoy yourself. I've referred to The Island as the shape of the foot with Sea Pines in the toe area many times in my posts. (if you missed seeing a map to know what I'm referring to CLICK HERE). Sea Pines was the first area on The Island to be developed with a focus on scenery and preserving and protecting nature and wild life.
The Shops at Sea Pines Center are accessible by foot, by bike, by golf cart and car and even here at a shopping center you see the focus on a respect of nature and it's in inhabitants. Though some of the shops aren't open in the off season (we've been there in January and February), there's quite a selection in season. There's clothing, jewelery, decorative accessories, antiques, books, a full service day spa, a post office, market, realtor, gas station, bike rentals and 2 restaurants.

In season the free trolly stops here every 20 minutes from 10am til 12 midnight.
Enjoy pizza for lunch or dinner at Giuseppi's (even in the off season), or plan a nice evening out with a wonderful menu at
Truffles Cafe has 2 locations at Hilton Head. One outside Sea Pines Plantation in addition to this one. Suggest making a reservation during the season, but that's less of a need during the off season. It's not the place for young children; but more of adult night out. Not dressy dressy, in fact they list themselves as a casual upscale dining experience. They received The Open Table award at this particular location in 2011. Upscale to me, is best without children. Upscale also means expansive wine list and interesting menu...you'll not be disappointed on either of those points.

Wanna Horse Around, visit Lawton Stables in Hilton Head

Lawton Stables located at 190 Greenwood Drive in prestigious Sea Pines Plantation doesn't reveal it's self to you on first glance. The sign reads pony and trail rides open 7 days a week, lessons and boarding. Well that doesn't seem particularly special or unique. But, there's quite a story behind these stables. Lawton Stables wasn't always at this location, in fact it was moved here back in 1969. But, it's beginnings go back much farther. Lawton Plantation was initially a large plantation in Braddocks Cove (the toe area of the Island). The Lawton family had come from England and were well off with both land holdings and slaves; not just here on Hilton Head Island.The government seized the plantation for back taxes. There was the main house, some out buildings, and 50 slave quarters in 1867, 2 years after the end of the bloodiest war this country has ever fought. When The Civil War was over, many slaves were left in the area. Often unable to care for themselves without the land owners and overseers. Through a commission the Port Royal Experiment began. Freed slaves were given the right to remain on the property, sometimes they lived in their previous quarters, sometimes they lived in the main houses. Depending on what was remaining after The Confederates vacated.

2 teachers, Eliza Summers and Julia Benedict from New York arrived in Hilton Head in 1867 and took up residence in the main house on Lawton Plantation. They worked hard and long hours to educated the Freed Slaves. The main house doubled as school, and a church. During the day the ladies taught the children of the Island, at night the adults when they were done working in the fields. They taught them to read, write, how to plant crops to sustain their families, how to sew and take care of their clothes. Not an easy task with the difficulties of living in the low country with snakes, mosquitoes, and rats. The teachers had to take their shoes with them to bed, to have something to throw at the rats that entered the house after nightfall, even though the house was built on stilts.Due to restrictions, a dislike and lack of respect for the man who was in charge of the commission, Eliza and Julia left Lawton Plantation after six months. But, even in that short period of time, they had made a huge difference in the lives of The Islanders. The restrictions included telling the ladies what time they had to go to bed, what time to be up, not to entertain males and other things they felt were inappropriate.

Once the Lawton family paid back taxes, they were reinstated as the owners. Their presence at the stables at the original location was maintained until 1969. In 1969, they were removed to the current location to make room for development in Sea Pines for a golf course. The golf course in Harbour Town is The Harbour Town Links Course, the location of the famous Heritage Classic so many of us have seen on TV with The Lighthouse in the background. The main house and slave quarters have long since vanished through the ravages of time.

The present day Lawton Stables offers much to locals and visitors alike. It's a full service Equestrian facility. Boarding and training for locals, weddings and birthday parties, and summer camps are some of the options. For vacationers to The Island, they can visit, ride, and shop and enjoy the beauty of the area. A complete renovation took place in 2008. There's even a free small animal farm for your enjoyment. Riding along the bike trails I passed the stable more then once in my treks. Next time, perhaps I'll stop and have a look in the gift shop that is filled to brim with horse related memorabilia.