Kelly's Ramblings

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Friday September 16 Pics

One of the marinas in Hilton Head

Bridge connecting north HH to south HH

Dolphin!

Owl! Caught you looking, he's fake

7:30am - Our day started at the normal time. You can almost set your watch by us by now! We drove around Hilton Head Island a little, checking it out. A lot of gigantic houses, private golf courses, exclusivity galore. We then had breakfast at McD's. Seriously, before our next vacay, I think I am going to buy some stock! lol We headed out to our first activity, a dolphin tour! Yay! It was also a harbor cruise, so it served a dual purpose. It was neat to cruise around Hilton Head, seeing all the houses from the water. On the peninsula, the houses have water views on both sides. One of the houses there was listed a couple years ago for 14 million, the highest ever listed on the island. The house never sold and fell into foreclosure and was sold last year in a short sale for five million. It is a second home for the new owners and the captain of the boat we were on said he has only seen them once, over 4th of July weekend. I think if I bought a house there, I would visit more frequently, it's gorgeous! As we cruised out, we did not see any dolphins and I was disappointed, and soon it was time to head back. I was hoping we might see some on the way back and we got lucky! Yes! We saw some! Just a couple, but none the less, I got to see some. I was happy. We headed back to shore after watching them for a few minutes (our cruise time was about up). Once back on shore, we headed on to our next destination, Savannah, GA. We wanted to do a riverboat cruise in Savannah, but we didn't get into town in time to make the last one, so we decided to do a trolley tour of the city instead. That was really neat, it took us around to some of the more historic and architectural places around the town. Unfortunately, for the second time on the trip, I forgot my camera. One of these days, I am going to forget my head. We definatly put Savannah on the list to visit again because they are steeped in history and the architecture is just astounding. Once our tour was done, we headed out of town to where we were going to put down for the night, Jacksonville, FL. I wanted to stay on the river, and choose a hotel that was on the river. When we got there, they were out of river view rooms, we had to pay for parking, half the lights in the room didn't work, there was no fridge and the internet didn't work. Needless to say, it was not worth the price we paid, and I was not happy. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

Weather - Cloudy and cool

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Thursday September 15 Pics

Suspension bridge into Charleston

Carnival cruise ship

Original Customs house

Fort Sumter

Shrimp boat

Retired aircraft carrier

Thursday September 15

7:30am - Our day started at the usual time. I woke up with a bit of a headache. It's been warm, upper 80's, low 90's, but it's the humidity that is killing me here! It makes it so much warmer. I am not used to it. Breakfast at McD's. We then hit the road down to Charleston, SC. Originally we had planned to do a dolphin tour but we changed our minds last night and decided to skip both that and the SC Aquarium. We decided to do a harbor cruise and take the trolley around the city instead. Before the harbor cruise, we stopped off at the Fort Sumter museum and checked out the artifacts they had. It was small, but the history and items they have were interesting! The harbor cruise was very nice. We spent the time on the lower deck, inside where it was air conditioned! We saw a Carnival cruise ship in port and the bridge into Charleston, which was the first triangular bridge in North America. And we saw dolphins! There were quite a few, but they were so spread out I never knew where the next one was going to jump up so I couldn't get a picture. Bummer. I know! Another time maybe. There are four old forts in the area that were all pointed out to us and each has a rich history in the Civil War. After the harbor cruise, we got on the trolley system and took two of the three routes around the city and saw various things. One of the main things we saw was The Citadel. This is a military college that up until three or four years ago was all male. After the trolleys, we decided to head down to Savannah, GA. We decided to stop in Hilton Head Island instead so we can check out the island tomorrow! Woohoo, looking forward to it!

Weather - Sun and muggy

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Wednesday September 15 Pics

View from our hotel room

Stingrays

The ocean from the ferry

Stack of alligators

Giant Gallapagos tortoise

Albino alligator

Wednesday September 15

7:00am - Yep, the day started at the normal time. This seems to be a good time to get up and get going as we seem to be getting in pretty late and by the time we unwind its really late! Breakfast was the standard at McD's. Yum! Love the bagel sandwiches. I am going to miss them when I am gone from this part of the country again. We were off and running to our first destination of the day, NC Aquarium. Last year we did a lot of zoos. This year we seem to have a lot of aquariums of the agenda. That's ok, I like them! We cruised around and looked at the exhibits, saw all the fish and jellies, sharks and stingrays. There is always a petting pool at aquariums, and that is always fun. I sometimes get the feeling the creatures are thinking, "Stop touching me, stop touching me, stop touching me!" After the aquarium, we headed over to the ferry and took it across the inlet. Yay! It was our first official sighting of something oceany. The trip took about 30 minutes and we were off to our next destination, Alligator Adventure. This place had lots and lots of gators and crocs, just stacks of them, everywhere! Big ones, small ones, albino ones, tailless ones, foreign ones, domestic ones. All kinds. It was pretty interesting and neat to see all the gators and crocs. One croc was gigantic. His head alone was probably as big long as my upper body! Rogue gators and crocs have a home here. That's good! Next we were off Ripley's Aquarium. It was neat, but I actually liked the one we went to in the morning better. Ripley's was smaller and higher priced. But we still had a good time and that's all that matters! So C made this agreement with me that we would try local places to eat more frequently instead of the processed fast food all the time. So today for lunch, we had BBQ! OK, I had BBQ, he had chicken fingers. Really? Yes, really. And he didn't even dip them in BBQ sauce. But at least we didn't have fast food. And for dinner! We went to Medieval Times! Dinner and a show! It was awesome. And so cool to see C eat with his fingers. hehehe They said silverware hadn't been invented yet so we didn't get any. C doesn't eat things like ribs because you have to eat them with your fingers. It was pretty good grub and a cool show. Tonight we are staying in a oceanfront hotel with a gorgeous view of the ocean. It is so nice. Leave the door open a little and fall asleep to the waves crashing against the sand. Ahh, that's the life.

Weather - Sun and muggy