Hilton Head Island Sojourn

I will keep this short and sweet, but, if for no other reason than preserving the historical record for my own memory, I do want to mention the six day vacation that Marilyn and I took to Hilton Head Island, SC earlier this month.

Hilton Head is one of our favorite spots anywhere. This was the sixth time that we have visited this wonderful place over the years.  It continues to grow, but at the same time it remains delightfully unchanged, which means that we were able to visit once again some of our favorite places...Harbortown, Scott's Fish Market, Giuseppe's, The Salty Dog Cafe, and of course all of the ubiquitous shops - both high end and schlocky - that populate Hilton Head and other seaside resorts across the land.

I'm not going to give an extensive narrative here, but I will share some photos from what was a great trip at one of the great beach resort towns anywhere.  If you love the beach but have never been to Hilton Head, you need to put it on your Places To Go Bucket List.

The view from our room

Nothing beats the peace and 

quiet of an "adults only" pool!

Our hotel was right on the beach 

Morning walks

Went on a "dolphin watch cruise" 

and, yes, we saw dolphins!

 The pause that refreshes

Harbortown

Reading the Newspaper While On Vacation

While on vacation in Hilton Head Island last week, I made it a point each day to pick up a copy of the daily newspaper, The Island Packet - and, yes, I was amazed to see that tiny Hilton Head was publishing a daily newspaper.  Anyway, I found the paper to be fascinating reading.  It included stories like these....

• The Hilton Head School District fired one of its principals, a woman named Amanda O'Nan for carrying on an extra-marital affair after hours while on school property.  It was a pretty salacious story, and if you want details, just type in "Amanda O'Nan" and "Hilton Head school principal firing" into your Google Machine.   This news story was followed a few days later with two lengthy letters to the editor - one denouncing O'Nan for her immoral behavior, and one ripping the School Board for unjustly firing a stellar educator for what was a personal matter that had nothing to do with her job performance.
• The case of John Terry Murdaugh.  Murdaugh is the 20 year old scion of an influential South Carolina legal family (judges, prosecutors, and high powered lawyers populate several generations of the family tree) who is charged with a BUI (Boating Under the Influence, a common crime in the SC Low Country) incident that resulted in the death of a teen age woman, and injuries to others on board the craft that young Murdaugh was piloting.  All passengers on  board were heavily imbibing and were under the legal age do so.  It seems that the entire booking, hearing, and indictment process were handled with so many kid gloves that charges of legal favoritism amongst the South Carolina "good old boy" network of justice are just flying left and right.  It is a case that I plan on following via the Internet as it unfolds in the months ahead.
• An absolutely horrific case of a man named Timothy Ray Jones, Jr. of Lexington County, SC, who will go on trial this week on the charges of killing his five children.  In fact, "horrific" is a word that doesn't even begin to describe this awful crime.  It is another case that I will be following from afar, even though I will feel the need to take a shower after doing so.
• In the world of sports, the big news in South Carolina last week was that the state legislature approved a bill that would grant $115 million in freebies to the NFL's Carolina Panthers and build a practice facility for the Panthers in South Carolina, fifteen miles south of the Panthers' Charlotte, NC home base.  It seems that the North Carolina lawmakers weren't willing to give the Panthers and their owner, former Steelers investor and Pittsburgh native David Tepper, who bought the team for $2 billion last year and has personal worth in excess of $9 billion, all the taxpayer paid goodies that the lawmakers south of the state border were willing to fork over.  There was predictable outrage from the opposition in the SC state house, but as they always seem to do, the lawmakers caved, probably in the hopes that they will all now be able to get their pictures taken with Cam Newton.
• Finally, this one for my pal, Dan Houston, an alumnus of the University of South Carolina.  I didn't bother the read the story about USC football coach Will Muschamps, but this headline caught my eye......"Gamecocks Supporters Unhappy With Team's Performance."  How about that?

So, in the underbelly of the beautiful and sleepy tourist resort of Hilton Head Island, there are lots of hinky doings taking place.  Like I said, the local fish wrap made for fascinating reading while on vacation.

Hilton Head Memories and a Grandstander Milestone

"The Grandstander" first saw the light of day on January 8, 2010 when in search of something to occupy my time in my new found retirement, I decided to start blogging.  Didn't know if I would like doing it, didn't know if anyone would read it, had no idea if it would sustain itself.  Well, as it happens, this post that you are now reading is Grandstander....

Thanks to all of my "loyal readers" out there - there must be, oh, a couple of dozen of you - for continuing to read and engage in some back and forth dialog on the topics I cover.  Thanks also to Facebook for giving one the ability to post these on my page for I do believe that Facebook is the vehicle where most of you see these posts.

I am looking forward to the next 1,000.

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Knowing that this milestone was approaching, I wanted to make sure that #1,000 would not be just another rant about Neal Huntington.  I wanted it to be something special, so I was able to hold off (perhaps you've noticed my absence in recent days) and save it for a recap of our just completed vacation in Hilton Head Island.

This trip marked our sixth visit to this great place, and our first one since 2005.   Why in God's name did it take us eight years to return, is a question that we kept asking ourselves, because this really a fabulous vacation spot.  We spent seven days and six nights at the recently renovated Westin Resort on the Port Royal Plantation.  An absolutely gorgeous place that I would recommend to anyone in a heartbeat.  

The view from our room was spectacular....

...and we were able to relax everyday at this fabulous pool area....

Every morning, there were walks along the beach...

...where we saw the most unusual massive clumps of what I thought was seaweed...

...but which was actually something called Spartina Grass, a vegetation that grows in the inland marshes on the island, but ends up being uprooted and washed ashore on the ocean side.   So, I learned something new on this trip.

Unfortunately, a minor muscle pull in my back put me on the Physically Unable to Perform list, so I was not able to play golf on this visit, which was too bad, because Hilton Head is a golfer's paradise.  It is also an eater's paradise, so we hit all of our favorite eating spots, including our most favorite....

We never miss eating at Scott's.  Great location on Shelter Cove....

....there's always a singer there to entertain you, and yes, he DID sing "Margaritaville", I think it's against the law not to...

...and, oh yes, the food there is terrific.

We also hit a couple of other favorites.....

....and discovered a new place that we will definitely hit on future visits...

Not every hit was a home run, however.  We saw an ad for a place called The Bamboo Room (and there is a reason there is no picture here) that features a singing duo called "The Beagles" who specialized in singing acoustic versions of Beatles tunes, so we figured this is for us.  Well, The Beagles were not so good, and the food was, to be kind, ordinary.  Very ordinary.  Lesson learned: if you see "Surf and Turf" on a menu for $13.95, it's probably a good idea NOT to order it.  Just sayin'.

Our lunch most days consisted of ordering something at the poolside bar.  This can get to be expensive, but, what the hell, you're on vacation, right, and I confess to considering ordering a meal and eating it poolside to be luxury of the highest order.  I can tell you that were the Westin's Poolside Bar located in Pittsburgh, it's hamburgers would rate very high on The Grandstander's Burger Rankings.

I also found myself drinking a lot of beer while in Hilton Head.  Nothing like the hot sun to make a cold beer especially tasty.

I have lots of other observations that will deal with air travel, and the absolute preponderance of electronic gadgets that we saw while on our vacation, but I will stop now and save those for future posts.  

I had a boss at Highmark once who said "Some vacations are better than others, but I've never had a bad one", and this Hilton Head trip ranks very high on Marilyn's and my list of great vacations.  As always, though, it's good to be back home.