Dharrrrrrrrrrrr she blows, scally waggs

and today's adventure involved a trek back to our original SC neck of the woods......Hunting Island.  This is the area where we lived during our first eight months of life in South Carolina.  It's hard to believe we haven't been back to Hunting Island in over two and a half years???!!!!!  Wow time flies!  We headed back to our old haunt to partake in the Pirate Festival festivities, plus some other fun in the area. 



in no particular order, introducing....

pirate #1


and pirate #2 (note: since I was unable to locate a pirate eye patch, she made herself one!  clever little pirate;)

first there was a scavenger hunt...happy to report, they followed all the clues and located the gold coins!

then they climbed the lighthouse...finally...they have wanted to do that since we first moved down three years ago: 

 
so glad J didn't drop my phone :O 

 check out the view from the top of the lighthouse!  definitely worth the $6 they spent, and the toasty trek up:


next we headed back to our beloved Nature center, where we first met Buddy the terappin diamond turtle three years ago..she's doing great!  She's VERY sweet (that or she was looking for handouts....my vote is the former;)
 
obviously I have a very special fondness for Buddies;)


we also had ourselves a nice little picnic:

and took a short walk on a long pier (isn't this a crazy cool photo!  I saw a transluscent map hanging inside the nature center, and saw this as a prime photo op....I wonder if anybody else in the history of mankind, has ever taken this shot? :D) 


 

who's this crazy fam?

  
and the pirate festivities resume.  We listened to a naturalist speak about the history of some of more well-known pirates of Beaufort County....Blackbeard is probably the most famous.  Hard to believe that in the late 1800's...that all of Hunting Island was undeveloped, but a hunting ground for Pirates (maybe that's where it got its name, hmmmm?)....we also learned that almost all of those famous pirates were either hung or beheaded...there was even a famous female pirate...they were going to hang her, but found out she was pregnant, she they let her go:)

following the cool history lesson, the girls created their own treasure chests:


and then, what day is complete without ICECREAM!  so we headed over to our favorite surf shop that we discovered and visited often when we first moved down...Bubba's Barefoot Surf Shop....(so many fun photo ops here;) 
oh, and the icecream is FREE...and you get a choice of flavors and  VERY generous scoop! 


 

and I kind of fell in love with this guy:

so we are now the proud owners of a smaller version of him....because NO house is complete sans a cool tiki doll :D


the end....family movie night now...and then one sleep to da beach!!!