December 30th-Daufuski Island Trip:

We were hungry...so we hopped on the boat and drove to an off shore island to eat lunch: 

12/30/15....we set sail again! This (former) Wisconsin girl never thought we'd go boating at the end of December!
Piper came with again and did very well! We took him to Daufuski Island, had lunch, rocked on the front porch at the store, saw the horses, and took a little hike. (I suppose I won't get too much sympathy from my WI peeps if I complain about the mosquitos;).
One more day of this incredible weather streak before we drop down to our normal "winter" temps...so yes, we are taking full advantage! 

 

celebrating our 15 year Wedding Anniversary....3.5 months later....no kiddos, lots of dolphins!

so back on August 5th, my hubby and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary.  He had an incredible surprise weekend planned for me, which I blew when I very suddenly had a semi emergency surgery....so he had to tell me about it....and I was bummed:(  But, it turns out that had my surgery/issue not arose, I don't think we would have been able to go because my youngest got sick, and she needs her mommy and daddy on days like those.

Fast forward 3.5 months....he was able to rebook his surprise mini getaway for us, without losing the money he had paid...except September was impossible, as we went to Cleveland, and to the Smokeys.....October was impossible because, I honestly can't even remember why at this point.  So here we are, mid November, and we were running out of warm weather to do this......oh, and we had to revamp the the plans a tad, because we were also running out of daylight :D

now, onto this fabulous mini getaway:

bet you wonder where we're headed?

We went to Daufuski Island, which is an offshore island, completely surrounded by water (wide rivers on  parts of it, and the Atlantic on another part of it).  The only way to get back and fourth to the island is by boat or ferry....and since we have our own wheels, we took full advantage of our own transporatation.

We got a later start in the day, but it was so worth the wait, because this is what greeted us upon our arrival:
 
We're glowing :D

which also means darkness was about to hit; quickly, and although Daufuski is not a huge island, we weren't familiar with most of it.  Thankfully, at the last minute, I was able to convince my hubby that bringing our bikes along for our land transport was probably not the wisest choice, given the approaching darkness and all...and I suggested that maybe we need to rent a golf cart...which we did
 
....which is a really good thing because it was dark by the time we got our luggage loaded.  And the gal who rented us the cart was kind enough to drive us to our little cabin in the woods.

see, it's little, it's in the woods, and it was perfect for us!  (photo taken the next morning, because as I was saying, it was dark and all when we arrived:)

.....so the next morning, first thing in the morning (you know, after arriving late) we received a distress call, to please come home....said child was sick again:(  So, we were told that it was ok to enjoy our day, but that we'd need to be back (not staying over night for the second night), which we did, and we were.   So, here's our daytime adventure, which we thoroughly enjoyed!  (good thing we rented that golf cart!)

 we hit the beach!


and we had it ALL to ourselves....(I admit I was just longing to sit on that beach with a book...all day long)

....but we took a long walk on the beach, which we had all to ourselves, and collected lots of seashells and stones, gifted from the Sea....the neat thing about a "remote" island, as opposed to the big-time tourist destination just across the water, the seashells are not picked over, and we collected some real treasures!


and, as luck would have it, we one the cutest couple on the beach awared, that day....granted we were completely unopposed, but still :D

And, Daufuski wins the awared for the cutest-ever beach houses.
 
and our little adventure continued...you wouldn't believe how much island we covered where we saw nobody, being somebody who thrives on my solitude and all, this would probably be a really good place for me to live :D

we saw history, a museum, and original Gullah (a strong heritage which is very much still present in the culture of my neck of the woods).  If you're interested in learning more about the Gullah, follow this link: http://www.dau-fus-kie-island.com/2010/11/gullah-people-and-their-connection-to.html 
As I was saying, we did a self tour, saw a museum and old school house, which is built next to the new school....servicing all 17 elementary students on the island.  Once they reach age 12, they need to hop on the ferry everyday and go to Hilton Head to continue their education.  How fun is that!

Then we headed to another part of the island, Freeport Marina, which is the area we were most familiar, as we stop here for day trips, and we had lunch, outside to the accompanianment of a really good singer/guitarist:


But alas, it was time to be good parents and go tend to our little girl (who is doing much better today, by the way).  But first, we needed to make a quick little stop at Harbortown, to pick up a stuffy for our sweet sickie (it's kind of a tradition, as it is proven that sick children recover faster when they receive stuffies :)
 
 And, because we actually radioed in our arrival, they let us park REALLY close....

.....any guesses on which boat is ours :D

side note: I like pelicans :D 

But alas, the sun was beginning to set, and it's not too smart to be on a small water craft on the semi open seas after dark, so homeward bound; and we were surrounded by dolphins!
 
and we made it back safe and sound, and a great mini getaway was had by all!


sweet dreams

excursion to Sea Pines and Daufuski Island...blessed by Manatee and a beautiful Dolphin that came right up to us!

   












  



   

We Survived Our First Storm at Sea

My girls have been obsessed with the movie "Titanic" as of late.  No, we did NOT hit an iceburg in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
 
we were blessed with lots and lots of dolphins today!!!!!!   We were going too fast for me to take dolphin pictures. 

We had to keep up with the group:)



 we  were out on a long afternoon outing with the Power Squadron Group.  We had a really fun trip (five boats in total), where we met at a mile marker out by Sea Pines, into the Atlantic Ocean for about 15 minutes and from there rode out to Tybee Island, then down the Savannah River, going past Fort Pulaski
 



....and then onto Daufuski Island...which is only accessible by boat (side note: John Cougar Mellencamp has a house on Daufuski...apparently some famous people do, because they are left alone here...it's  a very quiet island;)
 
We were picked up by this very cool solar-powered golf cart!
We then had a very nice and delicious lunch....even though we phoned our orders in ahead of time and were the only guests, it took a LONG time to serve our group.  Island Time:) 

 


The two hour lunch wouldn't have been so bad....but check out the storm clouds we returned to....my weather alerts were going off like crazy
 
 the delay wound up running us straight into a big, dark, scary storm....our group we were with thought we could out run it (btw, they have bigger and more powerful boats, that can go faster)
......we started following them...
 
 




and then J decided to pull over when we found a dock at Haag point and ride out the storm.  Thankfully the seas actually remained completely calm through all of this...and we had NO lightning near us (which is amazing since I heard there was a lot of lightning in Bluffton).  Lightning, metal boat, water....I'm guessing that's not the best of combos:) 





....but we were soaked to the bone! (and the girls were a little scared....perhaps their recent "Titanic" obsession wasn't in such good timing;)
...... eventually the skies cleared and we found our way back to our boat landing.....
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

and although we were drenched, and became more seasoned boaters....a GREAT day was had by all.....I mean, if you can survive a storm at sea on a small watercraft, I'd say your day is going just swell....that and a tasty lunch!