Sunday, October 24, 2010 (Yemassee, SC)

I was awake before 4:00 a.m. this morning....tossing and turning...sheesh, I hate that! I finally decided to get up and take my pillow out to the couch and see if I could settle down there. After laying there listening to the tick, tick, tick of the wall clock, I almost gave in and put the coffee on...but, no...4:30 a.m. is still the middle of the friggin night! I finally dozed off because next thing I knew it was just before 7:00 a.m.....now, that’s better!

Today we were going to do a bit more exploring around the area. We left just after 10:00 and after stopping at the office to pay for another night, we headed back towards Beaufort. Before reaching Beaufort, we turned off and took the highway to Port Royal. It was pretty quiet Sunday morning as we drove down the main street and continued onto “The Sands” Boat Landing.

There is a long boardwalk along the riverfront with a tall lookout at the end.

Great view from up top....

After walking to the lookout and back, we walked in the other direction to the beach. The road and parking area is all sand and as we were walking we noticed hundreds of holes in the sand. We were wondering what made them but as we came up to a wetter area, we noticed tons of tiny critters scurrying for shelter in the holes. They were teeny, tiny sand crabs...hundreds of them!

Although there was a light cloud covering today, it was sure getting warm out...it was also very humid. There were thundershowers in the forecast for tomorrow...hmmm...we might be getting them a little earlier...

After finishing our walk around “The Sands” we drove back to the main street and parked the truck...we were going to try taking the “walking tour” as described in a pamphlet we had picked up. After finding the first stop...The Union Church, built in 1878...we got frustrated with the directions and returned to the truck. We had seen plenty of old buildings anyway...besides, it was getting very hot and humid out and the air-conditioned truck was very inviting!

We were carrying on into Beaufort when we took a wrong turn and ended up going across a bridge over to St. Helena Island. That’s okay, there’s another bridge that goes back to Beaufort....there are lots of bridges connecting all of these islands. Once we came to the bridge that would take us back into Beaufort, we decided to go the other way and explore Lady’s Island and Hunting Island. Hunting Island has is a State Park that we’d like to check out.

After paying our $10 ($5 each), we went into the park office and visitor’s centre (or should I say “center”). There is a big pond out front that has alligators in it...or so the sign says...didn’t see any.

By the way, the green covering on the water is not slime...it's tiny green seeds.  The whole area has very lush vegetation...very tropical...

After going through the interpretive displays in the visitor’s centre and learning more about the areas ecosystem, we were heading back to the truck when we passed another couple heading in. The fellow had a “Victoria, BC, Canada” tee-shirt on! Steve took a double-take and asked if they were from Victoria or had just visited Victoria. Just as soon as the fellow started to talk, we knew he had just visited Victoria...they were from South Carolina and had been in BC last year. What a surprise seeing someone in a “Victoria” tee-shirt!

These are pictures of the very cool forest and beach at Hunting Island State Park....

The Lagooon....

Seeing the dark clouds coming in as we headed towards Beaufort, we decided to head straight back home (other than a quick stop at Walmart, that is). Wandering around Beaufort just wouldn’t be that much fun in the rain.

It was after 3:00 when we got home....and relaxed the rest of the afternoon and evening. To heck with laundry...I’ll do it tomorrow!