DAY 14 - THURSDAY 16TH AUGUST
I don’t sleep
all that well due to a particularly insistent itch from an insect
bite. So far the bitey things have been pretty good, I’ve
only been properly bitten twice and one of those was in Times
Square in New York. Anyway, I do seem to have a more severe
reaction to these things than other members of the group.
Up just after 8.00am and we have breakfast in the room before
clambering into the car to drive the 10 miles or so to the US
Golf shop. This is one of the few forms of shopping I can
tolerate, the others being the Disney Store or Victoria’s
Secret.
There is a sale on (in the golf store, not Victoria’s
Secret) and we get a bit carried away. We buy golf shoes for both
me and Tam, 2 golf shirts, 2 golf gloves, 2 leather belts, some
golf tees, 2 golf towels and a pitch mark repairer. The total
bill? $138. You’d barely get one pair of golf shoes for that
in the UK.
Onwards to North Beach. This seems to be one of the few beaches
on the island with public parking. Most of the little side roads
that lead to beaches are residential and don’t allow
parking.
North Beach is very similar to the area around the beach house, a
wide expanse of sand with many people on it. It’s never too
crowded though as it’s so large. The sea is a little rougher
today, not enough to bother anyone, but there are a few
white-topped breakers.
Georgia and I have a swim and as we bob up and down with the
waves we discuss the things we want to do in WDW as we drive down
to Orlando tomorrow. Deb and Matt are flying in to Miami today
and we’ll meet up with them tomorrow. Susan and Lu Beth fly
in to Orlando tomorrow for us all to get together at Raglan Road
at 7.00pm. This is going to take military style planning and a
lot of good luck for it to all come together.
It’s another scorcher today in the upper 90’s, but
there is a breeze on the beach that helps to cool things down a
little. It’s still hot enough to make Beelzebub himself
reach out for an ice-cold beer though.
Around 2.30pm we head back to the room to start packing. At least
Tam and I do, the other two lazy little ratbags disappear to the
swimming pool. I don’t really begrudge them this, especially
Georgia, as, for reasons I won’t go into here, she
hasn’t been able to go swimming yet on this part of the
holiday. She’s been sat forlornly watching everyone else
splashing about in the water.
Packing nearly complete, I sit on the balcony with a cold beer
and think about our stay at Hilton Head. It’s been very
enjoyable, but I do think the resort lacks a nice lounge and an
upscale restaurant. I know you can walk across to Shelter Cove to
enjoy these things, but a bar along the lines of The Green Cabin
Room at Vero Beach would improve things enormously for me. The
other weird thing is when everything shuts down at 10.00pm. I
don’t mean it begins to close up at 10, they are stacking
chairs on the tables and ushering you towards the door. Even in
my advancing years, that’s a bit early!
Maybe we are used to a more Mediterranean style of dining. In
virtually every resort in Europe it is unusual to begin dining
before 8.00pm and very often much later than that.
Hey, you know me. Mr Grumpy, I always have to have something to
moan about. It’s the only thing that makes me happy.
The girls return to the room and Georgia joins me on the balcony
to look for Boris. Now Boris is our pet spider (and a large
beastie he is too) who has spun a web in the corner of the
balcony. We can’t see him today and I tell Georgia that he
may have gone on vacation to Spiderworld where they have
spider-coasters and spider-shows. Georgia thinks this would be a
very scary place and doesn’t want to go there. I’m not
so sure, having 8 appendages to grasp 8 beers while singing along
in Spiderrolls sounds good to me.
It’s funny, sitting here enjoying a couple of beers is
probably the most chilled out I’ve been all holiday and I
thoroughly enjoy it.
Click the film strip above to see a video of our time in Hilton Head, Savannah and Charleston
Everybody showers and we get ready to get a taxi to the Wreck of
the Salty Dog in South Beach marina. As it’s our last night
we decide we might as well get on Hilton Head time, as such a
taxi is ordered for 6.00pm.
We arrive at the marina and go to the restaurant to request a
table. They tell us it will be about 45 minutes. That’s ok,
time for a drink. They give us a beeper and off we go.
Now, things get a bit confusing, as everything seems to have
something to do with the Salty Dog. First we go to the Salty Dog
shop where Georgia and India buy T shirts. Then we go to the
Salty Dog bar for a margarita before visiting the Salty Dog
restrooms for a Salty Dog ….. well, never mind what we did
in there.
Our beeper goes off to tell us our table is ready so off we go to
The Wreck of the Salty Dog restaurant carrying our Salty Dog
margaritas with us. I’m not sure who Salty Dog is, but I
know one thing, he ain’t short of a bob or two.
Our table is outside, which is perfect for us. It overlooks the
marina and there is a guy playing a guitar and singing. Cool.
The inside of the restaurant is a lot lighter and not so
atmospheric, I would advise an outdoor table here if you can get
one.
The food is good. India and I have bruschetta chicken, Georgia
has smothered chicken and Tam has the ribs. A bad mistake on
Tam’s part, the ribs are huge! She can’t finish the
first of two racks. Me and India have to help out, it’s the
least we can do.
I wouldn’t say the food here is stunning, but the whole
experience with the music, the setting and the view make it
equally as fun a night as the one we had at the Ocean Grill.
The guy sings a few songs we know like ‘5 o’clock
Somewhere’ and ‘Ring of Fire’ and we all agree
that we are looking forward to meeting up with Deb, Matt and the
Yankee contingent tomorrow. Georgia even announces that she has
not seen Matt for so long that she is missing him. A doctor is
called and a large dose of anti-Matt medication is administered.
After the meal we get a taxi back to the resort.
Whilst getting ready to come out this evening we were playing Bob
Marley on India’s I Pod. I’m not one to boast, but my
reggae version of ‘the Old Grey Mare’ is nothing short
of spectacular. I promise a Disney version at 6.15am tomorrow
morning. I can tell by the looks on the faces of the women that
they can barely wait.