Horses, Harbours and Happenings:Steve and Sue visit Chincoteague and Hilton Head, May 2009! - COMPLETE About This Page:

[mcc0313]

What a great day, love the pictures. I love farmer's markets....glad you both had such a nice day and made some yummy purchases.

[pamcarey]

Bluffton looks like a fun place to visit! There is a brand-new Farmer's Market starting in my town on Thursday, which I can't wait to visit.

[rescuesk]

Day 6, part 3....

We were soon back at the resort. We napped and relaxed, and then got ready for dinner.

Disney's Beach House is actually about a mile away from the resort itself. The resort sits on the more inland marshes, and the Beach House sits on the Atlantic Ocean. Disney runs a shuttle that takes you there and back. Normally the shuttle stops running around 6, but tonight it was running later due to the special dinner. You can also drive or bike over, and if you are really energetic, you can walk it!

We opted for the shuttle. Our plan for tonight was dinner and then some time in the hot tub. I put my bathing suit on under my skirt and top, but Steve wore his because his looks like nice shorts (why don't they make suits like that for women? ). I packed towels and stuff in a bag, and we were off!

The shuttle was waiting, and we jumped on. Our driver was Jeremy. He was from Hershey, PA. He had retired 7 years ago and moved down here with the goal of spending his entire retirement playing golf. Now, 7 years later, he wanted to make a little extra money, so he took a job driving the Disney shuttle bus. His wife was Cathy, and she was going to be our hostess at the Shrimp Boil!
Jeremy:


The shuttle bus:


The road to the Beach House:






We arrived at the Beach House!





Yes, Steve is wearing Mickey ears!

You need to use your key card to even enter the building. Of course, just like in WDW, mine didn't work, but Steve's did. I later heard them saying that several people had been having key issues, not just me. So there, honey.

When you walk into the Beach House, you are greeted by a pretty good size pool. It's not as big as the one at the main resort, but it's nice. It's an interesting shape, sort of like an "H".




On the other side of the pool, the multi-talented B'Lou Crabbe was setting up to provide the entertainment.

We had been met by Cathy who confirmed out names on a list. We then needed to go to the bar to pay. This worked in oh so many ways...pay for our meal, get a drink, take some pictures. I don't see a down side, do you?
Check out the chalkboard art and that familiar logo:


I paid, and we got our drinks. I ordered a Coconut Dream and Steve had a frozen Kamikaze. He chatted with another family for awhile and I wandered towards the beach for some pictures. There would be more later....






















These guys looked up just as I was taking the picture!


We found our table:

It was easy to find! It was the one with our name on it!

And soon we headed up to the buffet:




Love the theming, as only Disney can do it:








And, oh, man, what a meal! Disney shines in the dining department, even if it's not WDW. This buffet started with a Caesar salad and gumbo. Then you had your "real" food: two kinds of rice (plain and shrimp), scalloped potatoes, fried fish and chicken wings. There were mixed veggies, hush puppies and pork tenderloin. There was macaroni and cheese and chicken fingers for the kids, but they were on the buffet table, so adults could have some. And then the shrimp boil itslef: shrimp, red potatoes, sausage and corn on the cob. As much as you wanted. Sweet tea, regular tea and lemonade in big jugs. And cheesecake for dessert.

And the price of all this?

Are you ready?

$24.99/person! I have spent more than that at Applebees! We ate ourselves silly, and listened to B'Lou entertain the children:


Our servers and B'Lou:


Cathy:


After dinner, we walked back down to the beach. Steve stopped for another drink and ended up talking to the bartender for quite sometime. He was a young man who had started as a waiter and when a position opened up in the bar, he was asked if he would like it. He had never bartended before but he said he would try it. He did it for a week and never looked back! He loved doing it, and he obviously loved his job!

I wandered back to the beautiful beach, where Steve eventually joined me.
















I took a ton of pelican shots. These are the best ones:






The ocean:




It's 5 o'clock somewhere:


Sort of Stonehenge-like, don't ya think?


Getting dark:






Don't...um....do anything... ...


Back to the Beach House:




We stopped on the way out to play a quick game of Ping-Pong, which Steve cheated on! By now, it was getting late, so we left the Beach House and grabbed the shuttle back to the resort.

Jeremy asked us where we were going, since there were only us and two other families on the shuttle. He said he would take us to our destination rather than making us walk from the Live Oak Lodge. We told him we were heading to the pool area, and the other two families were staying near the pool, so he only had to make one stop. It was a generous offer, another true Disney touch!

We got off the shuttle and bee-lined for the hot tub. There was a couple about our age there, and a young man who had just graduated from high school and was there on a graduation trip with his Mom and some friends. We relaxed and chatted for awhile.

Steve tests the waters:


The pool area at night:






We went from hot tub to pool and back to the hot tub. It was alot of fun, but we were starting to get tired. We decided to call it a night and walked back to our villa.




Soon we were back in our room. Steve watched some TV and I played around on the laptop. I was really liking this wireless thing! We both took showers and got ready for bed. Tomorrow was our last full day before the drive home.

Next...."What do YOU want to do, honey?"

[lauren-roxy]

What a great meal!!! Your photos of the beach are just wonderful!!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great time at the beach Sue!! Love the pictures!

[Nimros]

Two great days!!! I'm loving all the photos, as usual - you make me feel like I'm right there with you.

Love the photo of "No Dogs" at the Salty Dog Cafe!!

You and Steve travel so well together. My question is .... when do we ever get a chance to peek at all the things Steve is filming?!?

Sorry your trip is coming to an end, but I'm anxious to see how you spend your last day.

[mcc0313]

More wonderful pictures. What a great evening, dinner looked delicious and what a great bargain. This trip has just sounded so peaceful and relaxing....who would want to go home

[pamcarey]

The shrimp boil looks great! Wonderful pictures of the beach! I'd love to stay there someday.

[rlb38]

sounds like a wonderful relaxing day.

[Grammy Grumpy]

What a lovely, relaxing vacation. Thanks for all the info on Bluffton, I have two brothers and sisters-in-law that live in Bluffton but I haven't had the pleasure of visiting them since they moved there. I think a trip to see them is in our future!

[DrDolphin]

Sounds like the shrimp boil was a great way to spend the evening!

[chezp]

What a wonderful evening - and you're right, what a great price for it as well! I'm seriously impressed by that - sadly they never had anything like that when we were there, I'd have loved all that seafood.

[rescuesk]

Day 7, part 1....our last day...

We were up at 7:30 for our last day. We had cereal, I had fresh strawberries from the farmer's market, and Steve had the last of the English muffins. We didn't have any definitive plans for today. I had planned originally to spend the day at the beach, but Steve wanted to do a few other things. OK, what do you want to do, honey?

He grabbed my tourguides (sadly, no Passporter for Hilton Head) and picked out some things! Hmmm...this could all work!

We finished breakfast and got dressed and left the villa. Our first stop was back to the Salty Dog Cafe. Steve decided that he wanted to do some shopping in the store. Of course, he couldn't have decided this when we were there, but oh, well!

We went into the Salty Dog Shop, and got a T-shirt, a hat, two bandanas for the dogs and a few things for our DS and our future DDiL. We also walked around the harbor area, which we hadn't done on Wednesday. I took a few pictures:










A local:




These parrots were just hanging out, looking beautiful!














It is really a beautiful area, and we were sad to leave. But we had other plans for the day!

Our next stop was miniature golf. We had passed a few courses, and Steve wanted to play today. We decided to try one called "Legendary Golf". We pulled in and it was pretty empty!

We paid, and chose our clubs and golf balls:

We chose the Championship side:


The course was absolutely beautiful! It was landscaped with greenery, flowers, fountains and water holes! I don't think I have ever taken as many pictures of a miniature golf course as I did this time:

















Steve got a hole in one!




Steve won by one point! We spent a little time after the game talking to the worker in the store. This was a family run business. She worked on the mainland, and came down to HHI on Friday to work through the weekend at the family business. She loved the area and hoped to move down here permanently at some point.

We left the golf course and travelled onward to our lunch destination! Steve had looked through the travel guides, and had picked a place called "The Big Bamboo". I originally thought it was a Chinese restaurant, but it was nowhere near that! Instead, it was a themed restaurant (think, Disney meets the tropics).


The restaurant was a period place, set in the tropical islands during WWII. There was a thatched roof, palm trees, plenty of WWII memoribilia and a bar! We were seated right away, and they brought us popcorn!


We ordered drinks (a frozen something for Steve and a Corona for me) and our meals. I took some pictures while we waited. It was a really cool place!












I loved the old fashioned plastic party lights:

Check out the chandelier:








Lunch arrived! Steve had ribs, and I had a chicken salad:


While we were there, a group of guys came in and sat at the table behind us. There were 6 of them, mixed ages, all men. The owner came over and talked to them, and seemed to know them. We didn't pay that much attention, other than to note that they were having a good time. Then their lunch came out. The server said to them "Here's your war dogs!" Ummm... I didn't take any pictures, but my curiousity got the best of me. They ate their lunch and left soon after. OK, so now I needed to know, and I asked our server about them, and the War Dogs. It seems that these guys come down every year, the same weekend, to go fishing. They start their weekend here, at The Big Bamboo, and order their War Dogs. A War Dog is a deep fried hot dog served with cheese, chili, onions, and pretty much every other topping known to mankind. These things were HUGE! I only wish I had taken a picture!

We left the Big Bamboo and headed off to our final destination of the day. "Up!" was opening today, and Steve really wanted to see it. We googled the movie theater, put it in Garmin and off we went...ummm...almost. For some reason, she was taking us to a movie theater in Savannah! We re-googled it, and got the right directions! We were there at about 1:30 for the 2:00 show. We parked in the shade and went to get our tickets. "Two for 'Up", please!" "Ok, that will be $11." "Um, no, I need 2." "Yes, that's $11." Wow! I am used to paying almost that per ticket! I forgot this was a matinee, and not in the Poconos!

We saw the movie, and we loved it. No spoliers here, but it is a must-see!

On our way out of the theater, there was a big display of balloons and posters. I asked the theater attendant if I needed to have a 5 year old with me to get a balloon. He started to laugh, and said that I could have one, and did I want a poster? Heck yes!!!! It is now framed and hanging in our rec room...a very special souvenir of a very special vacation!

We drove back to the resort. We had one more night!

Next...dinner, a storm and a nightcap!

[Grammy Grumpy]

Great update. That War Dog sounds delish! DH and I loved Up! also, how cool you got a poster. Can you post a pic of it???

More please, even though I'm sad to hear it's coming to an end.

[chezp]

What a relaxing day - look at Steve rubbing it in about the hole in one and winning! And you're right, that is cheap for two cinema tickets... I'd love to be paying that for two...