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

[Colexis Mom]

What a great start to your day!! Love the pictures! Sorry it's all coming to an end!!

[pamcarey]

Glad you enjoyed Up! I haven't seen it yet, but I saw the characters last month at DHS.

[Eeyoresmom]

The shrimp boil sounded wonderful.
Sounds like a fun day to spend your last day.

[Nimros]

Aww - I'm so glad Steve wanted to see "Up" - what a guy.

Glad you two enjoyed your day. Good job for choosing "The Big Bamboo" (Now I'm singing songs from "South Pacific!")

Can't wait to see what happens next...

[rescuesk]

Day 7, part 2....

We were soon back at the room, and the weather began to look threatening. There were a few more things we wanted to do, but it wasn't looking too promising at this point. We had wanted to have dinner at Scott's Fish Market, across the marina at Shelter Cove, but it was outdoor seating, and the rain was on it's way. There was also a festival called "Harbourfest" which was held every night during the summer and which kicked off tonight. There was supposed to be entertainment, crafts, food and fun!

The storm was fast approaching, but, intrepid photographer that I was, I grabbed my camera and took off for the marshes. A good storm makes for some good photo ops, right?

Steve waves goodbye to his inquiring photographer:

The storm was approaching quickly across the marshes.






This boat was actually rocking in the wind:




These are a little blurry, but isn't that an angry looking sky?




Over to the inlet:




It got this dark:




I decided it was time to head back to the villa. On the other side of the villa, and the island, the storm hadn't come yet:


But soon, it was right overhead. This was shot from our balcony:


And then, the rain, rain, rain, came down, down, down!
From the end of the hallway in our building:






From the front of the hallway in our building:




This is the end overlooking Shelter Cove:




And from our balcony again:


Well. Somehow our outdoor dinner was in jeopardy. However, there is always a plan B! We looked in the fridge and WOW! There was still ALOT of lasagna left! We weren't going to take it home, so we heated that up and had a great dinner on our covered balcony as the rain poured down!

The storm passed, and the sun came out. Steve wanted to take an after-dinenr snooze, but I wanted to enjoy our last night at HHI. He went to sleep, and I grabbed my camera and headed out towards Shelter Cove.

Harbourfest was going on, but it was pretty modified. The entertainment was there, but none of the vendors had set up. Oh well, another reason to come back again!


I decided to walk down to the end of the marina. The night was clear and beautiful. It was hard to believe that such a strong storm had passed through just an hour or so ago!
The marina:










This is the end of the pier, where the marina lets out:


This is Disney's HHI from the other side:


And back again:




All in all, I probably walked a good mile. I decided to head back to the resort to take some sunset pictures. The sunsets had been OK, but nothing spectacular yet. I was hoping my luck would change tonight.

To be continued after dinner...

[rescuesk]

The rest....

I called Steve and woke him up. I told him I was on my way back but was going to wander. He mumbled something incoherent and probably went back to sleep!

Down to the marshes, where the sun was just going down:


































OK, finally, some nice sunset shots!

I got back to the villa to find Steve awake! I told him about my adventures. Since he was awake now, he asked if I wanted to go for a nightcap at Scott's. Sure! We walked over and noticed that the wind was picking up. Uh-oh...

We got a table and our drinks:


We sat down at an outside table and relaxed. It was nice, and then...

The wind picked up. And the guitar player packed up. And then the staff started to put the umbrellas down. And the chairs away. Then the lightning started. Umm, where was this storm coming from? The TV above the bar was tuned quickly to The Weather Channel, where the local radar showed a large, dangerous storm bearing down on HHI! The rain began, and we moved back one table from where we were seated. Then we moved another table back. Then finally, we ended up under the patio as the wind whipped and the rain blew. We ended up sharing our table with another family, including a young man who was home on leave from the military and his wife and three young children! We talked to them, Steve videotaped, and the storm blew through. According to The Weather Channel, the wind was gusting up to 45 MPH!!! There wsa lightning and thunder, but the lightning was not overhead. I tried to get some pictures, but I am not good enough yet to get lightning pictures. :

It's blurry, but it was raining pretty badly. Note the video camera in the corner:


We finished our drinks and as quickly as it had come up, the storm blew out. We left Scott's and our last night and walked back to our villa.

Doesn't even look like there was a storm:


Storm damage:


A last celebration:


We were soon back at the villa. I folded a last load of laundry, and began to pack. I packed up all the non-perishables that were going back with us. I packed most of our clothes and our souvenirs. It is always so sad to pack up to go home.

We were soon asleep. Tomorrow we were homeward bound.

Next...the drive home.

[Eeyoresmom]

What spectacular photos! I'll definitely want to visit there some year.

[chezp]

Wow, amazing photos of the storm - and then how quiet and beautiful it was after each one as well. Unbelievable.

[Colexis Mom]

What a nice relaxing last night! Sorry about all the storms though!!

[goofysdtr]

Too bad you had to have an abbreviated last night due to all the storm activity! Sounds like you definitely know how to make the most of it, though.

[Nimros]

Awesome, awesome photos, Sue!!

It's nice to know a storm or two didn't stop you enjoying your last evening. But uh-oh - I'm worried about your drive home....

[rescuesk]

Day 8...the journey home...

We were up early. We had a long day ahead of us. Sadly, we were leaving Hilton Head Island today.

After a breakfast of Cheerio's and milk, we sadly loaded up the car. Steve got one of those big luggage carts and we rolled all our belongings down to the parking garage, where our ride home awaited. After carefully packing the car (a convertible doesn't give you much trunk room), we bade a fond farewell to Hilton Head Island and hit the road.

Say goodbye to Hilton Head:




We drove north, through South Carolina and into North Carolina. We stopped at a gas station that sold Popeye's Chicken, and Steve and I split a meal for lunch. Our first destination was Silver Spring, Maryland, where we were stopping to visit Mike and Jess.

Mike, who has absolutely no sense of time and driving distances, originally thought we would be there for lunch. We told him to expect us for dinner. They told us they would take us out to dinner when we arrived. He was truly shocked that we would be taking almost 9 hours to drive from HHI to MD. I'm sure he was thinking "Man...old people..they drive SOOO SLOW!" In reality, driving with Steve is more like being in the Indy 500. After several attempts to get him to slow down a bit, I finally just took over the driving.

And remember my concern with the $12 CBBT toll? I decided to check online our EZ Pass balance. It's a good thing I did, as our balance was $3.19! A quick transfer, and we were good to go!

We arrived in Maryland as predicted, around 6 PM. We went to Mike and Jess's townhouse. It was the first time we had seen their new place, and it was fixed up pretty cute!
Mike and Jess in their living room:

Kitchen:

Island:

They are both Penn State alumni:

Shot Glass collection:

Backyard area:

Holding the stuffed Salty Dog we got them:


We were going out to dinner at a place called "The Onley Ale House". We drove over, and it seemed packed, but we were actually seated very quickly. This was a really nice place that the kids said they went to pretty often. We ordered, and I stuck to iced tea because we still had a four hour drive home. The food was good, the company was good, the bill....well, it wasn't too bad, and after all, what are parents for? So much for them taking us out to dinner!

We left for home from there. Soon, we were northbound on I95. The signs first welcomed us to Delaware and then to Pennsylvania. I hit the turnpike at around 10:30. There was very little traffic, and I made good time. We pulled into our driveway at 12:30 AM.

The house was still standing, the two cats at home were ecstatic to see us, and everything was intact. We dragged the suitcases and the cooler into the house. I unpacked the cooler so the food wouldn't go bad, and left everything else for the morning. We texted Mike to let him know we were home safe, and fell into bed, exhausted.

Next...my final thoughts.

[rescuesk]

Final thoughts:

Wow. Where do I even begin?

After many, many magical trips to Disney, it was with a somewhat heavy heart that I started to plan a non-Disney trip. Yes, it was Hilton Head, and yes it was Disney, but there would be no mouse! No castle! No fireworks! Would there be a letdown? What would we miss?

And when the waitlist wasn't looking like it was going to come through, another dilemma! What to do? Where to stay? Oh, my Disney trips are never this complicated!

Of course, as you know, it all came together in a most spectacular way. The days we spent on Chincoteague Island can only be described as magical. Seeing those horses in their wild, untamed setting, up close and personal, was a dream come true for me. And I was really happy that Steve loved the area as much as I did.

Miss Molly's was the perfect venue for us. I would have liked to spent more time getting to know Lin and Sam better, though, they seemed like fascinating people.

Hilton Head Island was beyond fabulous. After our short stay here 5 years ago, it was great to have more time to explore. And one thing we did here that we rarely do at a Florida WDW resort is that we took time to enjoy the resort. Between the pool, hot tub, activities, dinners and just relaxing at the resort, we really felt like we were a part of something special.

I had scratched out a basic itinerary, and while we stuck to some of it, some of our days were very catch-as-catch-can. You know how hard that is with a WDW trip, where you have to make your ADR's 90 days in advance, and you are beholden to the park hours and parade times. This trip was so relaxed and laid back, with no where to be at any specific time. There were a few things we didn't get to do, (dolphin cruise, Coastal Discovery Museum) but so many things we didn't plan (lighthouse tour, seeing "Up") that were very special.

I hope you have enjoyed our little trip and my obsession with photography! Thanks everyone, for your nice comments! I've loved sharing this journey with you!

[Nimros]

Sue - thanks for sharing this trip with us. It truly was a magical - I appreciated hearing your final thoughts.

[mcc0313]

Sue what a great ending. I just caught up on your last few posts and what a wonderful last day you had, even with the storms it looked like you had tons of fun inbetween the raindrops and your pictures...AMAZING. I love the storm pictures as the clouds rolled in and the sky darkened and your sunset pictures were beautiful. I could not even pick one or two that were my favorite as they all were great.

Glad that you got to enjoy some time with Mike and Jess, what a cute house they have. As you said there was no mouse but I think this trip was so special, it was so full of nature and free time and enjoying just what is out there...from seeing the horses running wild to the beautiful landscape...definitely a trip to remember and worth taking again.