Last Day at Hilton Head

For our last day at Hilton Head we decided to give the kids a choice of activities. Instead of going to the beach they chose to go to Harbor Town, which has a variety of shops / restaurants / things to do. So we headed there after breakfast. The weather was AWESOME today, cool (around 80) and sunny and DRY - no humidity. At Harbor Town we signed up for an alligator tour for later in the day, and then killed some time on the beach next to the lighthouse, where the kids hunted for shells and crabs and where (it was rumored) some little sharks had recently been spotted offshore (but we didn't see them). The kids did find several cool shells with live crabs still inside them - a guy there who was also hunting for cool shells told us we should boil them to get the crabs out, so we can keep the shells. So I put them in a bag, and since I have not gotten around to boiling them yet, occasionally when I walk by the bag gives a little rattle...

ANYWAY, after that and having a snack, we set off on the alligator tour. Rebecca had to be bribed to get into the boat, but once there she was fine. The tour did not start off very auspiciously, and did not improve much from there. We saw only one alligator after quite a while of looking, which our captain swore up and down has never happened before. Then he got the boat stuck on a sand bar, and couldn't get it off. Which he also swore had never happened before. He got in the water and tried to push the boat off the sand bar, but then claimed he felt a gator under the water, hopped back in the boat, and refused to get back in the water. (At the mention of a gator by the boat, Ben got very hopeful, still wanting to see one close up. The captain threatened to throw him in the water, and he may only have been half joking by that point). He ended up having to call the park rangers to come in another boat and tow us off the sand bar. The whole process of getting unstuck took about 45 minutes, during which time the captain did not act very professional, and called various people he was talking to on his cell phone "retarded" and "morons", complained about what a bad day he was having, etc etc. So what does Joel do at the end? Not only does he NOT ask for our $120 back, he tips the guy $15. Go figure.

After the alligator tour fiasco, we came home and changed and went out to dinner at a restaurant right on the beach, which had live music and a great view and was FREE because the restaurant was in the Palmetto Dunes development where we're staying, and we'd gotten a $200 gift card upon our arrival that we still had $140 left on to spend. To wrap up the day, Joel and his dad took Ben and Rebecca to see an outdoor kids concert where they have face painting, tattoos, balloon animals, and all that stuff. And I put the baby to bed and then starting doing laundry/packing for our trip home tomorrow. (I don't want to go home tomorrow!! Where did this week go?? SIGH).

Here are some pictures from today.