On the Road Again

It’s wonderful to be on the road again.  We head south in search of warmer weather, and we are finding it.
We left home with a 10 foot pile of snow in road at our house.  

Six hundred miles later, we bask in the warm sun at Hilton Head.  Three days of playing with Steff and Kent, bike riding, golf, evening campfire, painting and hot tub soaks is the perfect antidote to winter.  Hilton Head is definitely a place we could spend more time.  There is plenty to do for everyone.

Stinky is having a good time ... he likes cocktail hour.

Hilton Head also has some slave quarters ruins to explore

Our last day in the area, we went to the town of Bluffton, on the mainland just west of Hilton Head.  The town grew during the rise of rice and cotton plantations during the antebellum period, providing a refuge from harsher plantation environments that had yellow fever and malaria outbreaks.   The historic center of Bluffton has antebellum mansions and historic homes begin swallowed up by monstrous moss covered live oak trees that are over 300 years old.  

There are many remnants of times gone by, and a new infusion of galleries, restaurants and funky shops. 

The Church of the Cross (Anglican) was established in 1767.  The present structure was built in 1854 and was spared during the Civil War.  The inside is salmon colored.  It is a National Registered Historic Place.

Pressing further south took us to Amelia Island,   occupied by the French, then the Spanish, it was eventually traded to Great Britain in exchange for Cuba during the Treaty of Paris in 1763, then returned to Spain in 1783.  Frankly, until the tours on Amelia Island (and St. Augustine several days later) we had little appreciation that the ownership of Florida changed hands so many times.   

Aside from terrific bike trails through old life oak trees drowning in Spanish moss and beaches,  

the most notable tour site on the island is Fort Clinch.  The fort, begun in 1847, served as a base of Union operations during the Civil War.  It is beautifully preserved and an active attraction with Civil War re-enactments the first weekend of every month.

The fort had an interesting rooftop water cistern collection system

A foggy and drippy early morning bike ride to the beach

Early evening walk to the beach with beached cannonball jellyfish, shrimp boats returning to port, and sunsets worthy an evening toast.

Night night

Tomorrow we’ll be in St. Augustine.  

Fun for the Talbott Family: