HHI Day 6 (Wednesday)

Wow! Wednesday already?? This is starting to get a little sad. I feel like it is almost time to go. How can vacation be nearly over??

In my journal today, I wrote about how much I was enjoying having my phone and Facebook off. I don’t really get “bothered” on my phone. But I do get attached to it. It doesn’t really work so well anymore – so I’m not really making calls. But I’m constantly trying to. Or trying to text. Or checking the time. Or checking the weather. Or checking Facebook… You get my point right? And I noticed that Facebook is really filled with quite a few ‘friends’ that I added because we were acquaintances in high school. But what I realize is many of them have really REALLY crummy lives – or at least that is all they post. And it seems the ones that don’t have crummy lives think we live in a crummy country or it is ran by crummy thieves. Now I know none of it is MY drama – but reading through the News Feed and seeing so much hatred and anger can really bring a girl down. Even when it isn’t my own. Jamey and I both commented on how we really didn’t miss it. It was so freeing to not carry my phone. I didn’t have the urge to check this or that – or see what anyone was up to on fb. I think we both mentioned that we planned to really scale back our fb use. But unfortunately I have to keep my phone near me always, because the house is for sale – and I like knowing if someone is coming I’m doing my very best to not have it in my hand. Vacation was nice – but not real practical. I often really do need to know what time it is

I did quite a bit of laundry today. Jamey packed a few outfits and needed clothes. I packed 12 outfits and only wore 3 or 4 that I just washed. I’ll never learn

We all had breakfast at home and then the girls and I walked over to the surf shop to pick out some postcards. Abby picked one for Daddy. She claimed she didn’t get him anything for his birthday and she thought he would really like one

When we got back we all loaded up to go into town. We were searching for a car wash and a coffee. There is some fantastic animal living in the trees above our van. It leaves GIANT presents for us every morning :/

We came home and had a little lunch and then we were off to the Sea Pines Forest Preserve. This is where we were going to meet our guide for the Alligator Bout Tour. We arrived just a bit early. That gave us plenty of time to take the girls to the restroom and also grab a couple pics! It was erie beautiful out here. I felt like things were watching me that I couldn’t see

 

This was the boat we would be taking.

We got to see many different birds.

This is Anthony. Our guide. He is a 5th grade teacher throughout the school year. He had many great stories to tell us about growing up on HHI. I had asked him about the kinds of snakes in the area about 2 minutes before I snapped this picture. He said, “speaking of snakes” and the next thing we knew he snatched one out of a Wax Myrtle.

Hannah could hardly contain herself. She jumped out of my lap and RAN to him to get her hands on the snake.

I checked with the other couple on the boat to see if they were afraid of snakes before I let Abby have a turn. If you know Abby, you know she is afraid of ants, flys, worms — I was afraid she would drop or throw it. I was really concerned that she wanted to try this. I held it for a second to see if she was going to freak out… but she did just great!

Finally! Some alligators! This little guy was having some lunch! He was chowing down on a turtle!

 

Now we are finding some bigger ones!

Anthony noticed this guy off in the distance. 

Holy Cow!!

Here’s another…

How about one more!

Abby really loved all of these!

I must say it was crazy hot out. Abby and Hannah were picking on each other a little. Hannah was actually quite a mess. She was hot and thirsty and had to pee… you know. I brought a pull-up with me – but that just made her scream more. I should have brought a bottle of water for them – it slipped my mind. I won’t make that mistake again

The tour was great! I would highly recommend taking one if you are ever in the area. Anthony was great as well! His stories about alligators, and fish spearing and close calls with sharks were just fascinating!

We left the tour and drove back to the house. Hannah needed a nap! I finally got her to sleep and Abby and Jamey went to town for milk and a few other items. Abby asked if they could go for a bike ride when they got back. So Jamey got the gear together and they biked down to South Beach.

I took advantage of the time alone (quite time) and started to get some dinner ready. We were going to have taco salad. This kitchen was stocked really well! I can’t recall one item that I looked for that I didn’t find! Even an angel-food pan… You know, In case you had a couple dozen extra egg whites while you were on vacation

I opened the olives and all of a sudden realized I had made a mistake. Oops. Oh well, it was in taco salad – we probably wouldn’t notice.

And it was time to eat! We both thought it was just delicious!! The next day I found an entire package of cheese in the fridge. Oops

After dinner we headed down to Harbour Town to hear Greg Russell and maybe grab an ice cream. We thought we got there early so we let the girls play at the playground for a bit. I’m pretty sure I heard Abby say, “Grandpa we want a tree house like this.” Or something like that

There were plenty of swings and slides – but our kids just wanted to climb the trees

Apparently we didn’t get there soon enough to get a seat – or to get Abby close to the stage. We went ahead and got ice cream while we waited.

The girls weren’t really into it. I don’t think they could see very well and they didn’t know the songs – so I think they needed the other kids near them to help feel excited about this. Maybe we’ll try again tomorrow. We packed us up and headed back to the gift shop to pick up those jellyfish I promised.

That was pretty much the end of our day. We headed back to the house and called it a night.