HHI Day 8 (Friday)

Well, inevitably it is here. Friday. Our very last day on the island. We had great breakfast at home and then loaded up the car and headed to South Beach. We were hoping to find the mother load of shells. And in a way we did! We found HUGE (dead) Horseshoe Crabs. And other BEAUTIFUL big shells. The only problem was — someone, or something rather, beat us to them :/ Those Hermit Crabs are fast! They snatched up all the best shells. We noticed nearly 20 of them. As big as my hand – but already inhabited. Sigh. It was still fun searching for them and seeing who was living inside. We also noticed tons more dead jellyfish on this part of the island.

The girls were hot. And they were too afraid to get in the water since they saw so many dead jellies and horseshoe crabs.

We decided to head back to our beach and get in a bit of ocean time there! We walked to the beach from our house. Once again, just across the street!

We all played in the sand and water for a good while. But then it was time to head to Craft Cove and make our shark tooth necklaces. We ran home and rinsed off and changed clothes REALLY quick! Then back to Craft Cove!

They had offered this craft once earlier in the week and all of the A’s were picked out of the letter beads. So it was going to be hard to make names or even initials for the girls. Fortunately, Daddy found some I’s! So we went with HHI!

Did I mention that most of the island travels by bike! We took our bikes to Harbour town – but thank goodness we didn’t have to bike to the beach! Yucko! All of that sand and salt stuck to you on a 2 mile bike ride. Whew! We picked a great location!!

The tacos I had at the Beach Club a few days ago were still on my mind! We decided to hit the Beach Club again for lunch. Jamey found a new drink called a John Daily that was quite super!

The view from our table.

I noticed that they had a Supreme Mudslide and Key Lime Pie drink. Noted! I will have one before we leave! The girls picked up pine cones as we walked home.

After lunch we biked down to Harbour Town. I wanted to make it a point to remember how beautiful this place really was.

There are so many daily activities. We didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the things we could do. I’m not sure how long one would have to stay there to do it all… But what was so awesome about this place – is it was just perfect – even when you were still.

 

 

 

Our villa was at Fairway One.

We had promised the girls we would go up in the lighthouse. I must admit – for some reason I thought this tourist attraction would be air conditioned. It was not. Whew! Crazy hot in there!!!

We climbed the first bit of stairs and the girls noticed they had penny presses. Soooo, the girls and I waited while Jamey went back down to get a handfull of pennies and a roll of quarters. Then back up we went. The girls pressed a penny on every floor!

There was quite a bit of history on the walls. I would have really liked to read it – but it would have taken me hours! So much history! But the girls weren’t interested in me reading and I wasn’t interested in two whiney girls. Sigh. I took pictures and just kept on moving.

We finally made it to the top! Spectacular views!

 

We came down and headed over the Cups and Cones. A cold ice cream after a very hot lighthouse was just what this family needed!

 

We thought this light fixture/bulb was just so neat!

After our ice creams we headed back to the park one last time.

Then it was time to bike home. We had a quick dinner at the Beach Club and then I wanted to get in one more moment at the beach. We wanted a few pictures with the good camera. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it — but we didn’t take the Canon T2i down to the beach every trip. Too risky for such an expensive camera. Jonathan has taught us about the golden hour and I was determined to catch it! Jamey settled the bill and I took the girls back to the house to change into our suits. Jamey met us down in the sand — and he was carrying one of the Supreme Mudslides for me!! Great husband! It was delicious! The girls had a blast playing one more time.

This was going to be the perfect picture. The girls were just sitting and talking — then BAM a big wave took them out! ha! Those are Hannah’s feet in the air!

We got some good photos and now, time to pack.

You might remember Anthony from our Alligator Tour. He said the best piece of HHI advice he had was to get up and get out on Saturday morning. He suggested no later than 6:30 AM. So we wanted to have everything done before we went to bed. The house was picked up and clean and the car was loaded by the time we went to sleep.