Hilton Head Island

We spent the day in Hilton Head South Carolina yesterday.  Hilton Head is one of South Carolina's coastal islands, and definitely the most developed.  Getting there you travel highway 278 which  crosses the Intercoastal Waterway and then over Pinkney Island, the site of a National Wildlife Refuge and then onto Hilton Head itself.   It's a beautiful entry to the the island but it's so built up.  Though they make business's mute their signs all you see as you drive across the island is one strip mall after another.  We drove the length of the island to Sea Island Resort.  There are a number of beaches on Hilton Head, but I'd been wanting to paint the lighthouse, on paper only, at Harbor Town so that's where we went.  The weather was perfect, even warmer than it had been forecast, well up in the 70's, so it was hot sitting in the sand painting.

The harbor area was full up people,

 mainly old, rich Yankees enjoying our Southern winter.  Most of the cars in the 

parking lots were from up north or Canada, and nearly all

of the yachts in the harbor were New England based, and those yachts were big and expensive

 looking.

Sea Pines Resort is an amazing looking place and driving through it we could see why people would make it a vacation destination.  Stopping by one pond we saw a bald eagle perched on top of a tree, in my picture he looks tiny, but in person he was huge, you could easily see his white head even as far away as we were.

  Basking on the side of the pond were a group of Anhingas, through with fishing for the day I guess.

After finishing my  painting we drove back to the other side of the island to have lunch at The Crazy Crab, a restaurant we'd discovered years ago and enjoyed a tasty lunch overlooking the water.  Mac had a broiled fish plate with scallops, fish and shrimp, while I had a 1/2 pound of

 of steamed shrimp.  It is so nice living in an area where fresh shrimp are caught locally 

and not trucked in from across the country.

All in all a nice day, but Mac and I both agree that we prefer Tybee Island

 here in Georgia to Hilton Head.  Tybee is more laid back and definitely less developed.  At Hilton Head it almost feels like you need to dress up to go to the beach, Tybee is a come as you are place.  Still, I'm pleased with my painting and glad we went.