If there is one place that I love to go and relax, it is on the beach.  For years now we have been making the drive to Hilton Head Island to relax, golf, ride bikes and view the local wildlife.  This vacation was not much different and that is one of the things that makes vacationing there so enjoyable.

The golf courses on the island are absolutely gorgeous!  The green carpeted fairways, the pristine white sand, the wind off the ocean, some of the toughest hole placements I’ve ever played, and don’t forget the wildlife.  The gators were everywhere!  Case in point, hole number 14.  It’s a nice long dog leg right with sand traps running along both sides leading you to the green and a large lake to your left and one big gator sunning himself.  So where do you suppose our foursome hit all four balls?  That’s right, about 10 yards in front of the mouth of the gator.  Go figure.

You would think that with all that open landscape and four people at least one of us would’ve hit the ball away from the gator.  No not this foursome, we hit our balls about 10 yards ahead of him and had to quickly make chip shots keeping one eye on him and one on the ball.  But we’re not out of the wood yet, our chip shots landed in a sand trap where another gator was hanging out!  Leave it to hacks to drive so close to a dangerous target.  Scary but very cool.

Riding bikes is another favorite on the island, sun up to sun down.  The bike trail winds its way along the island mirroring the roadway system but far enough away to be safe and relaxing.  The slow pace of riding offers the best way to view the landscape and the ocean.  Each morning I would hop on my bike and head to the beach.  Ah so relaxing.  Riding along the ocean each day I noticed on this visit the beach was littered with helmet crabs and jelly fish every morning.  I’m not sure why but it definitely creeped me out!  I thought my brother the Marine described it best when he said, “riding along the beach each morning is a little like dodging land mines.”  A bit overstated but once a Marine always a Marine.  🙂

I almost stepped on this nasty looking one!  It reminded me of the Predator movie when that thing took off his body armor.  Gross!!  The jellyfish are pretty nasty too and this other helmet crab was making a run for it!

One day we had a bit of bad weather, not rain so much, but very windy.  So I decided to walk up and down the beach with my camera and see if I could get any interesting shots.  I saw a beautiful flock of seagulls (wasn’t that an 80’s band), a dolphin, a shell still occupied and this guy reeled in this little shark just as I was leaving the beach.  Outstanding!

Another great week on the island and I’m certain it won’t be our last!