Island’s survival guide

As a man, one must be impressed to be called king, but when you go in a hurry to the restaurant restroom in the low-country and could not figure out where is your door, you do not expect to be called King crab (obviously for ladies the door says Queen crab).

On the island the best ride is the bike, even if you do not like it very much. If you drive to a nice restaurant in the evening you might find a spot to park your car so far that you may get to eat after the closing time (usually 10pm, I know it sucks).

If for some reason you feel like walking in late at night, make sure you have a flashlight or you may encounter some natural obstacles (like P did) and get a free natural falling facial peel with the famous Hilton Head Island sand (it may get into your mouth, nose too, but who cares when you look good  after that). Do not be freaked out if you look in the mirror immediately, the effect will show up next morning. Make sure this peel is not done after you stuffed your stomach at the restaurant, because that could have some “side effects” (you know…)

Last and the most important, do not feed the alligators, even if they are the hotel pets and show up by the pool in the morning, assuming that you want to come home in one piece.

The family is back in town now, after almost 17 hours on the road (longest drive ever for me), but P, Maggie, and I had fun all these days, and I hope you the reader too enjoyed my vacation blog (by the way, comments are welcome).

Back to Carolina's Island

Hilton Head Island (the second biggest on the Eat Coast) has welcome us with rain, after looking at 10 homes around the area (still no grass nor back yard) with very beautiful tropical vegetation. With the realtor in the car, P took the back seat where Maggie was constantly on top of P giving her a new hair style from behind (you can tell that we have hair stylists in the family). On the way there P beat the GPS for the first time taking the right road (she made me so proud of her), but normally after she had missed the road before and refusing to drive on a hillbilly one.
I finally decided that 15 hours drive back home could be dangerous at 3pm, because we had too much of a fun last night, so we got a room in a hotel by the ocean. The hotel receptionist gave me the senior rate, after a short phone call, and I am sure because I sounded older (there is no way I would look old!)
Down here at a restaurant (Skull Creek Boathouse) the see food tastes even better after a wait of about 90 min. to get a table, while watching the sunset over the river and swamps, but it was worth.

Looking forward to touch the local grass (SAND) by the Atlantic tomorrow.

Not everywhere is 67 degrees hot like in Anchorage!

First thing in the morning is the dog walking, but the heat makes Maggie eager to get in every single store along the street. Finally we found the real one, the famous store "Gold Teeth", located next to the church (being holly is good for your teeth)!
The three of us walked around the only places with grass around here, the parks (no lawnmower needed). Lots of cute homes, just that P is not the best photographer who can take a picture of them without some bush included (find the door here!).

I did not get totally American (by the way, Maggie is English), because we got in some park, passing a barrier (looked like a car stop not a human one) and took a picture of an old train. It turned out that we were in a train museum, and just skipped the entry fee.

An other no-no rule for a woman (that is P): Do not tell me that there is no hair dryer in a hotel room. So my suggestion to use the AC unit on heat for her hair, bent over a little, did not work well. I guess women get very aggravated when the water keeps their skull humid for too long, but that makes them sultry (picked up term down here).
I still have hard time to order Yuengling beer here, it tastes good but is hard to pronounce it right.
Dinner again with Maggie, and other six dogs at another table, but this family next to us was very "strange". Their kids (2 girls about 6 and 8, and a boy about 5) were acting very scary. The kids were coloring books and cutting out paper for some family project (they had a fool bag of materials). After dinner the oldest girls started reading from a ...BOOK. I truly believe that the end of the world is coming because these kids did not use any "holy toys" (cell phone, video game or I-Pad)

Savannah at night

Leaving Charleston was hard, but getting in Savannah harder because the GPS failed us shortly at Walmart store (must be the “love” of locals for it). I got us her the last summer-release-premium-luxury-edition of double wall cup-straw set (I hate when the cups are always too small and the straw is missing on my trips). In fact I just realized in Savannah that I saved 50% according with their local price. So, with all that money saving we decided to have diner on the boat along Savannah river. P refused the soul food and gospel music from first boat floor and made me climb to the 2^nd floor with jazz, but northern style menu.

The trip to the pool reminded me how American I became, because we could not get inside pool (locked door). My old Romanian skills could have open the door with an angry attitude but I guess I am getting all rusty from all this humidity down here.

PS. Tonight Maggie made a very strange sound when we came back to hotel (pretty funny too), but I believe she picked the dog southern accent already.

And finally old and nice homes

We had a great tour of downtown Charleston (with a 75 years young guy). Everything revolves around civil war and poker was a very lucrative business as long as someone got 8 blocks of homes playing it. If there were arguments to resolve, then a duel was the solution, even if the grounds for it were the living rooms across the street from each other. We “climbed” on the highest spot here at 25…. inches above the sea level.

The outhouses had a great use here, for those who did not trust the banks, because they were used as a safe deposit (crap) box (hard to withdraw very often).

I had the unique encounter with a street that starts at number 0, which makes me thing mathematically, that soon we will go into the negative ones.

As teachers I found a very interesting idea of remodeling an unaffordable school into apartments building (instead of a Chicago style turn around school). This is what it means to be a life long learner, learn and live in the same place.

As for those who do not love dogs but want some security pets, Charleston recommends the use of 2 Helmeted Guineafowl (pretty noisy and easy to maintain plus the eggs)!
Harbor tour on water was windy, but better than walking with P at 97 degrees, temperature that makes her thirsty, sweaty and bitchy!

Dinner at a doggy pub (Maggie was spoiled with food by P again), where you can donate money for pets by sticking them on the ceiling.
I believe the day was hard on P (maybe the hydrating drinks?) because while we were leaving the pub she was pointing out the perfect big moon to me, which was in fact the circle sign of business (eye glasses needed for night vision!!!!!)

Finally by the water

P is happy, she wants to move here (just put water in front of her, but don't make her swim).
If you want to retire maybe you should consider $10,000/month the assessment in a very yuppy building by the water, or if you want a boat, then 0.7 mi/gal sounds fine, when gas is cheap here.

P just forgot the hotel room number (must be all the fun we have here at the pool), so I gave her a wrong number and see what happens (oh darn, she remembered it).

Dinner by the river was great until I got to the part of crabs cracking, which made me in a relationship with food for about 2.5 hours, while the mosquitoes were eating me (P tells me that the mosquitoes' bite just hurts but never itches, impossible woman's body!).

Finally some very nice homes in downtown, but too late at night while driving for the French quarter (not found as P expected)

Southern Columbia

Honestly, it felt more like south side of Chicago, with a few old long buildings (older markets) where they had restaurants and bars. Surprise for me at one very nice sports bar, a table for table tennis next to 12 pool tables (not that someone was playing on it, but still). I am still looking for the southern nice homes around here but I love the gas price $2.97/gal. (I wish I had a bigger gas thank inside my Honda).

No chance today with the nice homes, but at least we found out that people around here are not over the lost Civil War (coming from an African- American relocated here from California).

I look forward to Charleston tomorrow, next to the ocean and nicer homes (still hoping).

PS. Unfortunately we will miss the bikini contest at the sports bar tomorrow night (P planed to get in) and also Miss Carolina pageant scheduled here in Columbia.