Category Archives: Ocean

Feature: For the Family – Hilton Head Island, SC

May 4, 2016 By in Education, Entertainment, family, Fun, Nature, Ocean, Photography, Sports, Travel Leave a comment
Feature: For the Family – Hilton Head Island, SC

HILTON HEAD MONTHLY MAGAZINE

“CITY GUIDE ISSUE” – SEPTEMBER 2013)

 

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC –

Blessed with natural beauty, white sandy beaches and temperate climate, Hilton Head Island has earned a reputation as one of the most family friendly vacation destinations in the United States.

At the top of many must visit lists is a climb to the summit of the iconic lighthouse in Harbourtown.

Visitors will learn about the island’s rich natural history and are rewarded for their climb with spectacular views of Harbourtown Golf Links, Harbourtown Yacht Basin and Calibogue Sound.

Active families enjoy eco-kayak or stand-up paddle boarding tours through salt marsh estuaries, where naturalists and photographers have frequent sightings of alligators, bottlenose dolphin, manatee, bald eagles, hawks and osprey.

img_4654Thrill seekers will enjoy a visit to Zip Line Hilton Head for an adventuresome canopy tour. Dolphin sightseeing tours, sailing trips, parasailing, waterskiing and tubing are especially popular.

A custom pirate ship is outfitted for a pirate adventure tour. Sport fishing charters, night shark trips and a catamaran sunset cruise are also available.

A boat trip to Daufuskie Island offers a glimpse of what other sea islands were like before bridges and causeways opened them to development. Most native residents of the island are descendants of freed slaves, who have made their living oystering and fishing for decades.

Family-oriented singer, songwriter Gregg Russell can be found performing beneath the famous Liberty Tree six nights per week throughout the summer season.

At Lawton Stables a guided trail ride through the scenic Sea Pines Forest Preserve is offered. Young children will treasure a visit with Callie, the island’s pet deer.

IMG_4489A visit to Coligny Beach is an open invitation for people watching, where the flip-flop-tapping rhythm of steel drums and Jimmy Buffet songs sets a casual mood.

Jennifer Moscar of Atlanta, who is formerly of Bluffton, took photographs of chocolate ice cream mustaches on her two young children as they splashed and danced through the water spouts in the Coligny Beach Fountains.

Thousands of family’s annually enjoy Harbourfest at Shelter Cove, where Shannon Tanner has entertained audiences for the past 25 years. Live entertainment, bouncy houses, food, arts and crafts, and evening fireworks display are featured.

For the Freeland family of Rochester, New York, an afternoon at Islander Beach was an opportunity to construct an elaborate sand castle of a giant alligator, drawing admiration from a family of four on Fat Tire bicycles out for an evening ride along the shore.

OLD TOWN KAYAK TOUR 952013Outdoor enthusiasts will enjoy Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, which includes more than 4,000 acres of salt marsh estuary and small islands.

Many families also enjoy championship caliber golf, tennis, cycling and miniature golf. Others relax during a game of bocce or kite flying. In addition, Sandbox Children’s Museum, a video arcade, bowling alley and several movie theatres are also available.

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On the Water with Jason DuBose, Director of the Outfitters Center at Oldfield Plantation

October 19, 2014 By in family, fishing, Nature, Ocean, Photography, Sports, Travel Tags: , , Leave a comment
On the Water with Jason DuBose, Director of the Outfitters Center at Oldfield Plantation

Okatie, SC – Visitors from land arrive here through a canopy of moss covered oaks, past fields of grazing horses to a period era filling station and general store. On the back side of the property is the waterfront office of Jason DuBose, certified River Pro and Charter Boat Captain who is Director of the Outfitters Center at Oldfield Plantation.

“I’m lucky in that I get to spend most of my day on the water as a guide for our owners and their friends,” DuBose said. “Oldfield has a real active charter fishing program, so on any given day I could be anywhere from casting for Red Fish in the flats to trolling for Wahoo or Tuna in the Gulf Stream.”

On property, ponds are stocked with Bass, Brim and Catfish to keep the anglers happy.

“Oldfield is host site for the only Orvis Fly Fishing School in the state,” he said. The program is coordinated at Bay Street Outfitters in Beaufort, where staff members have trained to become Orvis certified instructors.

According to DuBose, a special arrangement with Turkey Hill Plantation in Ridgeland offers owners and guest’s access to 18,000 acres of outdoor adventures including “a sporting clays course, private shooting instruction and some of the best quail hunting in the state.”

“Being a private community most of our amenities are geared towards our residents and their guests, but we do offer monthly nature seminars with guest speakers that are open to the public,” Mr. DuBose said.

Other outdoor activities at Oldfield include the popular golf course, tennis instruction and equestrian center, where trail rides, instruction and summer camps are managed by Equestrian Director Jude Dontje.

For more, read “The Great Outdoors” in the November issue of Hilton Head Monthly Magazine.

Daytona Beach “Beat the Heat” Sprint Triathlon – 10 November 2013

November 24, 2013 By in Ocean, Photography, Travel Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment
Daytona Beach “Beat the Heat” Sprint Triathlon – 10 November 2013

Daytona Beach “Beat the Heat” Sprint Triathlon – 10 November 2013

A Historic Kayak Tour of Old Town Bluffton

October 13, 2013 By in Kayak, Ocean, Photography, Travel Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

A Historic Kayak Tour of Old Town Bluffton

Old Town Kayak Tours – Bluffton, South Carolina

Old Town Kayak Tours was my choice for a unique 70th Birthday present for my Dad and will recommend the tour to everyone that I know.

We enjoyed an amazing afternoon on the May River learning from historian and guide Jeff Fulgham who explored Native American, Colonial and Civil War history during a gentle paddle from Bluffton Oyster Factory Park.

Jeff talked more than he paddled during our gentle cruise south past Palmetto Bluff, discussing the history of Native American tribal culture in the Low Country.

Schools of baitfish jumped from the water in front of our kayak’s. A bottlenose dolphin surfaced, trolling the estuary and beginning to feed.

Jeff shared a story of English occupation of Hilton Head Island and the role that pre-Civil War conditions affected the role of Bluffton during the Civil War.

We turned north on the May River and were paddling past the old Hunting Island Plantation when a shark thrashed in the water in front of Dad.

I learned some back history about his first book “The Bluffton Expedition: The Burning of Bluffton, South Carolina, During the Civil War.”

Jeff has a second book in progress that provides an in-depth look at the British and Spanish occupations from Charlestown to St. Augustine along his treasured coast.

He was raised in historic Bluffton and had paddled his personal kayak along the route we took on our tour hundreds of times before ever thinking it could be a viable business last year.

For more visit http://www.lulu.com/shop/jeff-fulgham/the-bluffton-expedition-the-burning-of-bluffton-south-carolina-during-the-civil-war/paperback/product-21107203.html

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