Hilton Head Island’s Christmas 2011

It is the last day of November and the decorations for the coming Holiday are all over Hilton Head Island. For the first time in over 20 years we are going to have to forgo the Dove Street tradition and perhaps find some new ones. If you live on Hilton Head or will be visiting between now and the first of the year here are some places/events and things you might want to see and do

Forgive the quality of the pictures as I never realized how difficult it is to use a point and shoot camera with Christmas lights.

Last year Harbour Town decided to up the ante on their decorations and made it a must see place for a decorated stroll. It is also a place to bring an unwrapped toy, canned good or monetary donation for Deep Well.

While you are in Sea Pines you might also want to drive by South Beach Village (you know, where the Salty Dog is) and check out their Christmas Village and their thousands of twinkling lights and falling snow. And another place that will be interesting is Pineland Station off Hwy 278 where Bluffton artist Richard Coyne has designed a multi-sensory 200 foot winter wonderland with trains, trolley, towns and tunes (they suggest you bring an unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots.)

One of my personal favorites is the Fire Station on 278 right next to the First Presbyterian Church near the entrance of Port Royal Plantation. A couple of years ago the Island fire stations were adopted by civic groups and decorated and voted on with this fire house being the most impressive and the only one still decorated to this extent. What is great is you get to drive around the whole station and each year something new seems to be added.

As always there are some personal homes that go out of their way to be in the holiday spirit and in a future blog I will center on those with hopefully more stable images! Enjoy the lights of Hilton Head and let us know places we shouldn’t miss.

BOO – It’s Halloween on Hilton Head!

Trying to figure out a way to scare up a good time this Halloween? Well whether you are 1 or 101 and you like to put on a costume and go out and have good time there are plenty of chances to do just that, this Halloween.

The following are some Halloween events being hosted on Hilton Head Island:

Thursday 10/27/11 from 5-8PM there is Halloween at Coligny Plaza. This fun happening is more for kids and your furry family members as activities include trick-or-treating at the shops, a free photo booth, ghost stories by Yostie, Giant Shark Slide and more. The Pet Costume Contest at Tail-Waggers starts at 5:00PM with the Family Costume Contest at 5:30PM and Hot Dog Harbour Hot Dog Eating Contest at 6:30PM.

Friday 10/28/2011 from 4-8PM there the Pumpkin Patch at Shelter Cove Community Park. Benefiting the Island Rec Center there is a $10 Admission for ages 2-18, parent and children under 2 get in free and food is sold separately. Enjoy a petting zoo, blow up rides, haunted hay ride, costume contest, and much more in a family friendly environment.

Friday & Saturday 10/28–29/2011 from 7:30-8:30PM and Saturday & Sunday 10/29-30/2011 from 1:30-2:15PM go on a Haunted Wagon Ride at the Sea Pines Forest Preserve take the kiddies on a Ride and hear some ghost stories. Reservations required $15 per adult and $10 per child.

Sunday 10/30/2011 from 3:30-5PM enjoy Halloween on the Harbour. Trick or treating around Harbour Town along with pumpkin decorating, costume contest and more. Fun for all ages and free.

For the adults, here are just a few of the costume contests on Hilton Head.
Friday 10/28 - Daniels Restaurant and Lounge at Beach Market
Saturday 10/29 - Wild Wings on Pope Ave. or The X/O Lounge at the Hilton
Monday 10/31 - The Smokehouse on Palmetto Bay

On Hilton Head is everbody really from Ohio?

Recently on our Facebook.com/HiltonHeadIslandSC page we posed an interesting question to our over 11,600 fans “Everyone makes jokes that all our visitors are from Ohio so let’s figure out if that is true! Whether you visit or live here, post whhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifere you are from?” And the completely unscientific results came rolling in with – you guessed it – OHIO as the winner.


Of the 186 votes (people mentioned multiple places) here are the numbers
1 OH – 54
2 SC – 13
3 NC – 12
4 GA, KY, TN – 11
5 NY – 8
6 IL, MI, NJ, PA – 5
7 AL, CT, TX, VA – 4
8 FL, IN, MO, WV – 3
9 AR, AZ, CA, IA, MA WI – 2
10 DE, MD, MN, MS, MT, Germany, Costa Rica - 1

What was fun for us was reading the responses and while some just posted their state others were very proud of where they are from and how much they love Hilton Head too! Leave a comment and tell us where you are from too!

Tips for Driving Around Hilton Head

It's that time of year again when Hilton Head Island is full of visitors. Now, we love our tourists here, we surely do, but the influx of drivers unfamiliar with the island can cause problems on our roadways. So here are a few important driving tips that will get you safely around the island.

The first traffic issue is actually getting onto Hilton Head. No, you are not on the Island when you take Exit 8 off of I-95; you still have about 25 miles to the bridges to get onto the Island. Yes, Hilton Head is an actual island, and there are bridges to get onto the island. In the summer months, especially on Saturdays, Hwy 278 from exit 8 to the bridges can be a cruel mistress as there is only one way on and off the island, and everyone is aiming for their 4PM check-in time. So be aware that traffic can come to a standstill between 12:00 and 5:00 but you will be at your destination soon.

Once you are on the Island, it is useful to know that Hwy 278 (also known as William Hilton Parkway once on the island) is the main road that runs across pretty much the whole island, going from the bridges to the Sea Pines Circle. At the Sea Pines Circle, you will see that two other major roads veer off this circle – Pope Avenue, which will take you to Coligny and the Forest Beach area; and Palmetto Bay Road, which will put you on the Cross Island.
The Cross Island Expressway is a toll road that opened in 1996, and if you don’t have a transponder (a Palmetto Pass), you will need to pay $1.25 each way. The Expressway is a great means for cutting about 15 minutes off your travel time if your goal is to get to Sea Pines or the South End of the Island. If you are going to Hilton Head Plantation or onto Palmetto Dunes, it is probably best to just stay on 278. Stay on Business 278 when you see the signs for the Cross Island Expressway.

Besides knowing about the highways and roads, it is important to know about the prevalence of roundabouts (better known as traffic circles). Two of the Island’s most significant (directionally speaking) are the Sea Pines Circle and the Coligny Circle. Islanders often use these circles as landmarks when giving directions. There are also smaller roundabouts sprinkled throughout the island. These are our way of keeping traffic moving, but they do have specific rules. As you come up to a circle, you must yield to the traffic in the circle and then ease your way into traffic going right (Remember all circles move counter clockwise). If there is no traffic, keep moving into the circle as there is NO stop sign. While they take some getting used to, the roundabouts do work and keep our traffic moving, but you must obey the rules. As you can see from the image at the right, there is a wrong way to go on the circle, so be careful (so glad our Beaufort County Sheriffs were on their toes that day!) Speaking of being careful, please remember to be safe and watch your speed while you are here. Whether you’re driving in a plantation or on the highways, plantation security guards and Beaufort County Sheriffs will watch your speed for you and give you a ticket if you’re speeding.

The last thing people wonder about is our lack of signs and street lights. This is a planned community, and we stick with a very specific look – our signs blend into the foliage to ensure a peaceful, cohesive look, and there is no neon whatsoever. Even McDonalds can’t have its golden arches. While this quirk might make it difficult to get around at first, once you know where things are, you won’t even mind. And as far as street lights go, we don’t want them to interfere with the night sky, especially when you’re taking a late night stroll and can see the heavens and all the stars. Remember, you’re on vacation. Relax and enjoy the island.

Hilton Head Island’s beach matting helps everyone!

Did you ever notice that most of the entrances to the beach on the Island have blue matting that makes it easy to walk on the soft sand before you get to the hard packed sand? Well you can thank Bart Brophy who in 2002 rallied support for a way to get people who use wheelchairs easier access to get down on the beach. As a quadriplegic who found the nonprofit Access Disability Action Center he worked with the town to get the matting installed at most of the public beach access.

The woven polyester material is ridged and has a hard surface that makes it easier for traditional wheelchairs to get all the way to where the harder packed sand begins. The added benefit is also realized by any one on a bike, pushing a stroller or pulling a cart full of beach stuff.

There are also beach wheelchairs that with their big tires make the going easier for anyone pushing someone along the beach. They can be rented during your stay and at some of the resorts they are an available amenity.

The Town of Hilton Head Island lists the following beaches as having the beach matting but it is also at some of the beach entrances inside the gated communities.

Alder Lane Beach Access

Coligny Beach Park
Driessen Beach Park
Folly Field Beach Park
Islanders Beach Park
Mitchelville Beach Park

The party's over!

The Heritage is over, hopefully not for the last time. It was a great finish to the always fun party that happens to be in the middle of a golf tournament. Rumors abound, about sponsors for next year but there is nothing yet concrete. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that some company will step up, meanwhile here are some images from Heritage 2011.

PS - The PGA does not allow pictures on the course.

Sunrise Easter Services for April 24, 2011

While this week has The Heritage, we certainly don’t want to forget that it is also Easter Week. You can’t miss that there are many churches on Hilton Head. One of the things Charles Fraser did when developing Sea Pines was to donate land to different faiths and that is why there are a string of churches on Pope Avenue and South Forest Beach.

There are churches for most any faith, a synagogue and meeting places for the spiritual minded. But if you are looking for an outside Sunrise Service for this Sunday here are some place and faiths that will be having them.

At 6:30AM
St. Andrew by The Sea United Methodist – Coligny Beach
First Baptist Church Hilton Head Island – Beach in front of Marriott Grande Ocean Resort
First Presbyterian Church of Hilton Head Island – Jarvis Creek Park (North End of Island)
Hilton Head Presbyterian Church – Driessen Beach Park

At 7:00AM
Grace Community Church – Dolphin Head Recreation Area Hilton Head Plantation

At 7:30AM
Local pastors and PGA Player Aaron Baddeley will speak on the 18^th green of Harbour Town – seats available in the bleachers and skyboxes.

The list will be updated as we hear of other outdoor services.

Happy Heritage!!!



What can one say about The Heritage, the social event of the year? While it is of course great golf, that is only part of the experience at least from the perspective of someone who has gone to about 18 of them in the last 20 years of living here. Living on an island that has about 37,000 permanent residents it is a time when we open our doors to the world and invite them in and say “What cocktail do you want with that golf”. It is catching up with friends you only have because of the tournament but for one week out of the year you are great friends!

Started as much as a marketing ploy to promote the not yet finished Sea Pines Resort in 1969, Charles Fraser really got something put together with a wing and a prayer. The volunteers helped and are the heart and soul of The Heritage as were islanders who invited players over for dinner and parties just like they had always been old friends. Of course, over the years some of the winners certainly helped gain notoriety for the tournament (such as Arnold Palmer Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer, Johnny Miller, Greg Norman, Nick Price, Tom Watson and the late Payne Stewart and also Davis Love III who has won it five times.) When the tournament moved to the week after the pressure cooker that is known as The Masters, our tournament was the Anti-Masters, a time for the players to relax with their families or to enjoy drinks with the fans at the Quarterdeck after their round.

For the past 43 years whatever names the tournament has gone under from Sea Pines Heritage Classic to MCI to World Com to Verizon, for everyone that has been here for any length of time, it has always just been The Heritage. This year’s purse will be $5.7 million and the winner will take home $1,026,000 while local charities have benefited from more than $20 million since 1987. That’s great for a tournament that is still trying to pin down a sponsor for 2012 and keep up the tradition going for another 43 years. And we need to, as the economic impact to the Lowcountry and the state of SC is more than $81 million.

The Heritage this year looks to be again another fantastic time – we look to have “Chamber of Commerce kind of weather” with average temperatures of 77 for the highs and lows around 64 -pretty darn perfect. And that brings us to another subject – clothes, as the Heritage is a great place for people watching. Everything from little bitty sundresses and high heels (not the easiest to navigate the course in) to garish golf pants, but a lot of people know to dress for comfort as you are walking and standing all day and use lots of sunscreen. Most of all, it seems to be a time to reunite with old friends or make new ones for the day, oh and have a cocktail or two with them. A friend of mine from Canada thinks it is the greatest golf tournament “because spectators go on and off the course and it isn’t just about great golf but a good time too”. We have a saying here “Who invited the golfers to our cocktail party” and it holds true as you are watching golf, you also setting up where to meet next, whether it is a hospitality tent, a sponsors villa or ending up at the Quarterdeck for sunset.

The opening ceremonies were yesterday and the pictures attached show Jim Furyk hitting the ceremonial shot into the Calibogue Sound along with all the pomp and circumstance that went along with it. Follow along this week as we give quick updates from The Heritage.

Islander Knowledge of Hilton Head

Welcome to the Hilton Head Islander blog. We hope you will find the information enlightening and useful whether you are already an Islander, stay periodically or haven’t yet visited our sunny shores.

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