Our stay in Hilton Head is winding down, but that doesn’t mean we’re all finished. There are too many beautiful places to experience. On our way back from Beaufort the other day, we drove past the entrance to Hunting Island State Park and Maggie and I told Tim that we had to come back and do some beach walking. Luckily, Tim listened to his girls. Utterly amazing!
Hunting Island sits at the southern edge of South Carolina at the confluence of the St Helena Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. According to Wikipedia it is “expected to shrink in size by 10 percent over the next forty years”. Hurricane Matthew seems to have accelerated that process. 
They say it is the most visited state park in South Carolina. I also learned that many of the scenes from Vietnam in the movie Forrest Gump were filmed here and in Fripp Island. Guess what movie we’re going to see next! 
On our way back from Hunting Island, we stopped at Fort Fremont, St. Helena Island.
I was suprised to learn that “Port Royal Sound is one of the largest natural deepwater harbors on the Atlantic Coast”. With Parris Island just across the sound, it makes reason that this would be an excellent spot to build a defensive fort.
We struck out once before when we tried to go to a beach on Hilton Head Island. We planned to get an early start, but kept getting side tracked by chats with boat neighbors and stops at other marinas. We finally made it to Coligny Beach Park only to find out that dogs are not allowed on the beach after 10am. We were minutes too late. So I was determined that we needed a HH beach visit. This time I chose Mitchellville Beach. A lifeguard at Coligny told us there was no time limit for dogs there. Off we went. If you are a loyal reader, you know that Maggie likes nothing better than a good romp on a deserted beach. Unless of course it is a romp on a beach that is deserted except for a couple other friendly pups.
Our history lesson for this day – Mitchelville was created as a town for escaped slaves by Maj. Gen. Ormsby Mitchel. It was actually crated as a town with arranged streets, elected officials, taxes and a compulsory education law. According to Wikipedia, it was most likely the first such law in the South.
Our last couple days here in HH will be spent completing chores- laundry, boat washing etc. Charleston, here we come!