Spring Break on Hunting Island

We spent 2 nights and 3 days tent camping on this beautiful beach about 2 1/2 hours from Columbia. The entire island which is about 4 miles long and 1 mile wide is a State Park and Wildlife Preserve. I did not get a good picture of our campsite but it was right on the beach. The campground was full and active but the beaches never seemed crowded. We built fires, went on long walks, played in the sand, and surf. We visited the nature center and learned about the fossilized shark teeth that we found on the beach. We also walked on a boardwalk over the marsh. The weather turned out to be just perfect even though I worried all week that we were going to be stuck in the rain. (I learned to not depend so much on the weather channel!)It was so fun to be out in nature and very relaxing to be away from phones, internet and TV for a few days. We were certainly never bored and look forward to doing this kind of beach vacation many more times in the future.

The Fire. . . It was a big part of the weekend. We (well, mostly Daniel) spent a lot of time collecting wood, pine cones and straw, poking it and staying away from the smoke. We cooked beans for quesadillas on the grill, toasted tofu dogs, and bagels over the fire. This is Ellen helping out at the campsite.


I just had to get this shot of arianna curled up on Daniel's back. This was after our walk down the boardwalk over the marsh. She was actually comfortable and sat like that for a while!
It's kinda hard to tell what's going on in this next picture. It was low tide and we all (even Jay) climbed out over these rocks that are usually covered up during the high tide. The girls did an impressive job and made it out there without any help. Daniel established 3 rules in the beginning 1. Take your time 2. Don't get in anyone's way and stay on your own rocks 3. Don't do more than you think you can. Those rules made sense to the girls who were able to make it all the way out and back by themselves.

We found lots of cool sea creatures. Ellen points to a big hermit crab and then they take a close look at a sea urchin that is still alive.

This is the lighthouse that we couldn't climb.:) You had to be 44 in. to climb 11 stories to the top and we just thought it was fair that if one of us couldn't go then all of us shouldn't go. They had a great museum and we learned about lighthouses anyway.

We had a very sad moment at the last moment of our trip. We took one last walk out on the pier on the end of the island and the girls had decided to take their flip flops off. Arianna dropped one of hers over the side. She was devastated. Those blue flip flops were very important to her. Ellen understood the severity of the issue and began to sob because she was so sad for Arianna. Daniel and I tried hard to be understanding in this situation and just picked them up and gave them a big hug and finished walking down the dock together.