HILTON HEAD ISLAND AND BEAUFORT, SC (Mark)

​I took several walks today.  The first was on the beach by the condo we are staying in at Hilton Head Island.  It was the perfect beach for walking, or riding a fixie on, like this guy who went by me:

​The beach is flat and very wide with densely packed sand.  And it goes for miles.

This little shell was just sitting around waiting for someone to take his picture.

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​A mileage post I walked past between the marsh and the beach.

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​Here's something I have never seen before:  the perfect imprint of the starfish in the sand, but no starfish . . .

My theory is he was sitting on the sand minding his own business, and a bird swooped in and snatched him up for breakfast.  If you have a better idea please let me know.

​At this point Cheri was ready to explore for the day, so we drove to the historic town of Beaufort to walk around and see some of the sights.

​This street is not unique; many look just like this:

​On a huge number of streets you see amazing amounts of moss hanging from the trees.  And some clumps on the road, or on the UPS truck that knocked it loose.

As we were taking some pictures of this tree the lady who owned the house was walking out with her son.

She told us the name of the tree, cassia, a member of the legume family.  The leaves roll up at night and open in the sunlight.  The flowers come out in the fall when it cools down.

​The first written history of the Beaufort area is over 500 years old; Spanish Captain Pedro de Salazar wrote of the area in 1514.  In 1566 the Spanish settlers in the area were having trouble and the governor sent an additional 250 men to reinforce the colonies.

European colonists in this low country area seemed to have significant problems.  From diseases and terrain difficulties to losing fights with the Native Americans from this area, life was hard for all involved.

The Eastern Red Cedar tree has incredible textures and patterns in the trunk:

​How often do you see a road with a restricted height clearance due to the old trees growing across the street?