Charleston and island fun - May 25 & 26

Tuesday this week we took the ferry in and went to Charleston to shop (girls) and to Patriot Point to see naval ships (boys). Shopping was a success, we had a great lunch at Sermet's Corner. The boys thought the navy ships were really cool and they got to eat real navy food for lunch. Here are some pics.




Wednesday we played around on the island. We went to the pool in the morning, home for lunch and then beach in the afternoon. At the pool, Alex is modeling his new swimsuit (from the Gap in downtown Charleston). The water at the beach was off-limits because of the low pressure system circulating off shore and creating a rip tide but the kids had plenty of fun digging in the sand and climbing the driftwood.

North Beach

Some great pictures today although posting about Allie wore me out so I won't say too much more about our day. We went to the North Beach which is a completely undeveloped part of the island most reserved for seabird nesting (didn't see any chicks though). The water is somewhat protected by a near by island and sand bar so the waves were small and Drew and Molly had a great time in the water playing. Alex and my dad invented a game with sticks racing in the wind (it was very windy) that was a big hit - he is so creative. We also tried fishing - this was frustrating - I need a better manual I guess. Fishing line got tangled up like 5 times ...






Here is a great shot of Drew, Grams and Molly and one of my dad and Alex playing their game.

Allie - our new friend? May 23rd

So for a deserted island, we are sure keeping busy ... I was too tired last night to post so I am posting about yesterday today. We sent Andy home on the early Ferry and went to the bait shop (off island of course since there are no stores here) to see about fishing and crabbing. We picked up our supplies and a couple of manuals (umm .. crabbing for dummies?) and headed back to our island. Once we got back and packed our lunch we headed to the crab dock. It is proper Dewees Island custom to ask if we can join the current occupant of the dock but this one was not in the mood for chatter and flew off before we could ask!

The boys really enjoyed crabbing - described as the best activity ever and we even 1. caught a crab, 2. got it into the bucket and 3. successfully determined if it was male or female (supposed to only keep the males). Here is our one lonely crab.





BUT THEN ... (queue Jaws music now). Alex says "I think Its a big one ... and it was ... it was the alligator now known as Allie ... eating our crab bait, crab hook, string and all. I quickly cut the string and Allie took off leaving a traumatized family behind. Yikes! Who knew crabbing was so dangerous. Where are the alligator hunters when you need them! Of course we leave - when we come back later there are 4 people crabbing in our spot (dead or chewed up you ask?) ... no ... they've caught like 10 crabs - no Allie! We are determined to try again ...


Grandpa and Grams join us for a visit after lunch. The kids tell the alligator story 600 times. We do try again but Allie seems to be lurking (although we "almost caught another big crab"). Better luck later (because you know the boys are NOT giving up).

Dewees Island - We've Arrived

We arrived at Dewee's island yesterday. What/where is this place you ask?
View Larger Map
This small island near Charleston, SC has only about 50 houses, allows no cars and is only accessible by ferry or boat.

It is an amazing place - something like staying in a wildlife refuge. Our visitor orientation consisted of: what to if you see an alligator in the (golf cart) road (stop and let it pass), what time to meet for sea-turtle patrol (before 7am - say no more), how to realize you've disturbed a seabird's nest (apparently they act injured to lure you away).

On our first trip to the beach, we found several amazing shells.

We also went seining - a method of fishing using a long net. We weren't fishing but we helped the local naturalists collect glass shrimp, gar fish, and flounder for the nature center's touch tank and we also saw lots of crabs and silver fish who were caught in the net and helped back to the ocean (well the crabs didn't seem too receptive to our "help").

Finally, after all this nature, we napped on the hammock :).