Another fine day yesterday. On getting up and having coffee…Connie took a look at the weather forecast which…predictably…had changed and now Thursday was supposed to be dry and Friday rainy. So…we decided to have our Fun Stuff© day on Thursday instead. That left us with the decision to visit Hunting Island State Park on either Thursday or Saturday and our final day out at Ace Basin NWR for the other day. After a bit of discussion we decided that Hunting Island would be much more crowded on the weekend as it’s at the beach so decided to head out there Thursday.

After breakfast we packed up and headed out for the 25 mile or so drive to the location which was again fewer crow flies miles due to the swampy areas here in the low country…lots of rivers, marshes, and barely above sea level areas here and the roads have to route around them. We took along some snacks…and while we did wear shorts we also put on something long as it was cool, breezy, and damp with highs only expected to be in the upper 60s and we’re not sure it made that.

On arrival at the park we paid our 10 bucks entry fee and wandered down some pretty narrow roads to the parking lot for the Hunting Island lighthouse…we passed on the additional 2 bucks a person to visit the top and went for nice shots of the outside. We noticed that the lighthouse was made of metal instead of masonry…sort of different looking to us.

We also got a couple of shots of the entire lighthouse which is 200 or so feet tall.

Once we were done with the lighthouse we headed down the half mile each way nature trail which went pretty much right down the beach. Along the way we spotted a bunch of downed trees right on the beach…they must have had a storm here in the past that knocked down a lot of them down. We also spotted an Osprey sitting on it’s nest but couldn’t tell if there were eggs or not.

After this we turned back as we were stopped by a creek flowing into the bay…we coulda gotten across as it was only 8 or 10 inches deep but there wasn’t anything on the other side that made getting our feet wet worth it. So we headed back to the car and off for our second hike of the day at the Marsh Boardwalk at the other end of the park. About the only things we saw there were a couple of Laughing Gulls and the marsh itself…but as it was low tide there wasn’t much to see other than the marsh.

With that we decided to punt the remaining 2.5 mile hike we had originally planned on as it was another 12 miles or so away and the wind was getting cooler and windier and we decided we were just a skosh underdressed. We stopped by the electrical supply place and picked up a couple of fuses we ordered on the way home then lazed the rest of the afternoon away.

Dinner was our previously scheduled pork chop night at a local place named Fillin Station. I don’t think it was ever an actual filling station like Oklahoma Joe’s in Kansas City is…but it’s on the water just across the bridge from downtown Beaufort. And we’re talking dive…unless it had been recommended to us even we would probably not have stopped in. Good thing we did though…as the food was outstanding. We sat at the bar and watched the locals play 8-ball on the pool table while we had a couple of Killians Irish Red Ale and dinner…dinner cost all of 5 bucks apiece and we got a 12 inch plate with 2 huge batter coated and deep fried pork chops, mac’n’cheese, corn and green beans. Mighty darn tasty…we had 1.25 pork chops left over from our 4 as well as enough fixins for a side dish later on. Made some mighty good pork chop sammies for lunch today and have enough for some more tomorrow. We forgot to get a shot of the outside of the place…hopefully we’ll be nearby before we leave and I’ll try to remedy that shortcoming.

Dinner tonight was what we call “under dynamic observation” until about 2 minutes before I wrote this…a place named Shrimp Shack was also recommended to us but it’s mostly shrimp which means Connie can’t eat there. They do have clams and oysters but she’s decided we’re skipping it and heading out to the 11th Street Dockside over in Port Royal followed by stopping by Lowes for a couple things.

Cyas.