Hilton Head Monthly Voice Voice of the Lowcountry 
AREA KNOWN FOR BEACHES, GOLF AND RELAXATION ALSO HAS PLENTY TO OFFER FOR THRILL-SEEKERS
Vacations are all about getting away from home and going on an adventure. You don’t have to go to the extreme and tie thousands of balloons to your house to set off on an adventure like in Disney’s movie “Up,” but adventure does await you in the Lowcountry. No matter how you plan to get here, be ready to step out of your comfort zone and fly to new heights.
IMPROVE YOUR INNER AND OUTER HEALTH FOR A HAPPIER LIFE
Beauty. There are a thousand definitions of the word beauty and truly it lies in the eye of the beholder. In this technological based world that is continually progressing, the word beauty is thrown around in various different situations. When most people think of the word beauty, they think of everything that is not beautiful about them.
Beauty is to feel free, natural, and confident both physically and mentally. It more than just looking perfect every day, it is how you feel on the inside and outside that will reflect your beauty.
“THE CURE FOR ANYTHING IS SALT WATER — SWEAT, TEARS OR THE SEA” — ISAK DINESEN
Sands. Surfing. Swimming. Sunning. Shores. Sailing. Sanctuary.
Whatever your vision of the “beach life” may entail, the sun-splashed beaches of Hilton Head Island offer as many experiences as there are shells on their sandy shores. From its heel to its toe, here’s an overview of some of the island’s popular beaches and hidden gems.
It’s no coincidence that Hilton Head Island is 12 miles long (it’s 5 miles wide) and has 12 miles of accessible beaches.
But these aren’t any beaches. They are pristine, clean and quiet, despite decades of development and millions of visitors.
How can that be?
It’s a beautiful day. The sun is shining and there’s a lovely breeze. You have nowhere to be and nothing to do. It’s your day off, your home is clean and all chores have been completed.
You decide to go to the beach. You pack sunscreen, lunch and a towel. You get there and find a spot. You plop down in your beach chair and stare off into the great blue horizon.
In the woods of Leamington, when the island was once an untamable frontier, once sat a lighthouse. This lighthouse, so the story goes, was watched by a man named Adam Fripp.
History doesn’t record who he was or how he came to be stationed at this beacon on the edge of the world, but the stories tell that he lived in a small cottage by the towering lighthouse with his daughter.
History doesn’t record her name as Caroline, but the stories do. Rather, they record her name as Caroline but recall her in more hushed tones by the name she now goes by: The Blue Lady.
One way to illustrate the state of the Hilton Head Island is to envision a driving or bicycle tour.
Let’s start our tour from the southern part of our island in the waters in and around Harbor Town.
The iconic Harbor Town Marina and nearby Braddock Cove area have finally been dredged so boating access and docking improves, and RBC Heritage aerial photography coverage is enhanced. (A short time ago, RBC and Boeing stepped-up to sponsor the Heritage, and Town Council immediately made a five-year funding commitment to fill the remaining need and ensure the continued presence of an event that generates $84 million per year to the local and state economy.)
As with our personal lives, it is important to take time to stop, reflect and focus on who we are, what we do and where we want to go. As a town, that was our task in the beginning of 2014 as Bluffton developed a brand for itself.
Beyond the marketing benefits of a new brand, the process also reminded each of us why we do what we do and gave us a philosophy which guides Bluffton forward in each project and policy.
That process crystalized the mission of Bluffton to further evolve our town into a progressive, innovative municipality, while never losing sight of our town’s historic, artistic and coastal culture. As in our personal lives, when we are clear about our intentions, it’s amazing how other people’s focus also becomes clearer.
For more than three years, architect Tom Crews has led a committee through a methodical study of Hilton Head’s existing land management ordinance, which regulates development and growth on the island.
He then guided the LMO through a total rewrite of the document to meet today’s needs.
“It hasn’t been an overnight study,” Crews stressed during an interview in his New Orleans Road office. “This is the first true rewrite since the town’s original land management ordinance was adopted in 1987. It’s been revised, but this is the first time that we’re going to completely eliminate the old and adopt the new. Always in the past it was revisions to sections.”
His home had no running water and no electricity, and there were no paved roads, no stoplights, no marinas and no bridges anywhere on Hilton Head Island. But there was food on the table, friends to play with, school to attend and work to do every day.
This was life on Hilton Head Island in the 1930s, not just for Charles Simmons Jr., now 85 years old, and his family, but for all of the other native black islanders as well.
It was a good Gullah life, a life apart from the big wide world around them, except for the occasional trips to Savannah by boat for groceries, clothes, and socializing with family and friends.
