Our instructor at H2O Sports, Glen Barroncini, a chef who turned to teaching paddle boarding/surfing to make extra money, was superb. His love of the sport was clear, and we were drawn by his enthusiasm. Within minutes of his guidance, we were on our boards, gliding above slightly choppy waters of the Calibogue Sound. Boaters and kayakers shared the space. Powerboats in the distance created waves that rocked the board.

“The worst thing that can happen is that you fall in the water,” reminded Glen. I relaxed, taking in the views of marshes and coastline. Then, I heard a shriek from my friend. “A dolphin!” I spun around just as its fin slipped into the water. Oblivious to the oncoming wave I paddled faster towards it smiling. All of a sudden, I lost my balance and went straight into the salty water. I called Glen for help, trying to get back on the board. But, ten feet away from me, the same dolphin popped up again. Being so close to this gentle creature was magical and unforgettable. The dolphins of Hilton Head are friendly, and are even given nicknames by the locals.

During my brief stay on this beautiful island, which is the first eco-planned resort destination in the country, I also experienced bird watching on kayak, biking on the hard packed sandy beaches, and relaxed with friends watching a thunder storm with a glass of wine under the porch of our rented beach house. And the restaurants were amazing! I can’t wait to return.

To read more, check out my article “A Green Getaway on Hilton Head Island” in NY Resident magazine.

Sea Pines on Dwellable

Hilton Head Island Vacation Rentals

Sandhill Crane # 24, Sea Pines

 

The Sandhill Crane beach house runs from $1000 to $1900 per night based on season. Visit www.Wyndhamrentals.com or www.resortquesthiltonhead.com for ResortQuest managed Wyndham properties on Hilton Head.

Hilton Head Island surprised me for being so green!  The boot shaped barrier island off the coast of South Carolina is the first eco-planned resort destination in the country. When developer Charles Fraser set his eyes on the island in the ‘50s, he wanted to save it from being clear-cut. He bought the southern part of the island from his father and built a bridge to the mainland. Sea Pines, a 5,000-acre community where our rental beach house was located in, was the first project embarked on by Fraser. He turned the sparsely populated island into a haven of expensive homes, golf courses, and tennis courts while ensuring the place kept its natural beauty.

Live oak trees with overhanging Spanish moss add charm to the quaint communities. Buildings are no taller than five floors and their muted colors serve as camouflage. The Wal-Mart has a large oak tree in the parking lot. Alligators inhabit the marshes and creeks. Roads have no streetlights. Stars shine above. Endangered loggerhead sea turtles and their nesting areas are zealously protected.

In Harbour Town, which is also located in Sea Pines, I visited the marina and marveled at the candy cane striped lighthouse. My favorite part was hugging a hundred year old moss covered oak tree. Charles Fraser changed the entire configuration of the marina to accommodate this majestic oak that is named Liberty Oak, under which he is now buried.

During my brief stay on this beautiful island, I saw dolphins while paddle boarding and beautiful exotic birds on kayak, biked on the hard packed sandy beaches, and relaxed with friends watching a thunder storm with a glass of wine under the porch of our rented beach house. The restaurants were amazing and the town was delightful. I can’t wait to return.

To read my article on Hilton Head Island in NY Resident magazine, A Green Getaway on Hilton Head Island, click here.

In addition to editing this blog, I work full-time in New York City and write for both online and print publications. My focus is on cultural commentary, animal welfare, books, eco and luxury travel, green living and wildlife conservation. I am a regular contributor to Petside.com and Jeffcorwinconnect.com. My work has also appeard in the New York Times, Salon, Petside, GQ, MSN, Yahoo!, and Yourtango.com among others.  

To visit my professional website, please click www.lavanyasunkara.com

Kali was referred to us by one of the amazing brides we had the pleasure of working with over the summer so we couldn’t wait to get started!  We met Kali and her mother on a Sunday afternoon and spent the next two days discussing vendors, visiting venues, and looking at different accommodations.  In the end, Kali selected the Harbour Town Yacht Club as the ceremony and reception site and secured a discounted rate at the beautiful Crowne Plaza Hotel in Shipyard Plantation for her out-of-town guests.  She also walked away with a list of recommended vendors who fit her specific price point.

If you are planning a wedding on Hilton Head Island or the surrounding lowcountry and need help with “just a few things”, please do not hesitate to contact us.  We are more than happy to help.

Sea Star Events — Creative & Unique Celebrations on Hilton Head Island         843-682-2225   www.seastarevents.com

Sign-up for By The Sea, the quarterly newsletter from Sea Star Events!

Sea Star Events is a division of Sea Star Concierge LLC.

Our events group has been busy producing creative and unique celebrations throughout the Lowcountry this summer and we’d like to take this opportunity to showcase one of their recent destination weddings…

Wedded Bliss at Harbour Town

The Harbour Town Yacht Club is one of our favorite venues on the Island.  With views of the Yacht Basin, Daufuskie Island, and the Calibogue Sound, what’s not to love?  Our bride and groom, Lindsay & Brian from Arlington Heights, Illinois, agreed and selected it as the venue for both their ceremony and reception.

Carl Schroeder of Weddings By The Sea officiated the rooftop ceremony and Monica Jenks, The Wedding Violinist, played as Lindsay walked down the aisle.  The two exchanged vows with the Harbour Town Lighthouse as the backdrop in a scene that could only be described as quintessentially Hilton Head.

After the ceremony, the entire wedding party joined Brian and Lindsay for photos at the Liberty Oak Tree.  Our bride and groom then took pictures with their immediately family as well as portraits around the Harbour Town Yacht Basin.

The reception took place in the fourth floor Club Room as well as the on rooftop deck.  Guests enjoyed some of Lindsay and Brian’s favorite foods and a few Lowcountry specialties while sipping Mojitos, the signature drink, from “Buccarelli’s Bar.”  A key lime cake topper as well as key lime and wedding cake flavored cupcakes from Sweet Carolina Cupcakes were perched high above a chandelier tier.  Lindsay and Brian made sure that there were more than enough of both flavors so their guests could pick their favorite.

Since the bride and groom are both teachers at the same high school, we paid homage to their professions by featuring green apples throughout the event – using them as place cards, centerpieces, and props.

Meredith Barouth of Island Love Photography captured the day’s festivities for the happy couple…

Sea Star Concierge — Making Paradise Possible on Hilton Head Island         843-682-2225   www.seastarconcierge.com

Carl Schroeder of Weddings By The Sea officiated the rooftop ceremony and Monica Jenks, The Wedding Violinist, played as Lindsay walked down the aisle.  The two exchanged vows with the Harbour Town Lighthouse as the backdrop in a scene that could only be described as quintessentially Hilton Head.

After the ceremony, the entire wedding party joined Brian and Lindsay for photos at the Liberty Oak Tree.  Our bride and groom then took pictures with their immediately family as well as portraits around the Harbour Town Yacht Basin.

The reception took place in the fourth floor Club Room as well as the on rooftop deck.  Guests enjoyed some of Lindsay and Brian’s favorite foods and a few lowcountry specialties while sipping Mojitos, the signature drink, from “Buccarelli’s Bar.”  A key lime cake topper as well as key lime and wedding cake flavored cupcakes from Sweet Carolina Cupcakes were perched high above a chandelier tier.  Lindsay and Brian made sure that there were more than enough of both flavors so their guests could pick their favorite.

Since the bride and groom are both teachers at the same high school, we paid homage to their professions by featuring green apples throughout the event – using them as place cards, centerpieces, and props.

Meredith Barouth of Island Love Photography captured the day’s festivities for the happy couple…

Sea Star Events — Creative & Unique Celebrations on Hilton Head Island         843-682-2225   www.seastarevents.com

Sign-up for By The Sea, the quarterly newsletter from Sea Star Events!

Sea Star Events is a division of Sea Star Concierge LLC.

302b/ 117 Studio Lane
2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 car space
This sophisticated property offers everything to those who wish to live the
“Chic City lifestyle.”
Located in Harbour Town, this precinct includes an abundance of shopping, cafes and much more.
Be quick as this apartment will not last long!

Click here to view the property online or contact Julie Street on 0414 627 830

Oh, and before I forget – my name is Linda Clayton.

The heroine in all my books is Maggie Bloom. My kids think she is me (or “I” if we want to be grammatically correct, and incorrect grammar is as painful to me as chalk screeching on a blackboard)), but she isn’t. I made her up, and I love her. She is forty-something, wacky, forgetful, sometimes sexy and sometimes downright crazy, and that certainly is not a description of me! Well, most of it isn’t. I’m not forty-something or sexy.

Maggie, her love, Ben, and her best friend, Lucy, are in all the books. So are Wally and Willow, Maggie’s English cocker spaniels.

Since I am neither cerebral, profound or riddled with angst, my books are intended solely for entertainment. Life is serious business. At the end of the day, it is fun to read something that might possibly make you forget – if only for a little while – about property taxes, cracked driveways and a leaking roof. So, here we go.

Although I am going to Harbour Town (Perth) tonight to visit my girlfriend who manages a clothing store there, purely a visit….

Okay, so I waited to publish this post to see how I went at Harbour Town which I was told by many people “Is so great now!!” after not having visited it in literally years, I was shocked at how awesome it is and so very disappointed at not being able to blow hundreds on some beautiful new additions to my wardrobe… sigh.

I briefly visited Dotti, Portmans, Jay Jays and Diva. . I spent money in Diva and Dotti – not bad really!

I’ll post the pics of what I got soon, but I spent $75.00… I have failed my first week, but to be honest I never thought I’d pass.

Gloss out. X

Ernie Els – Averages 72.1  Good Stat: 2 Top 10 finishes at TPC Sawgrass in the last four years.
2010:  74/71 – Missed Cut

Lucas Glover – Averages 70.6
2010: 70/65/69/70 – 3rd

With all of this being said, I still think Glover can edge out Els.

Pick: Lucas Glover

A day in the life of Jason Day: I have a hot wife and I wear a Cleveland Indians hat (Wei Under Par: Pt 1 & Pt 2)

Ernie Els broke a rule! That bastard! (Wei Under Par)

Express Lane Golf in Las Vegas (Waggle Room)

Here’s a criticism of Luke Donald “Luke hasn’t won a stroke play event on the PGA Tour since 2006 and just one stroke play event on the European Tour in seven years.” (Devil Ball)

Another criticism of Harbour Town (Geoff Shackelford)

I hate DLIII, but he’s got a smooth swing… (Armchair Golf)

Rules violations and your DVR (Armchair Golf)

Need balls? (Hot List)

Poulter is scared of ghosts (Golf Digest)

Camillo Vagina’s swing sequence if you cared (Golf Digest)

A letter to Tiger Woods (Golf Digest)

Lee Westwood is back as the World #1. I hate you Lee. (Golf)

Here’s a look at Hot Charl’s bag (Golf)

How to beat buried lies in the rough. Foot wedge? (Golf)

Who should be #1? (Golf)

Hilton Head resident Dave Henson on No. 16 at Askernish Old. (John Garrity)

Mostly he liked the fact that Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus wore their high-button shoes when designing Harbour Town. That is, they built skinny, tree-lined fairways, installed waste-bunkers where once there was only waste, let tree limbs encroach on commercial air lanes, pinched the greens until they popped, stocked the ponds with alligators, and bundled everything into a short-by-modern-standards 6,973 yards.

Harbour Town “neutralizes power,” said Furyk, a perennial also-ran in the PGA Tour’s driving-distance category. He added, “I’m not long by any means.” Still adding, he mumbled, “You could argue I’m short.”

We could argue that, but this is a golf-course blog. So I’ll just call your attention to the Furyk statement that really caught my ear. “I’ve always said that if the golf course was built before 1960, there’s a really good chance I’m going to like it. If it was built after 1990, there’s probably a good chance I’m not going to like it.”

Not one reporter in the room asked the obvious follow-up question: How do you prejudge courses built from 1960 to 1990?

Never mind. It just struck me that Furyk has hit upon a fresh way of judging golfing grounds, a method that burns off the morning fog of traditional design variables (turf quality, green speeds, length of rough, etc.), leaving us a single overriding criterion: Birthdate.

Furyk’s method, applied to my own Top 50, doesn’t yield groupings as distinct as his tripartite scheme. It’s clear, however, that the best golf courses are those built in the ‘90s. (No. 1 Askernish Old opened for play in 1891. Second-ranked Carne Golf Links threw open its original portacabin door in the 1990s.) The worst golf courses, meanwhile, were mostly built in 1987.

When I get back to Kansas City, I’ll put the Bomar Brain to the task and come up with a more encyclopedic Furyk Scale ranking. Meanwhile, I’m going find out where Furyk is having dinner and point out to him that Harbour Town actually opened in 1967.

Top 50 on TV: Nothing this week, but Harbour Town won’t hurt your eyes. Next up: Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Golf Club, but not until we’ve endured a week of New Orleans-style gumbo, chargrilled oysters and jambalaya.

The PGA Tour heads down to Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island this weekend for The Heritage [sans corporate sponsor]. The sub-7000 yard course with tiny greens requires great shot making and scrambling. Here’s to hoping they can find some coin and keep this great event going.

• Luke Donald | 10:1 – Easiest pick of the week, and odds-on favorite. I try and shy away from the clear favorite in my posts, but he has an incredible short game and back-to-back top 3 finishes here. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know he’s playing well.
• Aaron Baddeley | 20:1 – Another good pick to win. Badds put on the tartan jacket here in ’06, and is now back to the swing that got him there. Has never finished worse than T22 in five appearances, and won earlier this year at Riviera.
• Brian Gay | 30:1 – The Florida Gator is the #1 scrambler on tour, blew away the field here to win in ’09, and is coming off a decent finish in San Antonio. Probably the best value play in the field.

Tournament Matchups:

• Webb Simpson (-120) vs. Byrd – The Raleigh native had a T14 here last year and is playing well. J-Byrd just can’t scramble or putt good enough to contend here, and his terrible track record proves it. My biggest play of the tournament.
• Jim Furyk (Even) vs. Kuchar – Kuch is a sizable favorite here, which doesn’t make much sense to me. Both have strong records at this event, but Furyk’s is better (hint: defending champ) and he’s been playing well. Great value as the underdog.
• Brian Gay (-125) vs. Van Pelt – See above for my reasoning. Bo does have a decent record here and played well at the Masters, but has been fairly mediocre this season outside of Augusta.

Harbour Town is one of the toughest courses on tour in terms of Greens in Regulation hit.  That tells me this weeks winner will be a superb iron player who has stellar scrambling stats and a hot putter.  A few good iron players come to mind, but this week I am going with a lot of other people’s favorite to win, Luke Donald.

You can’t deny that Donald has had a great season thus far.  He played well at the Masters and absolutely dominated the Match Play in Arizona.  He is one of the best iron players on tour, if not the best and his putting stats are lights out this year.  I have a good feeling about a few other guys this week, but I really think Donald will have another strong week and is a safe pick.  My fantasy record thus far hasn’t been all that impressive so hopefully a safe pick is what I need to turn my record around.