Dolphins & Daufuskie

Yesterday we took a day trip to Daufuskie Island, which is a small island off Hilton Head. We took an hour-long ferry ride to get there, during which we had a good laugh. Apparently the motor from the ferry stirs up the fish, and so we had what looked like the whole seagull population following us! It started out being just a few, and then more and more joined the party. They followed us almost the whole way to Daufuskie!



We also saw some larger birds that were flying low over the surface of the water. We have seen them around the island a lot, and they must be some sort of fishing bird. They fly high in the air, and then when they spot a fish, they dive - literally - into the water. Then they some right back up and continue flying!


After arriving at Daufuskie, we took a bus to the one resort on the island - a beautiful, and obviously expensive, place. :-)

The resort hotel.

There were tons of butterflies on the flowers edging the walkway!

From there we planned to rent a golf cart to drive around the island, but found out that we were not allowed to go outside of the resort's grounds if we rented from them. So we walked the beach, which was very peaceful. And then we sort of forgot that it was peaceful when we spotted a dolphin! He (I will call it a "He" just so he won't have to be an "it") swam very close to the shore, and it was like he knew we were following him. After a while he swam further out, but there was another one who was playing close to the shore too! It was very neat. We weren't able to get a really good picture of him, but you can see his fin.









After lunch, we headed out to where we could get a golf cart that we could use to drive anywhere on the island. On Daufuskie there are mostly dirt/clay/sand roads, except in the slightly wealthier areas, where there are some paved roads. Dad let me drive the cart for part of the time, which was a lot of fun. :-) We went to some of the historical sights, including an old winery and a church, which is still used today.

The pulpit of the church.

The Praise House adjacent to the church.

After this we just drove around because we had a couple hours left till we had to return the cart and catch the ferry back to Hilton Head. On the ferry back, we had more than one dolphine encounter, and actually saw two of them jumping! Unfortunately they were too far away to get a picture, but it was such a great experience.

Today we drive back to Nini and Yeh Yeh's house, and then we'll be HOME tomorrow! I can't wait!