Day 7--Sullivans Island to Huntington Beach State Park, SC

By Matty

Day 7 started off early for Mom and Dad, who got up at 5:45 in the morning to see the sunrise on the beach. The rest of us eventually got up and went inside, where we had cheesy grits for breakfast. We then said goodbye to Mrs. Stone, Theodore, and Maryrose, and we followed Nathaniel and Mr. Stone to the historic submarine, the H.L. Hunley. We learned a lot about the Hunley from our fabulous tour guide, Mr. Stone. The Hunley was a Confederate Civil War submarine that was the first submarine ever to sink an enemy ship in combat. After being lost at sea for over 130 years, the Hunley was discovered by a team of explorers funded by novelist Clive Cussler. Right after saying goodbye and thank you to Mr. Stone and Nathaniel, we discovered via Dad’s BlackBerry that my Netherlands World Cup soccer team had just upset Conor’s Brazil. Let’s go Oranje!

We arrived at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina late in the afternoon. After setting up the RV, we headed for a Ranger led alligator-watching walk along the causeway’s boardwalk over the marsh. We walked over the causeway and saw one alligator lying in the mud. Then we saw three little baby alligators lying in the marsh with just their noses and eyes sticking out. On the walk back, however, we saw an alligator moving through the water eating the little fish that were there. According to the ranger, this was really rare to see such an active alligator. We hung around for about 20 minutes watching the alligator eat. When he went underwater, we could usually tell where he was because of the fish jumping out of his way. There were two egrets there eating the fish that were jumping away from the alligator. Most of our family was rooting for the alligator to try and go for the birds and see some feathers fly, but he was content with the fish. Mom took about 1,000 pictures. We headed back to the beach for a swim followed by dinner (pasta with meat sauce) and then s’mores around the campfire. With cooler weather and a refreshing sea breeze, the three boys slept in the tent for the night.