u.s.a: more hilton head goodness
hilton head island has a pretty big history for such a small place. it's only 140 square km, but has been lived in and fought over by the native americans, the english, the spanish, the scots and the french. its hard to believe since its so peaceful and quiet now.
during the civil war, it was a confederate stronghold until it was attacked by a union fleet, the largest ever assembled in north america. then it became an important part of the union strategy - blockading the port savannah (next blog!) and thus preventing the south from exporting cotton and importing supplies from europe. many slaves flocked to the island where they could own land, go to school and join the army.
in the 1950s it only had 300 residents, but a real estate developer named charles fraser started the sea pines resort and started it on its way to the resort it is now. fortunately he was also an environmentalist and developed it in such a way that it retained its natural beauty.
it was fun at the reunion to discover some of my relatives talents - guitar playing, singing, table tennis, cooking, emily's art....
...my dear uncle jim's great sense of humor AND his rum-and-coke-mixing skills....
....uncle howies boundless energy and enthusiasm for life...
...and just generally being-the-cutest-thing-ever-ella skills...
as a final point of interest, hilton head island, with a population of 35,000 people hosts 2,000,000 visitors every year. to put that into perspective, kenya which counts tourism as one of its main foreign exchange earners, had 1,000,000 visitors.
next up....savannah.
during the civil war, it was a confederate stronghold until it was attacked by a union fleet, the largest ever assembled in north america. then it became an important part of the union strategy - blockading the port savannah (next blog!) and thus preventing the south from exporting cotton and importing supplies from europe. many slaves flocked to the island where they could own land, go to school and join the army.
in the 1950s it only had 300 residents, but a real estate developer named charles fraser started the sea pines resort and started it on its way to the resort it is now. fortunately he was also an environmentalist and developed it in such a way that it retained its natural beauty.
it was fun at the reunion to discover some of my relatives talents - guitar playing, singing, table tennis, cooking, emily's art....
...my dear uncle jim's great sense of humor AND his rum-and-coke-mixing skills....
....uncle howies boundless energy and enthusiasm for life...
...and just generally being-the-cutest-thing-ever-ella skills...
as a final point of interest, hilton head island, with a population of 35,000 people hosts 2,000,000 visitors every year. to put that into perspective, kenya which counts tourism as one of its main foreign exchange earners, had 1,000,000 visitors.
