We leisurely traversed the long wooden boardwalk lying between our ocean view Resort and the Atlantic Ocean. The boardwalk deposited us on Singleton Beach in Hilton Head South Carolina. A beautiful stretch of white powder sand extended in both directions and the Atlantic surf rolled gently onto the shore about 50 yards dead ahead. It was Spring and the air was warm, not oppressive.
The "world's most expensive volleyball court" (according to our guide) lay just behind the dune. The Island's only beachfront cabana was situated just back from that on the boardwalk. The undulating green of the Robert Trent Jones professional Golf Course was maybe 25 yards to our right.
The clear blue Atlantic stretched out before me, restrained as if by an invisible hand. "Who needs Hawaii," I'm thinking, "when we've got Hilton Head?"
A Strategic Vacation Destination
Hilton Head South Carolina is the most popular vacation destination of the entire Eastern United States due to its central location on the East Coast. Hilton Head ocean front rentals are very popular during vacation season, typically commanding $850 per week or more. Likewise, Hilton Head rentals are a popular place for Snow Birds to spend the winter, when rates drop closer to $850 a month.
It's an easy drive to the Island for over half the U.S. population. Yet Hilton Head South Carolina is just far enough south to have the look and feel of a tropical paradise.
Parris Island, just 20 miles north lacks that special ambiance. Maybe that's why the Marines chose it for a training camp. From paradise to purgatory in just 20 miles.
Thus, a vacation on the Island, is a popular option during a full 8 months of the year -- late March to early October. Today the beach was almost deserted - it was hard to imagine that in just a few short weeks it would be teeming with 4th of July celebrants.
A Strategic Barrier Island
I was told that this barrier island is second only to Manhattan in size on the Atlantic seaboard. The barrier islands protect the coastline and often shelter entire wildlife ecosystems, an example being the intermittent lake we had just crossed on the boardwalk.
Hilton Head South Carolina was also an important piece in Lincoln's anaconda strategy to deny southern import of war supplies. The naval engagement in the Battle of Port Royal at the north end of the Island gave the Union a strategic staging area from which to conduct that strategy.
