American Cruise Lines - Day 10 - Hilton Head, S.C. (Part 2)

Admission to the Harbour Town Lighthouse costs $4.50. You pay at the entrance and they give you a little wristband to wear. The last lighthouse I'd actually climbed (versus just seeing from the ground or a ship) was the 185 steps of the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse in Bermuda and that was a lot of winding steps with different variations in width. At the top (before the actual light) is a very small opening to step out onto the platform. I was glad no one had a camera on me then because it was less than graceful to crawl through that little opening. I had to stop and catch my breath about halfway up but when I came back down after enjoying the view from the top, our guide said "Did you go all the way to the top? I can't believe you're back already!" Now at the Harbour Town Lighthouse I was ready for the same challenge. Alas, this one was much easier since the steps were more like small flights of stairs in a building. The steps were broken up in 5-6 step increments and were wide, even, and straight lined up. They were still just narrow enough that it was more practical to step aside and wait if someone else was already walking by that set of stairs.

Just like Gibbs Hill, there were sections every so often where you could stop on a landing, catch your breath, and peruse various displays of historic photos and information. Benches and ottoman style seating was available on many landings.

The tribute to the Coast Guard was interesting.

Bottles from the Civil War era that had been excavated near Fort Sherman:

I was about halfway up when I realized the wall had painted measurement markings showing your progress.

Anyone else find the placement of this part of the Coast Guard exhibit humorous?

An example of the longest set of stairs in the lighthouse - And no, none of the stairs collapsed in to form a chute to slide back down on despite what the angle of this picture suggests. 

At the top before you step outside into the open air Observation Deck, there is a small gift shop. Unfortunately, there was no one up there manning the shop and I was unsure about taking anything from it back down to the other gift shop area where I entered the lighthouse. Even though I'd have to pass by there anyway when I left the lighthouse. And to be honest, the last thing I wanted to do was climb all the way back down just to ask the woman that sold me my admission only to have her tell me I had to climb back up and bring her down what I wanted to buy. 

For this lighthouse it was a full size normal door to step outside and the deck was wide enough to fit a few people side by side. My 114 step climb had some beautiful rewards from this vantage point.

I liked that each corner of the deck featured a directional explanation of your view from that point.

And of course who could resist the great view of our ship from here:

Just because we never left the USA doesn't mean I won't get my picture of the local flag for this trip! This is one of the flags that is flying from the observation deck.

I found the top inscription here a little ominous:

In case anyone's in the market for a yacht, I found some in Hilton Head for you:

Moving around the observation deck we next encounter the 18th fairway of the Harbour Town Links.

And a look back at all the ants on the dock where we came in on the tender:

Bring your quarters if you want a telescopic view of your view from the lighthouse. 

Once back at the bottom entrance, I briefly browsed the gift shop there but it was mostly large items and fragile items like ships in a bottle and other trinkets. Now off to browse the shops in search of a wooden magnet for this port. One of the things we find, especially in Caribbean ports, is that the tourist gift shops might offer some sort of deal, discount, or freebie offer for cruisers. I was a little surprised here though to find a little shop out of the way down around the corner that featured a sign on the door advertising a discount to anyone with an ACL ship badge/nametag. The shop, I'm guessing after some research that it's Kilwins, mostly sold homemade gifts like jars of jelly and 1/2 of it was taken up by an ice cream shop. Would have loved to take advantage of the discount offer but I didn't see anything I wanted to buy.

A perfect example of what it must be like to live here year round:

I wandered around the shops along the waterfront for a while and finally succeeded in finding a wooden magnet for this port. While the small gift shop about 20 feet behind the lighthouse had several such magnets, I picked out this one since it showcased the lighthouse I'd just climbed:

Checking the picture of the Ship to Shore tender schedule on my phone, I realized that I'd finished exploring and shopping with about 5-10 minutes to spare before the next tender was schedule to leave. I rushed back to the top of the dock and saw this large crowd of my fellow cruisers gathered so I stuck around thinking it was the line for the tender. I soon realized it was actually the group waiting for the next alligator tour and I ran back down the ramp to our tender with the crew pulling up the ropes right after I hopped on. Shoutout to Kathy who I met on this tender ride back and enjoyed many a conversation with for the rest of the trip.

Once back on board, I took advantage of being reunited with my long zoom lens to get some pictures of the lighthouse from the ship:

Hotel Director Cheree came up with the idea of playing Two Truths and a Lie during the Cocktail Hour. In case you've never played the game, the person tells three things about themselves. Two are true and one is a lie. Everyone else then has to guess which one of the three things is the lie. And then of course it's a great conversation starter because there is always someone who comes up with something so wild, you ask for the full story. The first night or so this was promised to be run, they cancelled because not enough people bothered to fill out the little form with their answers. When they finally did run the game, I was amazed at how many people had answers about meeting presidents, foreign leaders, and celebrities as their truths! Should have had a follow up game of "Guess Their Age" based on which president they revealed to have met.

Next up: Dinner and a picture perfect sunset sail from Hilton Head and arrival into Savannah!