As our week was winding to a close, we wanted to spend some time soaking in the area, "becoming one with nature" and all that good stuff.
We made reservations with Barrier Island Eco Tours, a company that offers narrated boat tours. We chose the Capers Island tour that would give us a glimpse of some of the creatures living in marsh lands, and then drop us ff on an undeveloped island for some shelling and amazing views.
Fortunately, the nasty weather we had earlier in the week cleared up, leaving gloriously cloudy skies!
We boarded our boat and settled in for the trip.
I believe I snapped about 396,479,004 pictures as we floated along...
but, really....can you blame me?
Our tour guide was an exuberant, beach blond girl named Courtney.
She was patient with the kids, and let them touch just about everything she pulled out of this cage!
We saw a variety of wildlife, including this shark that was circling its prey in the shallow waters. Courtney guesstimated that it was about 6 feet long!
Libby was more enamored with Moses the dog...
...and her Plap plap!
Oh, that beautiful sky!
Along with touching all the living sea critters, we also passed around bones from the animals we wouldn't necessarily want to come face to face with!
And then.....and then we reached our destination!
Wide open beaches, littered only with perfectly intact whelk shells.
The interior of the island boasted large alligators, and man eating mosquitoes!
Boneyard Beach, so named for the sun bleached tree trunks caused by the natural erosion process when sea meets forest, was eerily beautiful.
The remnants of the forest created an ideal habitat for all kinds of marsh dwellers.
Long before we were ready our time was up and we boarded our boat (which almost got stuck in beach muck) and headed back to the Isle of Palms.
But not before getting up close and personal with several friendly dolphins!
