Wednesday October 3, 2001

This was one of our earlier mornings as we had to set the alarm to get up at 8:30. We had made reservations for the Behind the Ears tour of the resort. We drove over to the Mercantile and met “Gordon the Tour Guide” (aka Chef Gordon). He has been at the resort since pre-opening and has been an HHI native for 22 years. He was very knowledgeable. Throughout the tour he described the signs on the buildings around the resort painted by local artist with hidden Mickey’s.

He told us about Longview Island which the resort is built in had actually been a collection of fishing shacks prior to the purchase by Disney. Therefore the theme of fishing keeps with the island’s history. He told us the local residents had at first been unhappy when they heard Disney was coming to town thinking that there would be Theme Parks bringing tons of people here. They became much more happy with the idea when the realized that the area was zoned for 400 units but Disney would only be building about 102. Additionally, Disney kicked a huge amount of money into face-lifting the area of Shelter Cove Shops.

Most of resort is 4 feet above sea level, some areas, actually below. The random/haphazard placement of buildings actually isn’t so random as the buildings were placed to try to preserve the local trees, some as old as 300 years. We pointed out some of the sings on the sides of the cottages represent Disney personnel.

The Live Oak tree along the driveway is one of the oldest on the property. The roadway beside it is made of bricks rather than asphalt which allows water to get to roots thereby preserving the tree.

The Boardwalk area is below sea level. The original plan was to have shops and restaurants on certain buildings near the boardwalk. To differentiate these buildings,  their roofs were red. These retail areas would be open to the general public as well. However, Disney Vacation Development (DVD) decided against this due to the small, somewhat confining space of the island. Red roofs not made of terra cotta tile (the resort's are a red tin appearing material) are not allowed according to local zoning laws. Disney was unaware of this when the resorts were built. It appears that it was not enforced. Red Roof Inn on Hilton Head Island is only Red Roof Inn in the chain without a red roof. They apparently appeared before the zoning board to ask for one, since Disney has one.

Topiaries near front of Live Oak Lodge- actually fake greenery. The original ones fashioned back at WDW were brought to HHI. They soon after died due to the local weather, climate and soil. This happened several times before it was decided to use the fake ones. However, Gordon told us that there seemed to be a live topiary material that will be suitable to growing at HHI and will be brought here shortly.

Gordon told us the story of Shadow. Usually sleeps inside. Is brought to a ‘doggy spa’ weekly for a bath and is usually shown to the public at that time. Gordon told us that some believe that Shadow was only a myth. So she is brought around weekly for folks to see.

The tour ended in the Main Lobby and Murgie's Den. Gordon told us of the huge number of Hidden Mickey’s in each of these areas. He also pointed out the photo of Walt in a canoe near the entrance to Murgie’s Den as well as the ‘lawn bowling trophy’ with Lillian and Walter Disney’s name on it, purchased locally at a flea market. He also remarked on how most of the items in Bug Murgie’s Den were local items purchased at flea markets in the area.

This concluded the tour. Karen and I stayed back to ask if Gordon would be available for the Private Cooking session for our Anniversary. He said that he would be doing the Wine and Cheese Pairing and would not be available. He did invite us to the Wine and Cheese Pairing as well as to giving us some ideas for dinner.

Ironically, the tour ended right near our room. As we started out a little late this morning we had to drive to the Broad Creek Mercantile. So we walked back to pick up the car and to buy our DVC merchandise. After making our selection, we were told that there weren’t any DVC Member discounts anymore. HHI seems to be the only resort not giving discounts. Oh well.

We drove back to the room and made a call to Susan at the Preview Center about setting up an appointment to purchase our 50 additional points. We set up a time for tomorrow morning! This tells you how much we love DVC to be adding on another 50 points, bringing our grand total to 310!

After a lunch of leftovers, we made our way over to the Beach House and spent the remainder of the afternoon over there. The pool water was much warmer than Monday and the crowds much thinner. Gordon mentioned on our tour this morning that the resort is near 90% capacity. You would never know it when either walking across the grounds or sitting at the pool.

After relaxing by and swimming in the pool, we took a walk on the beach. As it was low tide, the beach was very wide. The sand was very hard making walking very easy. As we neared the Beach House, we decided to take a swim. The water wasn’t that cold after all. It sure was nice swimming in the Atlantic Ocean in October.

After rinsing off, we jumped into the pool. The water felt quite warm after the cooler Atlantic but still refreshing. Feeling like we had too much sun for the day, we jumped into the car and drove home.

The night of October 3^rd was earmarked (no Mickey pun intended) as a night of candlelight vigils in numerous areas of the state. One of which was Shelter Cove. All day, the CM’s were telling the Guests that traffic in and out of the Shelter Cove area was going to be brutal so either eat early or stay in. However, the Resort would be an excellent place to walk over to Shelter Cove as well as to see the fireworks at the end. In fact, the Barge that the fireworks would be shot from would be at the end of the dock on the marsh.

We cooked dinner at home this evening as we wanted to catch some of the festivities. After dinner we strolled around the resort and over to Shelter Cove. What a crowd! People were streaming in from all directions. Some carrying coolers others pulling portable coolers on wheels. We tried to get close to the bandstand but there was such a bottle neck of people that we gave up. We turned around to try to make our way out and felt like salmon swimming up stream. Finally we made our way to the bridge and over to the Resort. We casually walked along the dock on the Resort side and listened to the music.

At around 8:30 or so we grabbed two seats on the boardwalk area to watch the fireworks. Gordon had told us earlier in the day that the fireworks were usually shot from barges out in the marshes and that the boardwalk would be a perfect place to watch.

We enjoyed ourselves looking up to the stars on such a perfectly cloudless and clear night. Finally about an hour later the fireworks started. Quite a good show. We had ring side seats as the barge we straight ahead of us. Some of the larger ones really were loud. Best part about the whole show was that once it was over, we walked right over to our room.

As we had sat for a bit of time and the air was somewhat chilly, we felt chilled to the bone! We even considered turning the heat on. Instead we had a cup of hot chocolate! Shortly thereafter, we went off to sleep, another great vacation day.