Once again we got up about 8:15 & ate breakfast in the room. We had signed up for a marsh ecology walk so we had to over by the pool by 9. The first order of business was putting on waders so we could walk through the muck.
They have a couple of ecologists on staff & she took us out into the marsh area. We walked out over all this dead reed looking material called cord grass & looked at some unique plants along the way. There was one called oxeye that is a protected plant in South Carolina. It is at the edge of the marsh & helps stabilize the marsh. It is the scrubby looking plant past the grasses along the edge of the marsh.
There was another plant called pickle weed that you can eat if you get lost in the marsh. She had us break a piece off & taste it & it really does taste like a pickle.
We also saw tons of little periwinkle snails. They are called that because their shells used to be ground up to make blue dye. Really interesting because they have no visible blue on them at all.
As we walked along the edge, we saw tons of little fiddler crabs, but as we got over towards the canal area there were much bigger ones.
Also saw a blue heron fishing.
More crabs & a bit of video of the fiddlers on the beach waving their big claw at us. They have one big claw & one small one-if the big claw falls off from injury etc. then the other claw grows into a big one.
Looking back at the resort across the marsh.
And a cute little bird hanging out.
The piece of information that sticks out the most in my memory is "a smelly marsh is a healthy marsh."
We enjoyed our marsh walk. It was fun to walk around in the squishy mud. When we were finished, we walked out the fishing pier to see if we could see any more animals. There was a blue heron hanging out right by the pier.
There was a guy fishing there & he would occasionally throw the bird a piece of bait. Pretty smart bird to hang around there huh?
In this picture you can see some oysters too which we learned about on our marsh walk.
This bird was taking a bath...not sure how murky water gets you clean but it must work for him.
Before too long, I noticed some fins & we were treated to seeing some dolphins in the channel playing & fishing.
I took some video & if you go to about 2:00 minutes you will see them splashing around.
So after our wild kindgom like adventures, we went back to the room. On our way back we say B'lou Crabbe & Shadow as they were taking lots of kids on a funny bunny hunt.
When we got back to the room, we rested for a bit & then decided to go into Sea Pines. Sea Pines is really the first area of Hilton Head that was a planned development. It is my favorite plantation on HH & it is where we usually stay if we are not using
DVC points. You have to pay 5$ to get into Sea Pines if you aren't staying there, so we only went once this trip. We drove down to South Beach where we usually stay. This is where the Salty Dog Cafe is. We ate lunch at the Wreck of the Salty Dog. We had a lovely table overlooking the marina & Broad Creek.
I had a shrimp salad sandwich & a cup of she crab soup. Yummo.
After lunch, we had to do our shopping at the Salty Dog. We both got a new hat, bought Bella a new water bowl & some treats. They have these gerat macaws there in South Beach too. They are so colorful & they are fun to watch.
Cont in next post.
When I finished reading your update I looked over at Don and told him I needed a beach vacation. He said there wasn't one close and he'd take me to the lake instead - yeah, soooooo not the same
cause I knew we would have the big tub! Pretty smart if I do say so myself. 
Oh well, their loss was our gain, she has been the best dog we've ever had. 
