Tag: The Mangold’s

Hilton Head Island Vacation – Monday 7/14/08

Tourist Nightmare ALERT – What I am about to describe is a pure tourist nightmare, and consider this a warning. We stopped by a “visitor center” that was actually a disguise for a rental property company that lures you into listening to their sales pitch for “90 minutes,” as the try to entice you to by into a “time-share-type” of plan that would enable you to stay at any resort within their catalog. I did not want anything to do with going to this meeting, but they promised us $100/couple for listening to the plan. We took it with the intention of being able to put the money toward a deep-sea fishing trip for Nathan, Katelyn, and my in-laws. MISTAKE!

The whole presentation wound up taking almost 3 hours, the didn’t want to give us the $100 when we were explicitly told that’s what we would get. Actually, if you figure, we should have been given $200/couple since they took 3 hours of our time instead of the promised 90 minutes. The guy would just not take no for an answer. Finally, Shannon had to get out-right rude, as did I, to get him to just cut us a check and let us go! We weren’t even interested in the plan, we just wanted the cash. I know this guy had to make his living too, and he did a great job of explaining the plan, but honestly, how many times, and how many different ways can you tell a guy NO? FYI the name of the property group was Spinnaker.

Coligny Plaza Shops – A tourist trap that is a must for any visitor to Hilton Head is Coligny Plaza. There are tons of small shops, ice cream stores, a True Value Hardware Store, a souvenir shops, restaurants, and even a Piggly Wiggly! We had ice cream at the “Ice Cream Cone” shop. Katelyn had her hair braided “corn row” style at “Hair and Company.” Nathan and Katelyn both bought sand-dollars and star fish at the “Shell Shop.”

Hilton Head Island Vacation – Sunday 7/13/08

Getting Around Town – Our first order of business, once food was taken care of, as with anywhere we go for the first time, is to familiarize ourselves with the area. Thanks to our Delphi NAV200 GPS we were able to quickly get to where we wanted to go. In addition to the GPS my phone, the Blackberry Curve 8830 from Verizon Wireless, is equipped with GPS, call VZ Navigator. The VZ Navigator was especially helpful in finding area restaurants, stores, and attractions.

Bike Rides – Our bikes were indeed delivered as promised by Patriot Bike Rentals of Hilton Head Island. They were excellent bikes for getting around the resort and getting to the beach. That was just about our first order of business, trying out the new bikes and seeing the beach. I was a little worried that with my injured ankle that riding a bike would prove too much. My doctor gave me the approval so I made the attempt and I am glad I did. I was able to get around fantastic on the bike. There was a short distance that I had to walk the bike to the actual beach, which proved challenging on the softer sand, but once I was on the packed sand, it was exhilarating riding the bike along the beach with the waves crashing to the shore.

Hilton Head Vacation July 2008 – The Villa

As promised, I am attempting to keep our visitors up to date on the progress of our vacation. Our villa was immaculate. It had 3 bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. A very spacious kitchen, dining area, and living room. Outside we had a lovely covered deck right off the 6th hole of the resort golf course. In the event you attempt to put this villa in your GPS, it will need to be entered as 91 Colonnade (actually address was 195 Colonnade), Hilton Head Island, SC 29928.

The link to the villa can be found here at Resort Rentals of Hilton Head. This was a superb find and very affordable, especially when you can split the price with another family. In our case, my inlaws are going in “halvers” with us. The rate for the week came to $1386.45. Here is a link to the actual unit we will be staying in (LINK).

There were a set of towels furnished for all of us including wash cloths. This worked well because the villa included its own washer and dryer.

Room #1: Was a room with (2) twin beds and a bathroom entrance from both the bedroom and the hallway (with doors of course).

Room #2: Was furnished with a queen bed and its very own bathroom and walk-in closet.

Room #3: Was furnished with a king sized bed, a walk-in closet, shower and jacuzzi. This was our room.

Our first order of business after arriving was to stock up on groceries. Having a villa and fully utilizing the convenience to us includes the ability to cook your own meals. A tremendous savings and you’re always pleased with the quality of both the food and the service. That being said, all tolled, we only ate out 2 times the entire stay. Groceries for the whole week for all (6) of us was about $250.00. If you figure, (3) meals a day times (7) days, that’s 21 meals for the price of $250.00. That’s $35/day, divided yet again by (6) persons that equals $5.95/day per person for our meals.

I’ll post another update tomorrow about some of the specifics of the vacation in terms of the beach, shopping, what meals we did eat out, our day trips, and some of the stormy weather we encountered. We even sat through one of the dreaded condo sales pitches (not recommended).

July 5, 2008 – Smoky Mountain Knife Works then on to Hilton Head

We woke with the anticipation of officially heading towards the thrust of our vacation this year: Hilton Head Island. We woke to showers in hopes they would taper off by the time our started down the road. Now, no trip to Sevierville, TN is complete without stopping by the Mecca of all knife stores Smoky Mountain Knife Works 2320 Winfield Dunn Parkway Sevierville, TN 37876 Tel. 865-453-5871.

We initially made a trip there and spent roughly 2 hours, but we had to make one more pilgrimage there. Nathan wanted a knife with an “assist-open” feature. Typically, there is a spring in the mechanism that enables the user to “flick” the knife with your finger to open it. This is similar to a push-button feature found on switch blades, but is legal in most states. He settled on a Buck knife (about $70.00) and I too got a a couple of new knives. I’m fond of Gerber, SOG, Leatherman, Kershaw, Columbia River, and Buck knives.

  • Nate’s New “Buck Tempest” – See Pic HERE
  • My New “Buck X-Tract” – See Pic HERE
  • Plus several others

On our way out, we were stopped by a camera crew, it looked like a local Channel 10 News (WBIR) crew. They wanted to know if the high gas prices effected our travel plans. Of course, it did impact our trip, but only in that we had to budget extra money to offset the fuel prices. They also asked us how we liked Tennessee and what kind of plans we had. I’m not sure if they’ll air the footage or not, but it was sort of cool being interviewed.

From there we spent about 8 hours getting to Hilton Head Island to check into our villa. I drove all the way with a few stops for lunch, gas, and bathroom breaks. We ran into some weather on the way. We had some difficulty getting into the actual resort area since it wasn’t on the GPS, but all in all it was a good trip. We’re getting about 24 MPG, travelling at about 70 MPH.

Gas prices throughout where we were travelling were from $3.87 up to $4.05. Still beats Michigan’s $4.20.

July 4, 2008 – Mangold Family Vacation

We started our morning with an excellent breakfast at Cracker Barrel (1 of 2 right in Pigeon Forge). From there we went to the outlets yet again for a couple of last minute things. Nathan and I found a place called “Lids” that sells hats. They had this huge contraption right in the middle of the store that was an embroidering machine. This machine for about $10 would add details to just about any hat in the place. We had a blast picking out our hats and customizing them.

We then took the kids to the NASCAR go-carts for the remainder of the day. The price wasn’t too bad, it cost about $25.00 for both of them to ride a couple of times. The wait time was a bit excessive with the holiday crowds, but they walked off the ride with a smile on their face.

We had lunch at Huck Finns. This, to me, is the only place to get catfish in all of Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, or Sevierville. The bill was a bit steep, but the meal was well worth it. We each got an entree which includes hush puppies, a sliced onion, pickles, and white beans with ham. I of course ordered catfish. Shannon and Katelyn ordered calabash shrimp. Nathan ordered fried clams. This restaurant serves their drinks in “Mason” jars. This is an old southern tradition that I often even did as a child visiting Mangold’s Grove. While I’ve been down here, I’ve ordered nothing but sweet tea. I even got Nathan hooked!

Thankfully, the weather cooperated. In fact so much so, we enjoyed the fireworks from our hotel lawn. They were about 5 miles away at Patriot Park, but we had an excellent view from where we were.

We surely could have covered more ground in Pigeon Forge had it not been for the miserable traffic AND my bum ankle. I’m good for about 3 hours and then I have to get it elevated. This is the first week I have been able to put weight on the left foot with the help of a cane. So much of this vacation is going to involve taking pain pills, going to the extreme with my foot, taking more pain pills, keeping it iced and elevated.