Snack Time In Hilton Head

TEL_0536, originally uploaded by Thomas Lester.

Another night is over here in Hilton Head. We went out to another restaurant, this time we thought we'd play it safe and go to a very popular mexican place. The place is called "Aunt Chilada's". Another massive Hilton Head dining disappointment. If to you a great vacation also includes good food, Hilton Head isn't the place for you. I'd recommend finding a good rental home or condo instead of a hotel so that you can cook for yourself. I'm beginning to believe that cooking for yourself is the only way to get a decent dinner. The Jazz Corner, however, was very good. Breakfast in our hotel has been very good as well.

As you can see in this picture, we had a very tired crew tonight. We got some snacks and some milk and had snack time in bed in the hotel room.

Who's That On Drums?

TEL_0452, originally uploaded by Thomas Lester.

We are sitting there enjoying our dinner when the singer, Bobby, starts asking where people are from. Then he asks if there are any musicians in the house. Brian blurts our, "I play the drums". Next thing you know, Brian is invited to sit in on stage. Of course, the band jokes around with what he might know how to play. The guitar player is playing recognizable rock song licks. Bobby asks Brian what he wants to play. Brian says, "maybe something in a mid-tempo swing". For the life of me, I can't remember what song he chose. My mind was more focused on, "Oh God, please let him not screw this up". This is a very nice place. I was really hoping he'd remember his "jazz sensibilities".



He did great. Not only was his dynamics great and his time solid, but he also put in some really tasty fills. He swung really well. Despite being so nervous that he almost had to go throw up after, he read his "band mates" really well. Popped some good accents on the snare and toms, and finished with a big ending. It was really great!

I was SO PROUD! We had everyone in the place coming around to our table to shake Brian's hand. Someone even offered to buy him a shot... Ha!

The Jazz Corner

TEL_0441, originally uploaded by Thomas Lester.

This was a place I found on the Internet before we even left Jacksonville that I knew I wanted to visit. They have live Jazz every night of the week, and I don't mean a guy playing sloppy standards on the piano. I mean, they bring in talent from all over the country. Last night was a local quartet, "The Bobby Ryder Quartet". Big bad style songs, but in a quartet. Great singer sax player that sounded a lot like Tony Bennett.

This place was pretty pricey, but the food was fantastic, the atmosphere was great, and the jazz was swing'n! Oh... if you visit, call ahead for directions. It's not a big place, but every table is a "good seat".

Check out The Bobby Ryder Quartet:

The Jazz Corner

Late Afternoon Swim

TEL_0433, originally uploaded by Thomas Lester.

The kids went for one more late afternoon swim before we had to go pick up Heather from camp for the day. The kids posed for me and allowed me to play around with my camera. I'm learning to use my flash off camera. In this shot, the flash was about 3 feet away from me on my right (camera right). This was triggered wirelessly from my camera.

They make good models.

Right after this shot, we retrieved Heather, and got cleaned up to go to "The Jazz Corner". A very cool jazz club and restaurant in town. They had a fantastic quartet playing tonight. More to come on that in my next post.

Dinner On The Docks

TEL_0412, originally uploaded by Thomas Lester.

I'm trying to play catch up now that I've got everything working correctly. I'v configured flickr and blogger.com to work together so I can just blog directly from flickr. Much easier now.

We had dinner last night at "South Beach". Our intention was to go to "The Salty Dog", however... there was a 2.5 hour wait and we were hungry. So, we went to another restaurant owned by the came company. It was pretty good. Heather had crab legs (a lot of them). I had stuffed grouper, and the kids both had shrimp.

Brian and I decided to go trespassing in the marina. While we waited for our table.

I'm So Proud Of My Wife

TEL_0365, originally uploaded by Thomas Lester.

As I mentioned in my first post, we are visiting Hilton Head Island, because my wife is training at the world renown Van Der Mere tennis camp. She is training and studying to become a Tennis Pro. She love tennis... always has (not as much as she loves me, though!).

This picture was actually taken on our way to Hilton Head when we stopped for lunch in Savannah. We strolled around the historic area of town along the river. We stopped in a park where people would gather for town announcements and such (probably public trials as well). In this park is where the Declaration of Independence was read to the townspeople of Savannah.

My wife is the most gorgeous woman in the world. I'm so lucky! I'm very proud of her.

For the photo geeks out there, this was a strobist shot.  I have a SB-800 on a voice activated stand, camera left using CLS.  Triggered via on-camera flash in commander mode and remote SB-800 in TTL.

In Hilton Head This Week

I've started a new blog.  To start things off, I'm going to be journalling our vacation to Hilton Head Island.  What brings us to Hilton Head, you ask?  Well...  my wonderful wife is training and studying to become a Professional Tennis Registry "Pro" (teaching pro).  She's amazing and she's dreamed of doing something like this and now she's doing it.  I'm very proud of her.  She's been teaching since a little before summer and she's great.  Her students (adults and kids) love her.  Of course....  what's not to love, right?

So, we are in Hilton Head Island.  We traveled up yesterday morning.  On the way, we stopped in Savannah for lunch and to walk around the city.  I'll post some pictures later (we have Heather's seven year old powerbook, that doesn't handle 13 MB RAW camera files very well...  so it's slow).  We are having a good time.  We went and had some great sea food for dinner last night.  After, Heather was really tired, so she rested in the room while me and the kids went for a late night swim.  The kids loved it, of course, since they don't get to swim at night very often.  

This morning we dropped Heather off at Van Der Mere Tennis Academy.  Then, the kids and I had breakfast at "Brellas", one of the restaurants in the hotel.  Now, we are about to head to the beach and/or pool.