Put on your reading glasses. It's a long one.
Tuesday, June 11th, 2013
First I have to say it was hot and humid. One woman told us she had been there 14 years and it has never been so hot so early in the summer.
The second item is a caution.
Candlewood Suites Bluffton
Not very clean, our first room had stained sheets, a stained chair and stained carpet. It also smelled terrible. We went to front desk and got a different room. The second room had an empty plastic, flattened vodka bottle and a tin of chaw under the mattress. These were found when we checked for bedbugs. Finding these items told us they don’t bother to check for bedbugs very often. We took them to the front desk and gave them to the assistant manager. Many apologies were given. We went to dinner and when we came back there was an apology card under the door and we were comped the first night’s stay. Nice of them, but we would have preferred the rooms be clean…
Thursday morning we got a wake up call at 5:00am that we did not ask for. This place just gets worse…
Sun City
When we first got there we couldn’t find the hotel. (Garmin had no clue) and we followed a woman driving a golf cart into the Lion King parking lot to ask her where it was. That simple question ended up with information about where to play cards, a lunch date with her and her husband, and them leaving a copy of the previous month’s SunSations magazine for us to read at the front desk of our hotel. That is the local Sun City magazine. This is one of the reasons we keep looking at an over 55 place. Every time we go to one this is what we are greeted with. We always find friendly, helpful people who love where they live and the opportunities available to them.
There are golf carts everywhere as well as bicycles. There are more young(er) people than I expected. That was a pleasant surprise.
It is gated so we had to pick up a pass.
That evening we ate at
Okatie Ale house. It was very crowded. We had no idea why. The food was bland. I had Angus meatloaf that had no flavor, none. I might as have well eaten a fast food hamburger. The side of broccoli was steamed to oblivion. It was soft, with no flavor. They served mashed potatoes that I am certain were out of a box, but with salt and pepper they were the best food on the plate. The beer was the highlight of the evening. It was Yuengling at $2.75 a glass. It is excellent beer at an okay price. Mrs. Tek had fish of some kind with the same reaction as to flavor, etc. We figured out later that one of the restaurants in Sun City was closed so the Ale House was now the local hangout. There may be a better selection to make for dinner and we just got unlucky, hard to tell.
Wednesday
We met a Realtor at 9:00am. He spent the entire day (until around 4:30 or so) driving to houses with different floor plans and every place of interest in the community. He literally wore me out. This wasn’t some guy that just wanted to sell us a house; this was someone who wanted us to understand the entire community and what it meant to the people who live there.
I am reminded again about the attitude and friendliness of people who live in the Sun Cities we have visited. It’s not a guarantee that every one has the same type of people, but the two we’ve been to have people like this. Every person we met during this tour was friendly and loved living there. It seems the sentiment was universal.
He’s been a Realtor for 40 years and lived here for 11 or 12 so he knows the place inside and out. He told us background information, options available on the homes we looked at, stories about how the area was developed and why, etc. House locations vary from having neighbors behind you to a lagoon, woods, etc. All the houses we looked at had been well maintained and it looked as if the landscaping rules were not overly strict. We looked at houses from a little under 1700 square feet to about 2000.
Floor plans varied and some had three and for season porches added. Some had lanais and some had covered slabs.
We looked at the
Teton and the
Egret, both of which are a little smaller than we want, but had nice layouts with decent size rooms. We looked at the
Pelican, the
Hatteras, the
Dogwood, and a very nice
Vernon Hill. Some of these have a feature we don’t particularly care for; the master bedroom opens directly into the great room. Not a plus in our book. Most had options added per the plans and some had extras added beyond that. At a few of the houses the homeowners were there and one served us cookies! One showed us a non-standard, but very nice storage feature.
Mrs. Tek decided we were not living by a lagoon. They come with alligators. I offered to buy her a tee shirt that said “Alligator Bait”. I don’t think she found it to be amusing.
Of particular interest to me is the wood shop, and they are adding another 15k square feet on to it. They have classes you have to take in order to work with the machines. That is something I wholeheartedly approve of. I believe it costs $30 or $35 a year to belong. In that same building is a beautiful miniature railroad. Next to it is a dog park and on the other side is a composting area where you can take yard waste. A little farther down is softball, Pickle ball, and some other outdoor activities.
The entire area is green. There are beautiful tall evergreens and thick undergrowth as well. We saw a wide variety of plants and flowering plants at the homes we visited. For a gardener like me it is paradise.
We ate dinner at
Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant. We highly recommend it, except for the service. I had steak fajitas and Mrs. Tek had the seafood chimichanga. Both were exceptional. Her Chimi was, in her words, “One of the best I’ve ever had.” My steak Fajita was fantastic. The only short falling was a lack of Pico sauce. Service was lackadaisical. When I needed more tortillas for my fajitas all the servers were standing around the front desk (including the one we thought was the manager - different colored shirt) talking instead of paying attention to customers needs. Something they need to change or they might as well serve lousy food. I don’t care how good the food is, if I have to wait until my fajitas are cold to get more tortillas I won’t go back. The margaritas were excellent! Service is their shortcoming.
Thursday
We went through Del Webb model homes in the “new” area north of 278. I’ve come to call it the Dark Side since Del Webb doesn’t do a very good job at customer service – read on for the reason. We found one we liked (The
Castle Rock) and made an afternoon appointment to meet with one of their sales people (Kelly) and our realtor. We got there and “Kelly was busy writing a cost estimate for someone”. We looked at a couple of the models for ½ an hour and she was still busy. Apparently appointments don’t mean anything to Del Webb staff. We are supposed to get a call from her so we can get a cost estimate on the model we liked, but I’m not holding my breath. I think I know why their sales are slow in the new part.
Update: We still have received no communication from Del Webb after 13 days.
That slams the door for us and any Del Web purchase. What a lousy way to run a business. I’d be cautious about buying a house from them at this point. Think about it; if they are so poorly motivated to sell a house, how motivated are they to solve a problem after you own one? It’s a shame because we really liked that floor plan and the price was right.
We took some time to go through the City Center area in the older section on our own. Well part of it. It’s big and it was very hot and humid. We saw some of the craft areas – sewing, ceramics, stained glass, computers, photography, astronomy, art, and some I’ve forgotten. I’m going to add a list or two at the end of this post regarding the clubs, shopping, etc. There is a movie theater ($2.00 tickets for newer movies - Safe haven was showing in June), and were amazed at the size of the library. We were told that there are libraries in the other amenity areas, but this is the largest one. There are advertisements for coming attractions like
Jeanne Robertson, a rock and roll act, string quartet, and others I’ve forgotten. Oh, and a huge Fourth of July festival.
We had lunch with the couple that was set up Tuesday when we met her in the parking lot at Food Lion and asked where the hotel was. Before we went to lunch we met her at their villa and she gave us a tour of their home. It is beautifully redone on the inside. She has a knack for decorating.
She is a font of information about shopping, the arts, clubs, etc that are available and her husband knows the financial side. Pretty much any question we had regarding costs, taxes, etc he knew the answer. She gave us a list of stores, malls, etc on 278 so when we spent our day looking at what’s available we’d know where to look. We got information regarding health care, the cities that are close (Savannah and Charleston), where to see the original parts of Bluffton, areas to go to in Savannah, anything and everything.
Mrs. Tek had a number of questions regarding finances and health care and he knew the answers to every one. My eyes glaze over when she gets to talking about all that as it’s beyond me. My forte lies in other areas. One of the things I gleaned from the conversation is that even though the property taxes are higher on the Dark Side the cost of living isn’t much different because other things are less expensive. That is a good thing to know if you can ever get a Del Webb sales rep to talk to you.
Talk about asking the right stranger for help!!
Lunch was at
Jameson’s Charhouse in one of the amenity areas. We each had a Harvest salad which was excellent!! It was recently remodeled and we sat in an area that was all glass and watched golfers practice putting.
Thursday was dinner at Wendy’s. Mrs. Tek is playing duplicate bridge tonight. I’m recovering from all the running around, and adding to this write-up. No time for a sit-down dinner.
I left early to pick up Mrs. Tek so I could take a little drive around the area. I saw a man sitting in his driveway and stopped to talk with him. He lived in the area as a child, left, and returned for retirement. We had quite a long talk and one of the things he said has stayed with me. “Move here and you will add twenty years to your life.”
Friday
We drove to Hilton Head – almost. We got to the island and started seeing toll roads so we left. The only reason we went was to check out shopping along the highway and to find a public beach. We found tons of shopping, with some short comings that Mrs. Tek noticed, and a beach is a beach, is a beach. Three is a lot of shopping along the highway with some notable exceptions being clothing stores that are not outlet stores. These distances were found using zip code 29909.
By distance:
WalMart Hardeeville, SC – 5.5 miles
Target – 5.5 miles
Home Depot – Hilton Head – 6 miles
Sam’s – Hilton Head Island – 13 miles
Lowes – Rincon, GA - 16 miles
Kohls – Savannah – 24 miles
Dillards – 38 miles
Costco - Charleston, SC – 60 miles
We drove to Bluffton on the way back and visited the Church of the Cross. It is a beautiful church. We walked to the rivers edge and out on a pier. This is a very pretty area. The drive back out was on Calhoun Street where there are a lot of artsy type shops. We didn’t stop at any though a few looked interesting.
Then we went back to Sun City Hilton Head and drove around the area without the Realtor to get an idea of what it’s like without commentary. We still like it, but the humidity was ridiculous for this time of year. We call that fair weather, as in State Fair, which is in August here. It’s not that it’s so much different than here; it’s just that it apparently lasts so long.
We drove to
Jersey Mike’s subs because we were tired and didn’t feel like doing a sit-down dinner. Meh. Rather bland sandwiches. Okay food, but not a place I’d drive that far for again.
Saturday
The Realtor took us to see the Vernon Hill and it was beautiful. If it had been less expensive we might have jumped, but it’s out of our price range, and we will not go over for any house.
Late morning we left for Amelia Island and our three day “vacation”.
Lists
Community Groups in SCHH
Yemassee Craft Buildings
Ceramics studio with four kilns and pottery wheel
Art Studio
Sewing room
Arts and Crafts room
Computer room
Billiard room, Card rooms, table tennis
Stained glass area, photography
Pinckney Hall (17,000 sq. ft.)
Grand Ballroom
Wall Street room
Community TV studio
Meeting and multi-purpose rooms
Book exchange room
Magnolia Hall
548 seat performing arts center
Multi-purpose facility with theatre-style seating
State of the art audio/video system
Purrysburg Fitness Center
Eight lane indoor heated pool
Hot tub spa
Dance and Aerobics studio
Therapy spa
Cardio/weightlifting equipment
Jameson bar and restaurant
Heated pool and hot tub spa
Golf course and clubhouse
2nd driving range, chipping and putting
2nd pro shop, meeting rooms and fitness
Woodworking Shop (8,000 sq. ft.)
Fully equipped with training and classes
Model railroad room
Okatie Golf Course
Pro shop, driving range, putting green
British Open Pub restaurant and bar (closed when we were there)
Commercial Park
Golf cart access to doctors offices
Pharmacy, banks, restaurants, grocery stores, hair salons
Outdoor Activities
12 lighted clay tennis courts
2 professional croquet lawns
5 heated pools
Walking resistance pool and hot tub spa
2.5 acre fenced dog park
Biking trails
Nature walking and jogging trails
Fitness trail with exercise stations
Bocce ball, pickle ball, softball, volleyball, basketball, horseshoes, green belts
20 acre Lake Somerset with gazebo
Picnic tables and swings
Fishing lake with pier
Community garden plots
Outdoor pavilion and playground
Riverbend
Lodge with meeting rooms and bar area
Okatie River access
475’ dock with kayak lift on the Okatie River
Outdoor pool and hot tub spa
Crabbing and fishing from the dock
Argent Lakes – North
3rd fitness center/outdoor resort pool/spa/hot tub and indoor lap pool
2 bocce, 4 tennis, 4 pickle ball courts
3rd golf course with driving range and putting green
Meeting rooms/card rooms, ballroom
Surrounding area theatre, arts, etc.
This list is from the woman we had lunch with.
Live theatre
Bluffton
May River Theatre:
www.mayrivertheatre.com Local talent - musicals
Hilton Head Island
Arts Center of Coastal Carolina:
www.artshhi.com Local and professional talent
South Carolina Repertory Company:
www.hiltonheadtheatre.com Local and professional talent
Main Street Youth Theatre: Musicals and plays with local youth. I cannot get this link to work correctly. Key
msyt.org in your browser to go to the site
Savannah
The Historic Savannah Theatre:
www.savannahtheatre.com Local company creates it’s own material; excellent vibrant shows
Lucas Theatre for the Arts:
www.lucastheatre.com Savannah Philharmonic/Savannah Music Festival March-April. Savannah Film Festival late October early November
Trustees Theater:
www.trusteestheater.com Savannah Film Festival/Savannah Book Festival speakers
Savannah Civic Center:
Savannah, GA - Official Website - Civic Center Click on Featured Events at left
Beaufort
USCB Center for the Arts:
www.uscbcenterforthearts.com
Some other Venues:
Hilton Head Symphony performs in First Presbyterian Church on Hilton Head Island
Hilton Head Choral Society
Jazz Corner – Village of Wexford on Hilton Head island
Movie theatres:
Cinemark – 5 minutes from Sun City on Buckwalter Parkway
Northridge Cinema 10 Hilton Head Island
Coligny Theatre in Coligny Plaza on Hilton Head Island (independent films)
Park Plaza Cinemas near Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island
She also told us about a great
jazz festival in Charleston.
I hope you enjoyed the post.
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