Family Photographer in Hilton Head Island, SC

Now that Thanksgiving is here, it’s time to move on to the next holiday.

No, not Christmas. Not yet.

One of America’s favorite unofficial holidays is back — Black Friday.

Black Friday shopping has mostly evolved from inciting midnight madness.

Now, numerous retailers have been advertising Black Friday deals throughout November. Rather than promoting late night deals on Thanksgiving, retailers are choosing to give their employees time with their family during the holiday and now opt to open early Friday morning.

Yet, for many, the thrill and enjoyment of running to the nearest mall or local shopping center hours after Thanksgiving dinner is a family tradition and personal favorite.

Most Bath & Body Works locations will open at 6 a.m.

Check with your local Bath & Body Works to confirm their Black Friday hours. Locations in malls, outlets and free-standing stores may have different opening times. Some of these locations have reported to open at 5 a.m.

Will be open from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Will be open from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Will be open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Will be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Will be open from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Hours vary by location. Check with your local retailer.

Will open at 6 a.m.

Will be open from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m.

Will be open during normal store hours (6 a.m. to 9 p.m.)

Will be open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Hours vary by location. Check with your local retailer. Many report to be open from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m.

Will be open from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m.

Will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Will be open from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. Doorbusters sale will be from 6 a.m. to noon.

Will open at 9 a.m. in most locations and close at normal time.

Varies by location. Many report normal store hours (8 a.m. until 10 p.m.)

Will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Stores will reportedly be open during normal hours (6 a.m. to 11 p.m.)

Hours vary by location. Check with your local retailer.

Varies by location. Many report normal store hours (8 a.m. to 9 p.m.)

The city of Beaufort has denied an annexation request that “got extraordinarily personal” and divided the City Council and neighbors while raising questions about fairness, future growth and the environmental impacts of docks on marshland.

A 4.7-acre property at 7597 Patterson Road, situated on a high bluff overlooking the Whale Branch River and Middle Creek, caused the controversy. It is located seven miles from the heart of Beaufort, near Clarendon farms, which the city annexed in 2006.

David Greer and Amy Wylie of Spartanburg, who were proposing to buy the land, asked the city to annex the waterfront property into the city limits and rezone it. It’s currently in Beaufort County’s jurisdiction. They hoped, David Greer said, to build their “forever home” on the land a real estate notice described as “magical.”

Instead, the property turned into a battleground over annexation. Neighbors worried about the potential uses — including a plan by Greer and Wylie, who are married, for a 343-foot-long dock into the marsh in order to reach deeper water — if it was annexed into the city and rezoned. The maximum length of a dock in a riparian area under Beaufort County’s rules is 300 feet.

Greer and Wylie and their attorney, Cody Lenhardt, argued that, technically, the issue at hand was solely annexation — not a request for a dock, which involves other permitting authorities.

By voting down the annexation request because of a proposed dock, Greer said, the city was creating a questionable standard for future requests. He and Wylie did not skirt any laws, they added, and worked with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control regarding the dock.

The dock, Lenhardt said, would have been extended to a navigable creek. The neighbors, he added, have docks, too.

“This is very clearly a situation,” Lenhardt said, “where you have those who have, do not want one more.”

But neighbors, including Patrick Matthews and Margie Bright Matthews, who is a Democratic state senator from Colleton, who live immediately next door to the property, accused Greer and Wylie of seeking the annexation and asking for the land to be rezoned to take advantage of the city’s less stringent waterfront building rules to construct the longer dock through the marsh to reach the creek. They called it zoning or jurisdiction shopping.

“This thing doesn’t have the right flavor,” said Daryl Ferguson, one of the neighbors questioning the annexation and the dock plans.

The environmental impacts of the longer dock through marshland concerned him, Ferguson said, including what it would do for access for dozens of kayakers who he says enjoy the area.

The City Council, by a 3-2 split vote, denied the annexation last Tuesday. The decision came, Mayor Stephen Murray noted, on the same evening the council unanimously OK’d a similar type of annexation at 139 Chowan Creek Bluff Road. Nobody, Murray pointed out, objected to that request.

“So I fear we make a decision based on mob rule,” said Murray, “not on planning” and what’s in the best interest of residents and the city’s vision for growth over the next 30 or 40 years.

To be sure, Murray said, the decision was “a tough one. “Leapfrogging” out to the remote area, to annex a property, and the idea of zoning shopping, Murray said, bothered him.

But, Murray added, as the city continues to grow, it has a responsibility to taxpayers, who already are subsidizing services to outlying areas, to incrementally annex properties with owners who wish to join the city and take advantage of its services. The land, he added, is within the city’s growth boundaries and service delivery area.

The annexation, and a proposed rezoning of the land, Murray noted, would actually have provided more protections for the neighborhood because only single-family homes would have been allowed, whereas commercial uses are allowed now.

But others could not stomach the idea of the annexation request if the purpose was to change the jurisdiction in order to get a longer dock, even if the city has no control over dock permits.

It was clear to Councilman Phil Cromer that Greer and Wylie only wanted to join the city to build the dock, which he equated to extending private property rights through the public marsh. “And,” Cromer said, “I can’t go along with that.”

Councilman Mitch Mitchell called the annexation request a “work around” to get the dock approved, and Councilman Neil Lipsitz also voted against it. Murray and Councilman Mike McFee voted for the annexation.

Greer and Wylie had wanted to build a legacy property for their family on the land, which is owned by Inez Johnson of New York and advertised for $399,000, said Lenhardt, their attorney. They’ve not finalized any decisions on what they plan to do in light of the annexation denial, which had been a condition of the purchase.

“Nobody in the neighborhood ever expressed any interest in purchasing the property until my clients found the property and fell in love with it and wanted to make a forever home,” Lenhardt said. “What they’ve done is pretty surprising.”

Phil Nagley, a Realtor, said the offer from Wylie and Greer for the Patterson Road property has been withdrawn. A backup offer was in place, he said, but he could not say from whom because the sale has not closed yet.

While not denying their intent to seek a permit for the dock, Greer said he was working with DHEC and called other accusations that were made about their intent for the property in general “pretty hurtful to myself and my wife.”

John Sandfort, another neighbor, said there were real concerns about the delivery of emergency services if a single property was added to the city while other properties remained in the county’s jurisdiction.

There already had been one instance in the area, Sandfort said, when a barn burned down at Clarendon farm because of uncertainty between fire departments about who was responsible for covering the area.

“Our concern is if we end up with one piece of city property under residential restrictions, and everyone else is county, would we have the same problem?” Sandfort said.

The Coastal Conservation League unsuccessfully lobbied the city to hold off making decisions on the annexation requests for both 7597 Patterson Road and 139 Chowan Creek Bluff Road.

CCL’s Grant McClure noted both properties are on the water’s edge and subject to Beaufort County’s more rigorous rules protecting riparian buffers. Those buffers are critical, McClure said, because they reduce erosion, provide wildlife habitat, help maintain water quality and increase property values.

The city, McClure said, should pass regulations that match the county’s. CCL sought the delay until those new regulations could be acted upon.

Christmas is coming early for Chip Michalove.

It’s in the form of hundred of pounds to tons in weight. Thousands of razor-sharp teeth. And a signature pointed dorsal fine. That’s right, as the waters cool and the holidays are upon us, great white sharks are swimming down from the northeast to South Carolina waters.

For Michalove, a Hilton Head Island charter captain who owns Outcast Sport Fishing, it’s the best gift he could ask for. And if his prediction holds, because of the earlier-than-normal cold waters, this great white season could shape up to be one for the books.

He’s aiming to tag and release 10-15 of the apex predators during the season that typically runs through March, though he’s had a couple stragglers in April. At the top of his list is reeling in 16 or 17-footer, which would topple the typical 10- to 12-foot sharks the captain usually tags. For reference, Michalove’s boat is 26 feet and a mammoth 16-foot shark would tip the scales at about 3,000 pounds.

The next couple of months will be a bitter-cold waiting game to see whether he gets his wish, but if temperatures around Hilton Head continue to plummet, Michalove said it’s shaping up that he could tag an “enormous one” off the coast.

From satellite tags Michalove and others have placed on the great whites, he watched as the majority barreled up to New England and Canada this summer to feast on a buffet of seals and whales. As the waters get colder, the massive fish make their way to Carolina, Georgia and Florida seas.

“They’re all in transition right now,” Michalove said. “(For the next two weeks) the Atlantic Ocean looks like I-95 on Thanksgiving weekend.”

The more sharks, the better. That’s right. It’s not what most laymen would think, but the influx of white sharks in recent years means the area waters are healthier. And when Michalove affixes thousands of dollars worth of tags to one of the gigantic fish, scientists can glean from them vital data points.

Biologists with whom Michalove works, like the “shark godfather” Greg Skomal with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, can track information from the shark’s movements to the saltiness of water the fish prefer. The Hilton Head captain also works with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

Not even a decade ago was information available about great whites visiting Hilton Head.

“We’re just really scratching the surface on what we can learn from these fish down here,” Michalove said. “We’re starting to learn what they’re doing here and why.”

Reese was the last great white Michalove caught, tagged and released. That was back in late-March, as the species was heading northward. The 9-year-old female fish was 10 feet long, nearly a whopping 1,000 pounds and gave the well-known “shark whisperer” a good run around.

Michalove acknowledges that if someone wants to hop on a charter with him to seek a great white in the coming months, it’s going to be a freezing cold ride, what he called “the most miserable day of your life until one shows up.”

“And then you could die tomorrow,” he added.

There’s no question in his mind, the wait and the fight to catch, tag and release a great white is worth it.

The next few weeks, as the fish continue to swim south, he’ll have his senses on alert for 16- to 17-foot apex predators. But for now, as Michalove puts it, “we’re just starting the first inning.”

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (WSAV) — Hilton Head Island is usually popular with tourists year-round, but on Thanksgiving people come from all over the area and the nation for one reason, turkey.

The bird was served up with fun and fellowship at the Community Thanksgiving Dinner at Hudson’s.

Gloria and Allen LaCoe and some of their friends started the meal as a way to bring folks together on the holiday who might be lonely.

Twenty-three years later, more than 1,600 people come to the Island on the holiday for a feast, and so much more.

Andrew Carmines has run this Hudson’s Seafood on the Dock’s for more than a dozen years, but this year is a little bit special. He has enlisted some help from his two daughters, Millie and Alice–working right next to dad.

“They always wonder where dad is on Thanksgiving and now they know,” said Carmines.

Millie and Alice Carmines added, “It makes people happy. And they talk to the community and make new friends.”

“We will see how it goes. Maybe one year in the not-too-distant future I can take off a little early,” Carmines said.

The tables are set up family-style. You may be sitting next to a friend or family member, or a stranger who will then be passing you ham, turkey and all the trimmings.

It has become an event that people from across the state will put on their calendars every year not just for the good food, but for the people.

“This is such a great a great area for the community,” says Gloria LaCoe. “It’s a sense of community the island itself. We do reach beyond the Island, Bluffton, and Beaufort and people come from Savannah. It is a day where we can really give thanks for being here.”

Hudson’s staff takes days to cook up the dozens of turkeys, ham and side dishes and then a team of 350 volunteers serves up the meal to all comers.

The food is free, but the event does benefit three local charities, Bluffton Self Help, Deep Well and Second Helpings. So donations are happily accepted.

The Lima family isn’t going anywhere.

This is their first year volunteering and Mom says it won’t be their last.

“If you start them early then it will stay with them and hopefully when I am sitting at the table they will be serving me. that’s the idea,” Volunteer Alena Lima told WSAV News 3.

The best idea for everyone here is to enjoy the food and enjoy every moment together.

Hilton Head Island, SC - The 20th anniversary exhibition of automobiles, airplanes, watercraft and more announces 2022 winners with the 1936 Horch 853A Special Roadster owned by Mr. Robert S. Jepson, Jr. of Savannah, Georgia taking home “Best of Show.'' The grand finale was held at the Port Royal Golf Club on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina with strong attendance. More than 600 collector vehicles from around the country were presented throughout the event, taking visitors on a journey of innovation, history, art and design.

The 2022 awards recognize the best-of-the-best in automotive alongside five additional categories which were also awarded as follows:

Lindsey Harrell, the Festival’s President, said, “As we celebrate this milestone occasion, twenty years since our founding, we are grateful for the vision of our board, event team and organizers. Over the course of the last two decades, our vision has grown into one of the most robust motoring events on the East Coast. This weekend was an exciting moment to celebrate what this show means to its audience, from the people who enjoy cars regularly to the visitors who attended for the very first time. It is also an opportunity to reflect on our history, to plan thoughtfully for our future, and to say thank you. We are grateful to everyone who supports us in achieving our goals.”

A complete list of winners and awards will be posted to the Festival’s website before the end of the month. For more information on this year’s winner or for information on the 2023 show, visit the official website at www.HHIConcours.com.

ABOUT THE HILTON HEAD ISLAND CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE & MOTORING FESTIVAL:

The Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival’s 2023 event will be held November 3rd through 5th on Hilton Head Island. Hilton Head Island Concours d'Elegance, Inc., a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization, is a unique, multi-day "Lowcountry" motoring experience that entertains and educates the community while supporting youth programs. Whether four wheels or two, a propeller, a sail or a horseless carriage, the Motoring Festival offers the full gamut with over 700 vintage and specialty vehicles on display. The weekend celebration offers everything from an elegant hangar gala to a showcase of car clubs displaying their pride and joy to the culmination, the heart of the event, the Concours d'Elegance, all with a touch of Southern hospitality. For more on the event, visit https://www.hhiconcours.com.

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