Staying at SurfWatch this week and so we paid the $5 to go into Sea Pines/Harbour Town this morning for some urgent business: to get an ice cream cone from the Cinnamon Bear Country Store.
When I asked about the increase, the guy at the guard gate said it would be going up on April Fools Day, and he smiled very widely with the blink of an eye when he said it. No problem, it tends to keep the crowds down, and I cannot say it's a bad idea.
As for the bikes, it's also a great idea to limit the bikes to ONLY those staying in Sea Pines, or else the bike trails would be overcrowded and a bit more dangerous. No one has the right to ride in there just because they want to. So that's not a problem with me.
Besides, we stay at Grande Ocean almost exclusively and owners get free passes into Sea Pines anyway, both vehicles and bikes. (I'm sure we probably pay for it somehow thru an "arrangement".) And I disagree with people coming in from the beach illegally. One of my pet peeves is people using property when they aren't supposed to.
**** FWIW, they have cleaned out the brush alongside the lagoon as you enter Sea Pines on the right side of the road. Before when you rode in (along that stretch from the guard gate to Monarch, where the road is covered in a canopy of moss-covered trees with homes on each side), you couldn't see the lagoon on the right at all unless you rode along the bike path. Now, it's been completely cleared of scrub trees and brush alongside the path, and you can see the whole lagoon and across----very beautiful-----and both sides of the waterway has clean banks. You can now see homes across the lagoon, and also gators sunning alongside the lagoon. I think "Night Heron Villas" are across that lagoon, now visible. Just discovered today.
Also, the new Beach Club adjacent to Monarch is a monstrosity. HUGE building going up---could see massive completed framework today, roof on and walls up. It's taller than Monarch, and quite wide.
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