Auston Chase Apartment Homes

What a great week to live in an apartment in Ridgeland, SC. The South is where the best food is. And residents in the Beaufort, Hilton Head and Ridgeland area have been having a great time eating the best food around. Make sure you catch the last weekend of Restaurant week in Hilton Head.  Restaurant week in Hilton Head is an eleven day celebration of the best in southern food at hundreds of participating restaurants from January 12 through 22. You can see the menus of all the participating restaurants on the Restaurant Week Website.

From fine dining to casual dining, participating restaurants will feature special menus items, promotions and discounts. You can sample the newest restaurants in Hilton Head as well as revisit your old favorites and taste a variety of exceptional dishes being prepared by chefs.
 
Restaurant Week in Hilton Head is an exciting event that showcases the outstanding culinary scene throughout this exciting city. We hope you enjoy the most delicious week of the year in South Carolina!

Summer vacation is now upon us in Hilton Head. Sometimes it's hard to come up with different activities to keep the kids happy and the parents from going crazy. As much as your kids will tell you they can't wait for summer, the words "I'm bored," inevitably cross their lips. While children do enjoy the freedom that comes with the summer months, and swimming at the Auston Chase pool is a blast, they still like to have a little structure to their fun. This summer, more than ever, families are trying to stick to a budget while still having fun with their kids.

The Sandbox
This is a hands-on interactive museum filled with unique entertaining, and educational play areas to explore.  Children can sail away on Captain William Hilton’s ship of discovery or find their passport to the World in the international airport terminal with a plane ready for little pilots to fly.

Island Playground
A HUGE indoor playground features inflatable fun and creative play for kids. Imaginative adventures await in our comfortable, clean and safe play areas. A great activity for a rainy day.

Art Academy of Hilton Head –all ages
This art studio, run by The Hilton Head Art League, offers both adult and children’s art classes. A gallery with featured artists is open Monday – Saturday.

Art Café
Select and paint your own pottery, great activity for a rainy day.

Beach Exploring
There are plenty of beautiful beaches on Hilton Head Island. Exploring the creatures and plants at the beach is loads of fun. See how many different living things you can find, and try and classify them.

Summer Evenings from June through August at Shelter Cove Harbour on Hilton Head Island.

HarbourFest has earned the distinction of being Shelter Cove Harbour's signature summer event. This is a popular summer long festival from June through August featuring live entertainment seven nights a week, along with unforgettable food, arts and crafts from an array of vendors, fireworks and a bunch of fun activity. Admission is free for HarbourFest!

Family friendly entertainer, Shannon Tanner, has been a fixture at HarbourFest since 1988. Shannon's light-hearted performances include sing-a-longs, pop music, classic tunes, and his own original ballads. An audience favorite, Shannon returns to Shelter Cove to kick off his 23rd anniversary season on Hilton Head Island, much to the delight of his loyal fans.

This year, Cappy the Clown will be at Shelter Cove Harbour to delight audiences with fun entertainment and a little clown magic! Don't miss Cappy's special activities on Sunday evenings at the Harbour!

Fireworks serve as the centerpiece for HarbourFest. This year, Firework shows will be held on the following dates at dusk:
Tuesdays, June 21 & 28
Monday, July 4 (expanded show) (no show Tuesday, July 5th)
Tuesdays, July 12, 19 & 26
Tuesday, August 2 & 9

This breathtaking display lights up the sky on Tuesday nights. Don't miss the special Fourth of July fireworks show, which offers a vibrant extravaganza of light over the harbor. To view the show from a unique perspective, Outside Hilton Head offers special "Fireworks Paddle" guided kayak tours during the summer.

National house prices have dipped in 19 of the 20 largest metro regions, and declines in house prices are expected to continue given the 1.9 million in backlogged foreclosures. As the American economy shifts from buying to renting, with the number of renting households rising by 700,000 annually -- according to a USA Today analysis of Census data -- the number of homeowners fell by nearly 200,000 per year. Unemployment rates remain high and wages are down, which makes it more difficult for people to buy a house and prompts them to rent.

A number of studies continue to show that renting is better than owning for many Americans, with a house being a poor investment compared to renting and investing in inflation-adjusted Treasury bonds. In the paper "American Dream or American Obsession?," Wenli Li and Fang Yang from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank concluded that the "adjusted real rate of return on housing actually falls below zero," and the national rate of return for homeownership between 1975 and 2009 was 1.3 percent, below the 3.375 percent return for stocks.

Home ownership translates into less money available for investment and owning a house limits mobility should a new job opportunity arise elsewhere. Some economists have even suggested that high homeownership rates correlate to high unemployment rates. Declines in house prices could make it difficult to sell if the house is worth less than its mortgage. Not everyone should own a house, and the recession has helped eliminate some of the stigma once associated with renting, now that 70 percent of Americans now agree that renting has its advantages over owning.

Article from National Multi Housing recent release

Memorial Day Weekend can be a lot of fun for the whole family!

Make sure to get everything you need before the weekend begins. Burgers, hot dogs, and buns are always things to have on hand!

Salads, such as macaroni salad and potato salad are also delicious additions to a great barbecue!

Check out these great websites for some simple recipes that everyone will love!

www.grilling-recipes.com

www.cookingcache.com

bbq.about.com

and this one is the perfect site just for Memorial Day:

www.razzledazzlerecipes.com

Go to the Sentient bean Thursday, May 26^th for an awesome concert featuring Dare Dukes and Rebecca Pronsky!

Check out Rebecca Pronsky on her website, www.rebeccapronsky.com. To learn more about Dare Dukes, visit www.daredukes.com. Dare Dukes was chosen as Savannah’s best acoustic band of 2011 in the Connect Savannah readers poll.

The Sentient Bean is located at 13 East Park Avenue in Savannah, Georgia.

Image: worradmu / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Get the freshest fruits and vegetables in the area at the Jasper County Farmers Market.

The Market is held every Friday from 1 pm to 6 pm and today is opening day! It is located at 9935 South Jacob Smart Boulevard, Highway 17, a half-mile south of downtown Ridgeland.

You can get not only homegrown and fresh fruits and vegetables, but also prepared meals, plants, and handmade crafts. Everything they offer can make a great gift!

Every season, the products change so you have to keep visiting to keep up!

Call 843-726-8126 for more information.

On May 28th, get ready to turn on your lawyer radar! The Lowcountry Legal Volunteers are holding the 10th annual Attorney Chase!

This 5K run and walk will benefit the Lowcountry Legal Volunteers, a nonprofit organization that helps resident of Beaufort, Jasper, and Hampton Counties who can’t afford legal assistance.

At 8 a.m. on May 28 at Coligny Beach on Hilton Head Island, lawyers will emerge from the dunes. When you spot one, catch them!

How will you know they’re attorneys? By their briefcases of course! Inside is a gift certificate. Catch them and you win a t-shirt and the gift certificate.

The entry fee is $25 before May 23 and $30 on the day of the race.

Call 843-815-1570 or email lcla@hargray.com for details and applications.

Read more: www.islandpacket.com

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Source: www.islandpacket.com

Who is the ugliest of them all?

Cosmo, a bulldog, just happens to be the ugliest in Bluffton!

Don’t think of the Ugliest Dog Contest as an insult to dogs; these pooches are so ugly, they’re almost beautiful! The winning dogs got handmade pottery trophies made by local potter Jacob Preston.

The Bluffton Village Festival had more than controversial contests; they had over 150 vendors selling handmade jewelry, art, décor, delicious food, and more! Surrounded by palm trees, this festival was like a marketplace in paradise!
The After-Hours Party featured the Travis Powell Band.

The 33rd Annual Bluffton Festival, taken over by the Bluffton Rotary Club in 2009, raises money for local charities. As of this year, they are halfway to their $1 million goal!
Read more: www.islandpacket.com