Apples Ahoy: An Author Signing at an Apple Hunt Up the 114 Steps

Early September on Hilton Head Island is our favorite kind of morning at the lighthouse. The summer crowds have thinned, the air over Calibogue Sound still carries a little salt-cool from the night, and the yacht basin is quiet enough that you can hear the halyards ticking against the masts. It is exactly the sort of morning that suits a story.

On Sunday, September 6, from 10 a.m. to noon, author Ray Marie joins us at the Harbour Town Lighthouse to read and sign her children’s book Bentley Goes To The Apple Orchard. It is a small, warm book about a curious little boy, a basket of apples, and the kind of afternoon that turns into a memory — which makes it a natural fit for a lighthouse that has been collecting family memories since 1970.

We have built the morning around the climb. Little explorers will find apples tucked along the way up our 114 steps, and there is plenty to do at each landing:

At the top, the reward is the one that never changes: the whole harbor laid out below, the sailboats leaning out toward the Sound, and Daufuskie Island sitting low and green on the horizon. Children who have just climbed 114 steps under their own steam tend to look at that view a little differently.

The event is free with lighthouse admission and welcomes all ages. Strollers are easiest left at the base, and morning is genuinely the best time to come — cooler air, softer light, shorter waits on the stairs.

Bring the little ones, bring a camera, and come collect a story at the top of the steps.

Harbour Town Lighthouse · Sea Pines, Hilton Head Island, SC · Sunday, September 6 · 10 AM–12 PM