December 7, 

Nothing could be finer…

... than to be in South Carolina! We arrived in South Carolina on November 17. We stayed at Huntington Beach State Park just a bit South of Myrtle Beach and much, much quieter for a week. It is a lovely state park with beautiful beaches, lovely hikes and lots of wildlife. The Low Country, which is how they refer to this part of South Carolina, has lots of tidal marshes that attract lots of birds and we saw storks, egret, ibis, roseate spoonbills, herons and pelicans.

Across the road from the park is Brookgreen Gardens When you buy admission to the gardens, your ticket is good for a week so we were able to enjoy the garden over several days. Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington purchased the property (2 former rice plantations ) in1902 to set up a garden to display her sculptures. The property is now 9,000 acres (including the state parks, which is rented from the foundation for $1.00 a year, and includes 2,700 sculptures by 425 artists. The sculptures are spread out all over the beautiful gardens. The garden was set up for a winter light show which we were not able to see, but must be absolutely beautiful with over 1000 candles throughout the gardens floating in pools and in the planting areas. They also have a small zoo which features animals of the Low Country and information about the history of the former rice plantations. We took a pontoon boat tour in which the guide told us about the time when rice was king and how all the trees were cut down and acres upon acres of land was planted with rice. There are no longer rice plantations here because with the end of slavery the owners could not afford to run the plantations. 

 We also enjoyed going to Murrell’s Inlet. This little town is known for its seafood restaurants - Mark and my favorite was a huge plate of crab nachos which we shared for lunch! They also have a boardwalk that goes along the waterfront besides all the restaurants.

Steven was able to join us for the week of Thanksgiving. He flew into Myrtle Beach and camped with us for 2 nights at the beach. We were able to show him our favorite things in the area including Brookgreen Garden and he got to eat some great seafood too. On Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, the three of us went west toTaylors, SC where my sister Ginger and her husband Chuck and her 2 sons live. My mom and sister Jackie drove down from Michigan and Ginger and Chuck’s daughter Emily flew in from Washington DC where she lives. It is the first time since 2006 that the whole family has been together and the first time since 2018 and 2019 (before covid) that we have seen any of them. We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and it was so nice to have the whole family together and the time to visit. 

On Friday morning 8 of us went to Top Golf and had a fun time hitting golf balls even though they didn’t often go in the holes.

Steven 

Laurie

None of us have golfed in years (or ever) and my mom commented that we must not watch a lot of golf on TV because our form left quite a bit to be desired! We also took quite a few hikes in the mountains near Ginger and Chuck’s house including Caesar’s Head State Park, Paris Mt State Park, Jone Gap State Park and Chestnut Ridge Preserve. That area of South Carolina is very beautiful!

Unfortunately, Steven had to leave Saturday and Mom, Jackie and Emily left Sunday. 

 We left Taylors on Monday morning and headed back to the Low Country. We spent 3 nights at Edisto Beach State Park about an hour south of Charleston where we had a lovely campsite just a few steps from the beach. The beaches are so different than most of our Oregon beaches as they are much flatter and have much smaller dunes. While we have been here, the waves have been much gentler too, although at night at high tide, the surf sounded wild! We walked the beach, walked some trails and biked on others. We also went to Botany Bay Heritage Preserve and Wildlife Management Area where we saw the ruins of 2 plantations that made up the preserve, had a raccoon and two minks run in front of our truck, and took a walk to the Bone Yard Beach. It was the first time I had heard the expression bone yard beach. It refers to trees that have been inundated by sea water, died, and stand like skeletons along the beach. They are very beautiful but at the same time, it is very sad. The preserve does not allow people to gather seashells along the beach so the beach had lots of shells and that was pretty neat too. People had hung many of the shells on dead tree branches. 

Thursday, we moved about an hour further south to Hunting Island State Park near Beaufort. We had a great campsite which reminded us of the jungle. In fact the Vietnam scenes from the movie Forrest Gump were filmed in the park. We hiked, biked and walked the beach. On Saturday, Ginger and Chuck joined us for 2 days and we hiked and climbed the lighthouse. We also spent a day exploring Beaufort which has huge antebellum homes and a beautiful river front. We also went on a 10 mile bike ride on the Spanish Moss trail which was built on old railroad grade. We loved the entire area. Now we are at Crooked River State Park, right across the river from Florida. We are here for 2 more nights before moving south to Florida.