Brookgreen Gardens

We have had the most amazing day today!  We went to a place called Brookgreen Gardens, just south of Myrtle Beach.  It used to belong to a family called Huntington, and Mrs. H was a sculptor.  The property was a very prosperous  rice plantation before the civil war.  There were many in the area, but when they could no longer have slaves, they were unable to grow rice.  The property now belongs to the state I believe, and across Hwy 17 is the rest of the property which is now a state park going to the beach.  We didn't get over there today.

There are 100's of sculptures by pretty well every scupter living or dead.  There's a building which housed over 600, and we didn't even have time to see those.  I'm sure we never saw all the ones outside either.  When I got home and dumped all the pictures into the computer, even after deleting some from the camera, I found there were 345 pictures to deal with.  :-(  I have been working on them all evening, and got them down to 176.  Don't worry, they're not all here!   This is the biggest one there, made of granite.

This is one of my favorites.  They all had signs saying what they were and who had done them and when, but I couldn't possibley remember them.

This was a typical sign, in this case being share by a gecko.

A family of timber wolves.

There was also a bit of a zoo, with birds and animals from this area.  We discovered that this green stuff on the water is not algae, but something called duckweed.

This is a cattle egret.

We saw a yellow crowned night heron in Hilton Head, but this one is a black crowned night heron.

Ibises.

This fellow was blowing out his throat - I'm not sure why they do that sometimes.

There was a mom and 3 "baby" otters.

None of the alligators showed themselves in the zoo area - only this sculpture.

But we did see one in the wild on the edge of the property later.

There were red foxes and gray foxes in a large enclosure.  This is a gray one - they climb trees!

The eagles are so beautiful!  Fortunately, there was a hole big enough to stick the lens of the camera through.

I think this is a barred owl.

Two red-tailed hawks.

This is one of my favorite sculptures.

There were lots of these funny little squirrels around - a southern fox squirrel - actually, they are bigger than a normal squirrel.

I just really like this picture.

This afternoon, we went for a 45 minute guided tour on this pontoon boat.  It went on a tidal creek, which had been used to flood the rice fields.

Another picture that I really like.

Isn't this adorable?

This hawk just flew into a tree as we were leaving - he's not in an enclosure.

A cute group of "kids" saluting as the flag is raised.

This is at the road entrance to the gardens.

Well, I hope I haven't bored you to tears.  Thanks for looking.  I'm off to bed!

Beautiful (though cool) day in Myrtle Beach

We've had quite a busy day today, starting with a little retail therapy at the other outlet mall, as well as Bass Pro and West Marine.  Then we drove to Calabash, North Carolina. which is just over the SC border by a couple of miles, just north of Myrtle Beach.  We always go up there for part of a day, and one reason is to shop at Calahans of Calabash - a fairly famous store.  It is the biggest gift shop I think I have ever seen, and has several different themes, including a huge Christmas store.  I go one of my grand-daughters' Christmas ornament.  :-)   Calabash is largely a fishing/shrimping community, and this is one of the shrimp boats.  They sell shrimp and other seafood right off the docks.

The other reason we like to go there is to eat at Captain Nance's.  We've been going to the same restaurant for years - it's right by the docks.

We had tickets for the Alabama Theater tonight, so went there from Calabash.  It is located in an area with lots of shops and restaurants called Barefoot Landing, so we snooped around there until it was time for the show.  Scott I was imagining you as a little boy when we were in a John Deere store - I could just see your eyes lighting up with all the toys and stuff!  It is right on the Intra Coastal Waterway, and lots of boats tie up there.  There's usually one called the Lady Barbara, which is often in the Cobourg Harbour in the summer, but she isn't there right now.  We saw her in Fort Lauderdale when we were there.

Dapper Donald and the missus were enjoying the sunshine.

One of my favorite parts of the show was a song from Les Miserables, called either Bring Him Home or Let Him Live, I think.  It was done REALLY well by a man who played the part on Broadway for 4 years.

Another section of the show I liked was when they did a tribute to Frank Sinatra - it was really good.

And the part I liked the best was Amazing Grace, pipes and all!

It's been a long day and a good day, but now it's midnight, and I'm ready for bed!

Busy, fun day!

This morning we went to the resort's welcome breakfast, sat at tables by the pool for it.  At the end of the informational time, they drew for door prizes, and I won this huge beach towel.  It's taller than I am - I stood on the cooler for the picture.  Megs, since you were always our "pink girl", guess you'll get to use it when you come to Ontario this summer!  We then went to the activities room to book our shows for the week, and the lady gave us a free ticket to Alabama Theater (worth $38), one of the shows we wanted to see anyway.  We got her to book Pirates Voyage and Carolina Opry as well.   This afternoon we went to one of the outlet malls - that's alwasy fun (for ME anyway!)

From the mall we went to the Pirates Voyage.  It's a dinner show in the place that Dolly Parton used to have her horse show, Dixie Stampede.  It's basically the same idea, but instead of the horse arena in the middle of the building, it's pirate ships in a lake - quite deep, judging by the way they were diving into the water from high up.  We decided that it was fun, but not something we would probably go to every year like we did the horse show. 

There were sea lions involved in the show, but since we were not supposed to take pictures in the show, I took a couple outside when we saw them swimming around in their pool before the show.

I thought these were kind of cool - I've never seen them before - guess it might be some kind of holly bush.

Dixie Stampede has undergone a lot of changes, inside and outside.

Three "pirates" did a pre-show.  It was a little "ho-hum", but ok.

There was the back half of a pirate ship at each end of the big arena/lake.  One side was rooting for the "Crimson Pirate Captain"  and the other side was rooting for the "Indigo Pirate Captain".  Of course you do your cheering while you eat your meal with your fingers.  We brought home a LARGE doggie bag of food after - they give you WAY too much food.

All in all, it was a great day, and tomorrow we go to the other outlet mall, and then to the Alabama Theater.  Looking forward to that as well.

Sunday in Myrtle Beach

I love being on the coast and seeing the beautiful sunrises.  And I don't even have to get up so early to see them now!  We went to the Alliance Church here in Myrtle Beach this morning.  Counting us and the pastor, there were 25 in the service.  It is so sad!  This is the 4th Alliance church we have been to this winter - all in cities - and they have all been in the same condition.  I can't wait to get back to the CAC!

After lunch at Bob Evans and a trip around a flea market, we came home and got changed and went for a walk on the boardwalk.  It starts in front of the resort we are staying at, at 14th Ave., and goes all the way to the 1st Ave. - south of us.

There are lots of resorts, hotels, restaurants, shops, and parks.  At one point, just a little bit south of us, there is something called the Sky Wheel - it's huge, and goes around very slowly.  You can see for miles.  It's similar to the one in London, England, but apparently about 1/2 the size.  We decided to have a ride on it.

We were told that we would be going around 3 times, and in fact, they left us on for 4 rounds.  This is the view to the south.  The boardwalk goes to just past the pier.

And this is the view to the north.  The boardwalk goes to this pier.

Each car is totally closed in and has it's own air conditioner.

At one point the "board" walk turned to concrete.

We walked back on the beach.

If there is such a thing as a pretty sea gull, I think this is one of them.

There was almost nothing interesting washed up on this beach.  We saw 3 jelly fish, and this sea gull was having a meal of this one.

Just a few more days and we'll be heading home.  I have mixed feelings about that.  It WILL be nice to be home - I've missed my friends and my bed, but then things get so busy again, and I kind of like the lazy life I have lived for the last 3 months.  :-)