The Majesty of the Grand Canyon

On our way to visit the Grand Canyon this morning, we overshot our turn off by about half an hour. We did catch some nice scenery before we realized our error - among which were 6 double trailer UPS trucks parked side by side - resting? I intended to take a picture, but my driver went by much too fast - slowing down or stopping would have been nice, but oh well!

Once we made it back to where we should have turned, we decided to have lunch at the Cameron Trading Post. Since my maiden name is Cameron, I naturally had to stop. I ordered a Navajo Taco - it's an open face taco with Indian frybread instead of a tortilla. Fortunately I ordered a "mini" - I couldn't even eat all of that! I checked out the gift shop, which contained the usual overpriced trinkets - the most expensive items were the native made items, and I couldn't quite bring myself to buy "native" trinkets made in China or other foreign countries!

It took us about an hour to get to the east entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park (South Rim), and once again I was glad that I had the National Parks Senior Pass - the entrance fee was $25, but with the pass, it cost us nothing. Very nice. My first glimpse of the Grand Canyon literally brought tears to my eyes! Its grandeur is truly amazing! We walked to the Desert View Watchtower. I was assured by a nice lady that I could handle the climb to the top floor - she assured me that I could rest between flights. So we made our ascent - all 86 steps. Piece of cake after the 87 steps at the Houston Control Center. The only difference here, though, is the altitude is much higher which does, of course, make a difference! The views were really something - I was even able to get close enough to the windows to take pictures. We returned to ground level and walked out almost to the railing - it's a good thing you don't have to walk all the way to the edge to get a good look at the beauty of the Grand Canyon.

We drove through the park, stopping again for another view of this glorious wonder! We also saw these beautiful black ravens - they were enormous! Our last stop was at the Visitor Center and then we headed back to Flagstaff. There has been so much great scenery on this trip - I will never tire of seeing the beauty of nature.

The Land of Enchantment

Saturday (Oct 23) after locating the giant roadrunner in Fort Stockton, Texas, we made our way north to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. It was a two lane highway most of the way - we were glad it was the weekend, and there was very little truck traffic. 

Due to our "skill" level (read age and physical capability), we opted to tour The Big Room. This is the large cave - 6000 sq ft - that has paths with railings all the way around it. The walk is about one mile and very well lit. I had much expected this to be very similar to the other two caves we had visited, but it proved to be very different. The paths in the other caves were dark and narrow, and we had a guide to lead us through and explain everything. The Big Room is a self-guided tour, very well lit, high ceilings and very wide open. The formations are different in that they don't seem "polished" like in the other caves. A lot of the formations are very similar in shape, but appear to have a much rougher surface. As with any cave formations, you are not to touch them as it does wear them down and changes them. While the temperature is only 50ish, you stay pretty comfortable because you're constantly moving. It was an excellent experience, and I'm so glad we visited. 

We stayed overnight in the town of Roswell - did not see a single alien, although our waiter at dinner was questionable! His name was Jon Jon and was just a little on the weird side - we definitely questioned his sobriety! All of the wait staff at this particular eatery was pretty unique, but this guy certainly took it a few steps farther. Good food, though - I had a most awesome Green Chili Stew - incredible!

Went to church on Sunday where I discovered the retired pastor there used to be a pastor in Lakewood, WA - he even knew my pastor. Mike waited patiently for me - washed the car, bought cigarettes, visited a local park. He took me by the park to show me a piece of the Berlin Wall the German Air Force sent to the city of Roswell. Another tidbit of history is the fact that German POWs were held in Roswell during World War II - they were used as labor for paving the banks of the North Spring River. They also built an Iron Cross into the wall, which was later covered up with a layer of concrete until the 1980's.

Sunday night we stayed in Albuquerque, but left this morning (Oct 25) without visiting anything in the area. We traveled west on Highway 40, and I was glad that Mike was driving. The crosswinds were pretty rough - I'm not sure I could have held onto the steering wheel at times. We arrived in Flagstaff in late afternoon - tomorrow we'll explore some of the area surrounding this city. The temperature is quite a bit lower than we've been enjoying - low to mid 50's during the day and below freezing at night. Mikey's cold, but maybe the home temps won't be such a shock to his system when we get there!

Going around in circles in San Antonio

Thursday morning, Oct 21, found us heading north to San Antonio. The motel we chose was right alongside the freeway - should be easy, wouldn't you think? Not in San Antonio - we took the exit that Miss Aggie told us to, and then while we continued to try to follow her confusing directions, we managed to get right back on the freeway. While we gnashed our teeth complaining about our inept GPS system (certainly not our fault!), we determined that it was the crazy snarl of a freeway system that was mostly the problem. We finally made our way to our motel and wisely ordered our dinner to be delivered rather than try to navigate to a restaurant. The next morning on our way to the Alamo it wasn't a whole lot better - neither was our exit from San Antonio after our visit to the Alamo.

We did enjoy our visit to the Alamo - it wasn't quite what I had expected. I certainly was surprised that it was in the middle of a lot of very large buildings, hotels, etc. I thought it was really kind of a shame that time and progress overtook this bit of history. I am glad that the Daughters of the Republic of Texas took responsibility for saving this for future generations to visit and learn from. The grounds were beautiful, and as usual, I was fascinated by all of the flowers and trees. Such beauty - in late October! Just not what I'm used to!

We left San Antonio and drove to Fort Stockton, Texas. This was just a one night stop on our way to Carlsbad Caverns, but we did search out the 20 ft X 11 ft roadrunner in town before we left. By far, this was also the best Days Inn we had yet visited - even better than Houston.

And then we were in Houston . . . .

As we drove into Houston, I was in awe of the many, many oil refineries - and they were huge! Wow - way bigger than any I had seen before, like for example, Anacortes. We settled into our motel - the nicest Days Inn yet. I chose this one because it was so close to the Space Center, but also because it had great customer reviews. Definitely a good choice, and a big improvement over the not so super, Super 8 from the night before.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the NASA's Johnson Space Center the next morning. We got there just in time to board the Tram Tour, which I think ended up being the last one for the day. The tram wound its way through the complex, past some longhorn steers at the Western Heritage Pavilion, past the warehouse that houses a Saturn V rocket and stopped at the Mission Control Center. We climbed 87 stairs to the Control Center - I only had to stop once, and then realized I was almost there. We sat in a balcony area behind a window looking down into the room where the words "Houston, we've had a problem" (the actual statement) was heard for real - not a movie. There have been many events in that room that are beyond incredible - what teamwork it must take on both the ground and in space. Our next stop was the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility. This building contained  numerous different vehicles that astronauts need to train in. The third stop was the Saturn V rocket - this was one of 3 rockets built for Apollo 18, 19 and 20, but those missions were cancelled. Our final stop before returning was the grove of trees planted in honor of astronauts who have died. It was very interesting, and would be an absolutely wonderful experience for children.

After the Space Center, we drove down to Galveston. The area is still recovering somewhat from Hurricane Ike in September, 2008. We didn't spend too much time there, but we did drive around a bit. We stopped and took some pictures of big ships in the Gulf, found some shells - one with a little hermit crab in it (we left it alone in its little home), and the beach "parking lots" are really something - it cost $8 just to park on the beach and walk a long way to the water. We arrived in the area too late to visit any museums, since they all close at 4 pm. It's probably just as well as I think we're running out of steam - we're just not as young as we used to be!

Tabasco anyone?

We drove to Days Inn in Lafayette, LA on Monday but decided that there really wasn't anywhere nearby for dinner. So - we drove back to Super 8, which was right near the freeway we would be getting back on to go to Houston. No problem - they had a room and there was a Shoney's right next door. I started to wonder if we had made the right choice when a police car slowly cruised through the parking lot of the Super 8, both motels next door and the Shoney's lot. We walked out to our car to bring our bags in, and a young woman was picked up at the back door of the motel by 2 men in a big black car - she got in the back and they drove away. We were sitting in our room when another woman in a bathrobe came and sat down on the curb outside our window (ground floor), had a cigarette and then went back inside. Dinnertime came and we walked next door for a bite to eat - excellent by the way. I had a chicken stir-fry skillet - closest thing I've found to teriyaki since we've been on the road. As we walked into the lobby of the motel, there was another young lady using the guest phone - no big deal. We got to our room and realized that there were a couple of things that we left in our car. As we walked outside to get them, this same young lady went up to this very rough looking fella that was walking in the parking lot. All things considered, I was thinking this Super 8 had not been the best choice - not too super! Neither of us slept well, between the very uncomfortable bed and people getting ice (2 doors down from our room) at all hours of the night! In addition to that, it was very warm and every time I turned the A/C on I started sneezing and coughing from the overpowering air "freshener". 

Tuesday morning we drove to Avery Island, which was a little bit of back tracking from yesterday to tour the Tabasco factory. We got out of the car and were met with the very pungent aroma of Tabasco - quite different from the lovely cinnamon aroma from Pacific/Kerry. We had a very informative although brief tour of the factory - it was mostly information about the product, but it was fascinating. Every single bottle of Tabasco sauce, including the new ones (such as green/jalapeno, habanero, chipotle, garlic pepper) are bottled at this facility. It is produced by the McIlhenny Co, a fifth generation family business that was started in 1868. The peppers are mixed with a little salt (that is actually mined from Avery Island), ground up into a mash and stored in oak barrels to ferment for 3 years. The liquid is then separated from the skin and seeds, mixed with vinegar and stirred intermittently for 28 days. Once this process is completed, it can be bottled - over 700,000 bottles (of assorted sizes) are produced every day - they have a 4 day (2 shifts of 12 hours) work week 52 weeks/year. All components of the peppers are used either by McIlhenny or other companies. I sampled "sweet and spicy" and "jalapeno" flavored ice cream - it was really quite tasty - I could get used to it! Mike didn't participate in the taste test - he prefers much more traditional ice cream. I'm glad we visited the Tabasco plant, but I wish we had more time so we could explore Avery Island and its Jungle Gardens and Bird City.

Homeward bound . . . .

When we left St Augustine on Friday, we fully intended to spend the night in Tallahassee. Just before reaching Tallahassee, I decided to check with motels in the area. The first one I called gave me an emphatic NO when I asked if they had any rooms available. My next call was to a Super 8 and was advised that they had one room left - and it was only $189! For Super 8?! When I asked if he really had said $189, he assured me that yes, that was the rate. Apparently, our timing was impeccable as always - the Seminoles were playing in town that weekend. Yikes! So we decided to continue on - we stopped in a small town named Marianna and were able to get a reasonable room for the night. Judging from the parking lot later on, we got there just in time. We were about 65 miles from Tallahassee, but not too far for die-hard Seminole fans!

Dinnertime rolled around, and we were right next door to PoFolks! We couldn't wait to try this place - with a name like that, how could it be bad? Well, I won't say it was delightful, but it was interesting. The food was a little different, but filled us up. It definitely satisfied our curiosity - I haven't seen another (and there are more of them), but we see no need to visit again.


We traveled through Niceville, which appeared to be a very touristy town - stopped at the fanciest McDonalds I've ever been in. Food and service was good, but the decor was like a nice restaurant. From Niceville, we traveled south to the Emerald Coast and drove to Navarre, a small town about 25 miles from Pensacola and checked into the local Days Inn for 2 nights. On Sunday, we drove to Navarre Beach - beautiful white sand along the Gulf of Mexico, and it truly is emerald in color. I know the sand is not as pure white as it was before the oil spill. It is really hard to walk in, because you sink so far in it! I had taken my sandals off, and my feet were killing me from the effort of trying to walk in it. 

We got back to the car, and I told Mike that I didn't think my camera would hold out for the rest of the trip - it wasn't working right and making funny noises. Sure enough, within the next 10 minutes it just flat out died. So off we went to buy another camera. I bought the same camera as my poor dead one - just a newer, working version. It wasn't an expense that I had planned, but a necessary one. I can't imagine not having a camera for the next 2 weeks on the road. We headed back to the beach, but this time we just drove all the way down this little strip of land on the water, with dunes and water on both sides, to Pensacola Beach. I took some pictures of some pretty far-out homes - must be nice to have these little beach cottages!

Last night, as I was pondering the next leg of our trip, I realized that we had a minimum of 8 days of driving at about 6 hours a day. That does kind of limit what we have time to see if we want to be home by the end of the month. So, we rethunk it, and decided to bypass New Orleans and most of Louisiana. We will still be going to Houston and the Space Center, most likely the Alamo and on to Carlsbad Caverns. Other than that, I'm not sure just what lies ahead between Carlsbad and Los Angeles where we will visit son Tony for a couple of days before heading home. Tonight we are in Lafayette, Louisiana (we're not sure just what all goes on here in this motel) - we may go visit the Tabasco plant before heading to Houston. It's amazing that we've traveled less than 350 miles today, and have been in a total of 4 states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana).

St Augustine and the Fountain of Youth

So - there we were on Thursday morning, Oct 14 (Happy Birthday, Whitney), trying to decide where to go first. Our decision led us to the St Augustine Visitor Center where a very nice volunteer pointed out different things to see on foot. Our first stop was the Castillo de San Marcos. Construction on this fort was started in 1672 by the Spanish. During British occupation (1763 to 1784) it was named Fort St Mark; it was renamed Fort Marion in 1821 after Florida became a US Territory. In 1942 Congress restored the name to Castillo de San Marcos. This is the oldest masonry fort in the US. It is made of a stone called coquina which is similar to limestone and made up mostly of little shells. When first quarried, it is too soft to use for building, so it needs to dry for one to three years before using. The good thing, though, it is soft enough that cannon balls would sink into it rather than shatter or puncture. The fort is very interesting - it had a moat and drawbridge, look-out towers, bronze cannons. The design of the fort made it difficult to penetrate by the enemy, and it endured many battles in many wars. 

We left the fort and walked to the entrance of Old St Augustine. As one would expect, there are many tourist traps (souvenir shops, eateries, expensive shops) along the way. We saw the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse, built before 1763. Stopped for a hot dog at TP's Crazy Dogs - we ate outside in a lovely courtyard surrounded by some of the most incredible flowering vines - one was a bleeding heart vine, but I have no idea what the other was - Rocky? After our bellies were filled, it was time to continue our walk through the old streets. We walked to the Gonzalez-Alvarez House - the oldest surviving house in Florida - where we were just in time for the guided tour. It is estimated that the house was built around 1723 and was resided in by the Gonzalez family for 40 years until the British took control of Florida. A wealthy Englishman lived there from 1775 until he died in 1784. Two years later his widow married a young Irishman about half her age - gee, there were cougars way back then. This young man liked to gamble and incurred so much debt that his wife had to auction her home in 1790 - he was also banished from St Augustine, so they moved to her country home. The winning bid for the house was a Spaniard named Alvarez, and his family lived in the house for almost 100 years. There is so much more history of this house - check it out on the internet if you're interested.

By the time we were done with the "oldest house", we were ready to head to our car. Unfortunately, our car was several blocks away. There was still a lot to see, but it seemed like the return was much farther than getting there. We did see a lovely cottage for sale for a mere $699,000. This little cottage was only 5800 sq ft, had 7 bedrooms and 5+ bathrooms. Nice little vacation home, don't you think? We finally made it back to the parking garage and returned to our motel.


Friday morning we visited the Fountain of Youth before heading to Tallahassee. We probably should have done that the day before - maybe we would have been energized by the "special" water. We both had a little drink of this youth potion - alas, we felt just as old as we did before drinking it! We walked the grounds, saw a Native American exhibit (Timucua), watched the peacocks and squirrels - and definitely did not feel any younger!





 

Tybee Island and Oatland Island Wildlife Center

As I noted yesterday, we arrived in Savannah a little late in the day. We checked into our hotel - stayed in a Wingate by Wyndham. Very nice hotel - down comforters, fluffy towels, hot breakfast - really nice. Tuesday morning we headed out to Tybee Island where we hoped to take a boat ride to see dolphins. After the adorable (not) Miss Aggie led us in a most roundabout way, we finally reached Capt Mike's Dolphin Tours. We arrived at 12:50 PM - the next tour was to leave at 1 PM. Great timing in spite of our GPS! We walked down to the dock to board as the tour guide was counting heads - oops! It seems that the 4H tour neglected to include the bus driver and counselor in their head count when they made their reservations. So sorry, they said, but you'll have to wait for the next trip at 3:30. 

Off we go to visit the lighthouse and its museum - oops! It's Tuesday, so both are closed! Fine! We'll go to the Marine Science Center - which could have easily fit in anyone's family room (with the exception of one nasty snake that my husband hid from me - thank you, Mike). I really have a most unreasonable fear and dislike of such things - cannot even discuss them. We walked up to the pier to take a look see - people fish off the pier, and you can also walk down the stairs to the beach. There are concessions that aren't open during the week this time of year, but they did have pretty cool restroom doors. Unfortunately, it was very embarrassing when I was caught taking a picture as a gentleman exited - I did explain that I was really only trying to take a picture of the door.

We walked around the block a bit - afterall, we did have over 2 hours to kill. There were just the usual tourist gift shops - mostly junk, a couple of restaurants, and ice cream store - so we got Mike an ice cream and me an iced coffee. It was very warm - in the mid-80's, so we got back into our air-conditioned car and drove around the island. Wow! There are some really fantastic homes - many of them are available for vacation rentals. Most of them are so big - I can't imagine needing that much space!

We finally drove back to Capt Mike's with just a short time to wait. We piled onto the boat with about 3 dozen kids and 10 adults, plus the captain and the guide. The boat left the dock, and we were on our way to see dolphins - everyone was looking really hard to see them splashing in the water. We saw a few here and there, and the farther out we went the more we saw. I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to get some pictures, but they are really fast. The zoom on my camera also decided to stop working earlier in the day, so what few pictures I did get, you can barely see anything. After about an hour, the boat returned to the dock. It was interesting and informative - well worth the cost.

Wednesday morning (the 13th) it was time to head South again. On the way out of town, we visited the Oatland Island Wildlife Center with natural habitat exhibits of wildlife indigenous to the area. The setting is very natural, with paths winding through a forested area. There are not a lot of different animals, but their "homes" are well designed. There are also some very old buildings from the 1800's that were taken apart and rebuilt on the grounds by volunteers. My photos are not what I had hoped for, not having the zoom available, but some of the animals were close enough for decent pictures. All in all, it was an enjoyable walk through an interesting environment.


Next stop - the oldest and continually occupied European established city in the continental US

Charleston in our rear view mirror . . . .

Monday, October 11, it's time to leave Charleston. Since Savannah is only about 2 hours away, we decided to make a couple more island hops. Our first stop was Folly Beach on (oddly enough) Folly Island. As usual, you have to pay for parking at beach access, but I did find out that money collected from this is what keeps the beaches so nice and clean. There was a sign telling us that a short 1/2 mile walk gave us a great view of the Morris Island Lighthouse. Even Mike agreed that was a very long half mile - but well worth it in the end. As we had discovered farther north, the water was comfortably warm. There are also warnings along the beach that there are dangerous currents, and they advise very strongly not to swim in the water. There was also a bit of a breakwater along part of the beach where it was a safer walk in the surf. 

The story about the Morris Island Lighthouse is very interesting - the internet goes into quite a bit of detail on the history of this. At one time, there were plans to destroy the lighthouse. It is now privately owned and plans are in place to restore and preserve it.

After our little walk to the beach, we drove to the Charleston Tea Plantation. This is the only tea plantation in America, it is located on Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina's Lowcountry. As we drove onto the plantation, we noticed row upon row of well-trimmed hedges - these were actually the tea plants.The machinery that cuts the tea is the only one like it in America! While the plantation was purchased by the Bigelow Co in 2003, the integrity of the product created by the original owners has been maintained. I can't wait to brew some of the tea I purchased when I get home - I may even share some with my family - maybe!

Due to our little side trips, we arrived in Savannah a little late in the day. Tomorrow I'll try to catch up with today's events - we were on a boat to see bottle-nosed dolphins - awesome! 

Charleston - the city, not the dance!

Okay, I'm either getting lazy or tired - I vote for tired! We arrived in Charleston on Friday, the 8th. As we were coming into town down Hwy 17, our GPS took us over this very high, very long bridge - we took the first exit off the bridge, then it directed us back onto the bridge to our destination at the first exit on the other side. Hwy 17 has frontage roads on both sides with traffic lights at multiple intersections, including one that is exactly where our motel was. Why the GPS had us cross the bridge and then reverse and cross again makes no sense to me - I think Miss Aggie was just being mean because she knows I don't like high bridges! By the way, this bridge is the longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere - it is 250 feet high and 2.7 miles long. We seem to be hitting these different cities on the eve of weekend celebrations. This time, it was the Taste of Charleston. We somehow managed to avoid the crowds, but of course the motel rates were higher for Friday and Saturday nights. I still find that rather irritating - they have a full house, so they're guaranteed good revenue, but they still feel justified in charged $20 more per night. It's just wrong! 


On Saturday we visited Patriot's Point the home of the aircraft carrier, USS Yorktown, World War II's "The Fighting Lady". The submarine USS Clamagore is right along side the Yorktown, and we toured that first. Oh my goodness! Steep stairs down into the sub, narrow passageways, not to mention the little doorways you have to climb through - you definitely could not afford to be claustrophobic! I only know one former submariner, and I can't imagine how he fit in one of those short beds, let alone walked through those corridors (if that's what it's called). By the way - the Clamagore is the last remaining Guppy class submarine in existence.


After the sub, we climbed many stairs up to the hangar deck of the Yorktown. A very nice, retired Navy volunteer gave us information about the different areas of the ship to tour, and I proudly informed him that my granddaughter served on the USS John C Stennis - he was sufficiently impressed! (Were you also on the USS Carl Vinson, Rachel? My memory does have a few holes in it!) There are many different planes on the hangar deck and the flight deck. I was rather mystified as to how the "elevator" worked for bringing the planes up to the flight deck - I think I figured it out, but I really would need to see it in action to understand. I'm a visual learner! We went down many very steep stairs, and up many steep stairs - it was hot and exhausting. It was also really interesting and awe inspiring - this ship and its men fought in World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. The Yorktown also recovered the Apollo 8 space capsule and the astronauts when they splashed down in the Pacific. The space capsule is also on the hangar deck of the Yorktown, and the Friendship 7 is there as well. 

Another attraction in Charleston is the H L Hunley, a Confederate submarine that was the first submarine to sink an enemy warship. It mysteriously disappeared in 1864 soon after completing its mission and was recovered in the year 2000 about 3-1/2 miles off the coast of Sullivan's Island. The sub only held 8 men - 7 men to turn the crank to propel it and the captain.


Sunday morning was time for church and I visited a lovely church named Coastal Light Baptist Church. Excellent sermon and wonderful people. I had to cross that nasty bridge to get there, but it was well worth it! 


I returned to the motel and Mike and I decided to do a little "island hopping", only here you can drive from one to another. We started with Sullivan's Island where Fort Moultrie is located. I think most of us have visited these coastal forts with all the big artillery, but on the Pacific Coasts the forts don't go back to the Revolutionary War. The fort was not even complete when the first battle was fought and won with the British fleet. This fort was used for the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I and World War II. It is fascinating to follow the fort through all of these periods. I really disliked history class when I was in school - I enjoy it so much more now when I can actually see and touch bits of history. After leaving the fort we drove to the Sullivan's Island Lighthouse - perhaps the ugliest lighthouse I have ever seen. It is 140 ft high, square with straight sides and is thought to be the only US lighthouse with an elevator. Also of note about Sullivan's Island - Fort Sumter was also located here, and Edgar Allen Poe was stationed at Fort Moultrie from 1827 to 1828. Poe used Sullivan's Island as a setting for his novel "The Gold Bug", and the town library bears his name. From there we proceeded to Isle of Palms, but chose not to stop along the way. Unless you live on the island, you have to pay to park just to walk to the beach. That seems to be the case in most areas along the coast where the access to the beach is easiest.

"From sea to shining sea"

We finally made it to the Atlantic Ocean yesterday. This isn't the first time we've seen it, but it is definitely different from our Pacific Coast. Today I actually walked in the surf a little bit and was amazed at how warm it is - that would not be the case along our coast!

We settled into our room on the 4th floor, facing the ocean. What a great view - it was a pretty nice room and looked very clean - 2 "bedrooms" and a kitchenette (not that I had any intention of cooking!). Only one big problem - the room smelled like a very big kitty's litter box. We thought that it would dissipate a little - even bought an air freshener. That was not to be the case - it was so bad that it woke me up after just a couple of hours sleep and I couldn't go back to sleep. I finally went and laid down in the other bedroom where it wasn't quite as overpowering. This morning we reported our misfortune to the front desk and moved to a ground floor unit - the view isn't as spectacular, but it sure does smell better!

After moving all of our stuff to the new room, we headed down the road to Brookgreen Gardens. The gardens are made up from four former plantations established during the antebellum years. Part of our visit to the gardens included a 45 minute tour through historic rice fields on a 48 ft pontoon boat. The boat travels down a creek that empties into the Waccamaw River - the gardens have been given permission to block off the creek to any other boat traffic since it is also a wildlife preserve. We were fortunate enough to see 3 alligators, a few turtles, a heron and an osprey while on our journey. We also received a brief education on the rice fields - much of which my brain did not absorb - it really was interesting at the time! Also in the gardens were many beautiful sculptures, trees, shrubs, flowers and a zoo with local wildlife and plantation animals. We were unable to see the butterfly exhibit - they only allow 25 people in at a time spaced 30 minutes apart. By the time we got to the exhibit, they were no more tickets for today. I was disappointed, but it's not as though I haven't visited many other butterfly exhibits. (By the way, there is a wonderful Butterfly House just outside of Coombs, BC on Vancouver Island.)

Tomorrow we'll be heading south to Charleston - see you there! 

"A Man Named Pearl"

Several months ago I saw a documentary called "A Man Named Pearl". This is about an amazing man that started working on his garden in the early 1980's, hoping to win "Yard of the Month". He did win that award, and has continued to work on and enlarge his garden of topiary. Many of his plants were "throwaway" plants - the ones you find on clearance that just need a little TLC. His topiary education was a mere 3 minute lesson - the rest he has learned on his own. In 2007, the Garden Conservancy agreed to help preserve the garden. This is an amazing place to visit, provided by a special man. If you ever have the opportunity to see the documentary, by all means, do. 

There is also a garden, though not topiary, in our own state that is also supported by the Garden Conservancy - Chase Garden in Orting, WA. This garden was created and maintained by Emmott and Ione Chase. Ione died in 2006, and Emmott died earlier this year just shy of his 100th birthday. They were married 74 years - it's a lovely story. You should check it out! 

Driving back to Columbia, we drove through the town of Sumter. This town has roughly 43,000 people in it - and 4 funeral homes. Doesn't that seem like an awful lot? Hmmm

Tomorrow we will be heading to Myrtle Beach to dip our toes in the Atlantic - I've heard that it's warmer than the Pacific. I'll let you know!




 

Did you miss me?

Took a few days off while visiting grandchildren. We landed in Easley, SC just in time for the Clemson Homecoming weekend - which meant, of course, that our motel room was $20 more per day than normal. As far as we're concerned, that's just pure greed, plain and simple. The motel was full - it's not as though they needed to make up for less business! But then again, they didn't ask us for our opinion.

Saturday we drove over to our grandson Brian's house where we visited with him, his sister Jennifer and 4 of their 5 children, Javen, Carson, Bryson and Colton. Our great-granddaughter Hayley was with her dad, so we didn't get to see her. After visiting for a couple of hours, we made plans to meet for dinner that night. Mike and I went back to our motel and just kicked back until time to meet. We had a lovely dinner with Jennifer, her boyfriend Toby and their son Colton. Brian wasn't able to make it with his family, and Jennifer's son Carson decided to hang out with Brian and his boys instead of dinner out. We were very disappointed that Brian wasn't able to be there. 

Sunday Jennifer and Colton went to church with me in Pickens. I had heard about this church when I attended church in Millington, TN - turned out to be good preaching at a very nice church. I took Jennifer and Colton home and then spent some time with them looking at old photos and getting to know each other. All in all, it was a great visit and a real blessing to be able to spend time with granddaughter.

I saw my very first real live cardinals yesterday!  I love birds, and the only cardinals I had seen before were in photos - very exciting to see them for real!

We left this morning and headed to Columbia, SC, hoping to meet up with my niece Brandi who is stationed at Ft Jackson. We haven't heard from her on Facebook (that's my only means of contact with her) - hope we can get together for dinner before we leave the area. After settling into our motel, we decided to drive into the downtown area to go for a walk in this lovely park they have here. This park is called Finley Park - it has lovely waterfalls and water feature, is fairly clean and well-maintained - but seems to be visited more by homeless folks than anyone else. We decided that maybe we didn't want to walk around the park after all. 

Tomorrow we will drive to Bishopville to see Pearl Fryar's Topiary - should be really neat!

The lows and the highs

Today we visited Ruby Falls on Lookout Mountain. We rode an elevator down into the mountain and were guided through the cave system by a most entertaining guide. I do believe that working underground makes these guys just a little bit goofy - our guide at the Mark Twain Cave in Hannibal, MO was just as crazy. One of our fellow tourists was 6'10" - he had to do a lot of ducking as we meandered through the cave. We saw many stalactites (they hang tight from the ceiling of the cave) and stalagmites (they might reach all the way to the stalactites) - if the two do meet, they become columns. 1120 feet below the surface, we reached the beautiful Ruby Falls. You can actually walk all the way around it. It was definitely a worthwhile trek.

We left the Ruby Falls attraction to visit Rock City which was also on Lookout Mountain - although it is actually in Georgia, while Ruby Falls is in Tennessee. Rock City is just exactly what it says - a lot of really big rocks and crevasses - some of the crevasses you even have to sidle through. There are rock bridges and interesting formations. At one point, on Lovers Leap, you can see 7 different states from that vantage point - over 2000 feet altitude. We walked through Fairyland, where there were assorted scenes with gnomes, as well as dioramas depicting assorted fairy tales. Once we completed our walk through Rock City, we stopped at a very impressive Starbucks and headed towards South Carolina.

On our way to South Carolina, we were in Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina - some of them more than once. Pretty weird route that our GPS took us on, but it was more scenic than the freeway, which would have taken us down to Atlanta and then up to South Carolina. Both routes took about the same amount of time. I'm looking forward to seeing my grandkids, Brian and Jennifer and their children, this weekend.