Beach day

On Sunday we wanted to plan something that would allow us to relax and take a break in the middle of our trip but also honor the Sabbath.  We started by going to church at the local ward and it shouldn't amaze me but always does that the church is the same no matter where you go down to the architecture and the light din of children during the meeting.  

After church we headed to Kiawah Island, a little south of Charleston, because I had heard their beaches were the most relaxing and not the college/wild crowd and let's face it...Anna and I are 90 year old souls who just wanted to sit and relax.

The walk to the beach was amazing to me.  You start on a boardwalk path in a forest then out into lower grasses and shrubs out  into dunes and then the ocean.  It was idyllic and I would love to live near a beach like this.

Anna loved the rubber mats that lead out to the sea because it made it so much easier to walk and gave time for Sand to fall off your feet on the way back.  

We rented chairs and an umbrella and relaxed.  I read and Anna prepared her lessons for the upcoming weeks in Sunday School.  I eventually wandered down to the water but didn't go too deep because you know the whole terrified of sharks dragging me to my death thing.  There is something about a beach, whether on a lake like at home or the ocean, that makes me a kid again and I ended up playing in the sand building castles for hours.  Maybe that is how I should manage stress...play in the sand box or move to an ocean.

Although the weather was warm the breezes kept us cool.  Coll enough that Anna got cold under the shade of the umbrella and stuck her leg out to warm up her body.  Bad decision...

We left Kiawah and decided to see the other beach we had heard about that was supposed to be more the beach town college fair and we headed out to Folly Beach and bummed up and down the boardwalk.  We ate dinner at Taco Boy which we had eaten at earlier in the trip but at a different location and I loved the Street Corn and have committed to making it this summer on the grill.

I made Anna pose in front of the doors at Taco Boy and she wasn't too thrilled as there were people near us but come on isn't she cute.

I snapped this photo at dinner to show her that she got a little sun on the face and although she said to delete the photo it is a favorite because it shows the real spunky wife that I adore.

Farmer's Market and Angel Oak

On Saturday he headed to downtown Charleston to visit the Farmers Market.  Anna and I love the Farmers Market in Salt Lake City and were excited to see how this one compared.  The market was lovely but much smaller than ours back home.

Even though it was only late April early May we were shocked at the amount and size of the produce here.  Our market in SLC doesn't even start until mid June and then you only have peas and some lettuce whereas this market had everything you could dream of including things we never see back home.

After the market we headed out of town and across the Ashley River to John's Island.  Along the way we found this back road and I had to take the obligatory lined oak lane.  The road lead to an old plantation but was blocked so we couldn't see the plantation beyond.

We were going to John's Island to see the Angel Oak.  The Angel Oak is estimated to be over 500 years old with it's longest branch being 187 feet long.  It was a spiritual experience for me...just incredible.  

You aren't allowed to climb the tree so Anna leaned very gently on a big branch to give perspective on the shear size of these branches.  

Look at the size of these arms reaching out.  Some of the branches were so long they needed help in being held up with steel posts.

After the Angel Oak we decided just to bum and explore the areas around Charleston.  We looked at housing developments to see what houses were going for...you know just to dream.  We took it as a sign to move here when we stumbled on Daniel's Island and saw the homes on Island Park Drive (which is our favorite spot to vacation in Idaho outside Yellowstone).  I mean look at some of these homes.

but...then we remembered we weren't millionaires and couldn't afford these homes...silly us. 

As we traveled around the various islands we crossed so many bridges that had to accommodate for large ships passing underneath.  We drove over bridges where the entire bridge turned sideways.  We got stopped on draw bridges.

and the most common of all were the mountain bridges as I called them that would simply loom ahead of you and where you would climb straight up like going over a mountain.  This photo doesn't do it justice.

Beaufort and Hunting Island

We had planned on visiting Cypress Gardens on this day but because of flooding the year before the gardens were closed for repairs so we decided to head down the coast and explore Beaufort.  In my research for our trip people had said to visit Beaufort but I really thought it would just be more of the same...boy was I wrong.  I would suggest to anyone visiting the area to go to Beaufort.  Where Charleston had the charm of the typical row house mansions Beaufort had the dripping moss and the HUGE mansions you imagine in the plantation south.  I mean check out the moss on this one tree alone.

We ended up parking just off the main street among the mansions and were amazed at the size of these homes and the beauty of such a different world then we experience back in Utah.  I was literally walking in the pages of the Notebook.

This next one was seriously so HUGE.  It was called the castle and was on a dead end street and had the river all on one side of it.  It had to be well over 10,000 sq. feet easy and is a private residence still today.  It looks like it is just one big square but if you look close you can see the side wings that come off the main colonnade.  

This is what the streets looked like with these HUGE...did I mention they are big...mansions lining the sides.

Downtown Beaufort was charming and had a little seaside upper class beach feel with little shops and quaint restaurants.  We ended up eating lunch at the restaurant behind Anna in this next photo and then went and relaxed on the swings that look out to ocean beyond.  

After Beaufort we drove down the highway a little more and over two islands to the most outlying island in the area, Hunting Island.  I had heard there was a good lighthouse on this island and Anna and I can't resist a good lighthouse.  When you turn onto Hunting Island it is like you hoped on a plane and left South Carolina and ended up in Costa Rica.  It was a different world altogether with palms and huge sea pines towering above you and green everywhere you looked.  

We saw a Blue Alligator that had made it's home in the pond and (the sign said) had raised several broods here.  She was maybe 4 to 5ft long.  

The lighthouse used to be kept by two families that lived on the Island and shared a duplex type home keeping the light burning 24 hours a day.  

We learned that the lighthouses along the coast of South Carolina are all black and white but the patterns are different so those out at sea could know where they were based off the pattern of the lighthouse.

The beach at Hunting Island was so different the other beaches we visited.  They had the maintained portion for beachgoers, seen below:

and then the unmaintained beach which gives you an idea of what the beaches looked like to early settlers with trees going up right to the ocean waves.  My dad said there is an old Louis L'AMour book where one of the Sacketts hides on the beach here and it helped him to see how easy it would be for someone to hide in all the debris.