Charleston - Festival of Lights

We arrived in Charleston around noon today.  It was a beautiful warm day with the temperature hitting 24c.  We loved not having to wear a jacket.  After getting settled into our hotel we went out exploring and getting an idea of where we were in relation to the things that we had planned while we were here.

We enjoyed an early dinner at a local bbq restaurant.  We had delicious smoked chicken.

Afterwards we headed to James Island where I had read about a "Festival of Lights" event that was taking place during the month of December.  It's a park on the Island that had 3.5 miles of "lights" decorating the drive.  It was absolutely amazing.  We were able to park and walk around to enjoy the lights and then later drive through the park to see the rest. Sadly it started to rain which limited how much walking we were able to do.

The pictures don't capture the absolute beauty of the glistening lights, but I want to keep this as a memory of a beautiful visit.  We arrived at the park at around 5:00 and stayed until 8:45.  We drove through twice and were amazed at how much more we saw the 2nd time around.

Sand sculpture

Escaping winter 2019

The time has arrived for us to leave for our vacation in Charleston and Myrtle Beach. We had a nice day yesterday celebrating Ralph’s 60th birthday. Ralph enjoyed the company and having Laura and Jay and the family down for a visit as well.

We went to bed early in anticipation of getting up before the sun comes up and packed our truck and hit the road before the morning traffic. We were on the road by about 4:30.  We were surprised at how busy it was at the border and experienced a 30 minute delay crossing.

We had a beautiful sunrise this morning and enjoyed amazing weather during our drive. The temperature was lovely as well sitting at 13c.

While driving we have been listening to an audio book by Lis Wiehl called the Newsmakers. It’s a great way to pass the time. We started listening to it at around 9:00 am and listened to it all the way to Charlotte. It’s nice for Ralph to enjoy it as well. We also packed a thermos of coffee which enabled us to keep our stops to a minimum. It worked out really well.

When we arrived in Charlotte we checked in right away at the hotel. We had a lot of construction along the way which probably added an extra hour to our drive. That’s ok though as it allowed us to finish the audio book we were listening too 😉. 

After checking in we went to Harry’s Grill and Tavern and enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner.

On the road again

Sadly our vacation has come to an end. We are leaving among rumours of another hurricane coming up the coast. I pray that it misses Myrtle Beach. There are still houses under water as the people wait for the flooding to recede.

We have had a wonderful time while we were here. The weather was the best we have ever had. It was warm, and the sun was shining every day.

I was up early with the intention of going to the beach to photograph the sunrise but it was quite foggy out this morning. I stayed on the balcony instead and enjoyed a coffee while watching the sun come up.  When I first got up (at 6:00) the moon was till in the sky.  There was a really large formation of clouds in the sky as well and I really didn't expect to get  many good photo's.  This first one is my attempt at capturing the sliver of a moon that was out.

I waited patiently as the sun started coming up.  I really wasn't expecting too much as there was so much haze and clouds rolling in.  While I was taking the photographs, Teresa joined me and enjoyed a coffee on the balcony while Ralph and Lawrence packed up the bags and got them ready to take down to the vehicle.  I had a good opportunity to use our filters that we had purchased before going to California and Hawaii.  Using them today was the perfect opportunity to help bring out the colour in the sky and give an added warmth to the overall picture.

We were all packed and ready to leave by 8:50. We said goodbye to our friends at the Sea Captain’s House as we enjoyed our final breakfast there. As we were leaving Michelle (our waitress) ran out with Ralph’s water bottle which he had forgotten. She is such a nice lady and makes our visit there so much more  enjoyable.

We're now resting in Morgantown which is about 6 hours away from home.  We'll get an early start again tomorrow and be home sometime in the afternoon.

International Golf Resort

Today we are golfing at International Golf Resort. Originally we were booked at Crow Creek but they have lots of issues with flooding. It’s going to be another beautiful day as reported by the weather station with a thunder storm possible for the later part of the day. The sunrise was very pretty and we had an opportunity to photograph it as our tee time wasn’t until 9:00 am. The sky was a deep red colour and I had my camera set up on my tripod on the balcony to capture it's beauty.   The first photos were taken on a 30 second shutter speed smoothing out the ocean. I was surprised at how calm the ocean was this morning.

We were able to tee off earlier than our 9:00 am schedule this morning, which was nice.  We all played well today with Lawrence and I having our best games of the week today.   It was hot and muggy today which was par for the course this week but we didn't complain. It's our last day of golf and we enjoyed the beautiful day that God blessed us with.

Before we left for Myrtle Beach, Harry and Marian loaned us their "State Park" pass.  Today we used it to go into the Huntington Beach State Park.  This is one of our favourite places to visit while here in Myrtle Beach.  The birds are in abundance here and depending on the time of year there are often many different ones to see.  This year there were many storks which we have not seen here in such abundance before.  We had an amazing time at the park and enjoyed photographing the birds.  I could spend hours here.

Farmstead Golf Club

Today we golfed at Farmstead Golf Club.  We enjoyed a nice breakfast first before leaving. It's really nice to talk to our waitresses at the Sea Captains House. Over the years we have gotten to know a few of them and it's nice to get reacquainted each year.

While golfing it was very difficult to find our balls if they were in the rough. It was very deep and hid the balls and needless to say a few were lost because we couldn't see them!!

Interesting washrooms.  Ralph thought "Hen" said "Men"...Guess which one he used!!

We tee'd off on time and played our round in about 4.5 hours.  There was a tournament ahead of us which made the round a little slower so we were forced to wait for the group in front of us on each hole.  That creates is own challenges, but we were  patient and just relaxed and tried to enjoy ourselves.  It was very hot today with the temperature reaching 35c.

On our drive home we passed this guy on his motorcycle.  It was decorated all over in beer paraphernalia which we all thought was really fun to see.  It makes a great photograph, don't you think!!

After our golf we relaxed at our condo and prepared for dinner.  Tonight we ate at the Wicked Tuna.  They have the most amazingly fresh seafood and we weren't disappointed.  We had a really enjoyable evening.  On our way home we stopped at Costco for some last minute shopping.  We'll relax for the rest of the evening and get ready for our last round of golf tomorrow at International Golf Resort.

Todays golf game winner was "Lawrence".  This game was the "card" game where 4 cards were drawn and the total score for those holes was added.  The person with the lowest score was the winner.  Congratulations Lawrence.