Farewell Charleston

I can hardly believe that we have left Charleston.  Have we been away for 6 days already? My how the time passes by quickly.

We've had a wonderful time in Charleston and have seen and done alot.  The Festival of Lights was a real treat to see and it filled us with ideas on how to decorate next year.  We spent time in downtown Charleston as well browsing through the Slave Market.  There were so many people that we didn't stay long. We did enjoy finding rainbow alley where they have these beautifully painted homes.

We enjoyed a round of golf at the Wild Dunes course on James Island.  The day was beautiful when we were golfing although a little overcast.  The course wasn't busy, so we were able to enjoy a leisurely round without feeling the pressure of someone behind us.  The course itself reminded us of the Pawleys Island course with lots of water and marshes surrounding us.  This course was also really narrow which meant a few balls were lost by both Ralph and I.

We also went to see the Angel Oak Tree which is on John's Island.  I had read about this on the internet and thought it might be interesting to see.  We went on Sunday afternoon however we were surprised at the number of people who also had the same idea.  We were one of the first to get there when it opened at 1:00 but within minutes there were so many people walking around that it made it virtually impossible to photograph.

This tree is thought to be one of the oldest living tree's east of the Mississippi River.  It is estimated to be 400-500 years old (I've read conflicting ages in articles from 300 years and up).  It stands 65 feet tall and is 28 feet wide and it shades an area of 17,000 square feet.  The largest branch reaches 187 feet.  It is amazing to see and so beautiful.  I said to Ralph that it reminded me of the story of Hansel and Gretel.

We decided to go see the tree again on Monday hoping it wouldn't be so busy.  The weather was calling for a heavy fog so we weren't sure what to expect.  We weren't disappointed as there was far less people and we were able to take a few more pictures before too many people got in the way.

While at the Angel Tree Ralph started speaking with another lady who was also taking photo's.  She told him about a fishing village nearby in Mount Pleasant.  It was called Shem Creek and has a lovely boardwalk to stroll along where you can enjoy watching the shrimp boats go out fishing.  There were lots of pelican's flying around and many people were out enjoying the weather.  It was still really foggy out but that added to the beauty of the area.  It reminded me a little of Murrel's Inlet as there was lots of marshland in the area.  We spent about 2 hours watching the boats and strolling along the boardwalk.

I must say we have been blessed with beautiful weather so far.  While the sun hasn't been out much, the temperatures have been great.  We have had a bit of rain each day but only for a short period of time and it hasn't bothered us at all.  The average temperature has been around 24c which is great. You can see that they have had a lot of rain though as there are puddles everywhere as the land is just saturated.  We hear on the news everyday about how much flooding there is and we were cautioned to watch for overflowing rivers and streams.

We enjoyed a nice dinner in downtown Charleston on New Years Eve at a restaurant called SNOB (Slightly North of Broad).  The restaurant was jam packed with people celebrating the coming of a new year.  Everyone was in very good spirits.  The food was delicious and we enjoyed a nice evening together.

Yesterday we packed up and headed to Myrtle Beach.  We are all settled in and unpacked.  It's nice not living out of a suitcase.  It's a cloudy overcast day.  The sunrise was very short lived but still pretty to be able to wake up and look out off your balcony and see the sun come up.  I love doing that.  After breakfast Ralph and I took a nice long walk along the beach.  I promised not to look for shells until we were almost back at the condo.  Just as we were finishing our walk we came upon an area filled with newly washed up shells.  We picked up a few, but I had been walking with a full bladder for quite some time and raced back to the condo.  The shells could wait for another day.

This afternoon we went golfing at Rivers Club.  There were only 20 golfers in total that had booked today.  Ralph and I were the last group and we tee'd off at 12:30.  We were done by around 3:30.  We felt bad that the people in the pro shop and the guy that looks after the carts had to wait for us to finish.  What a long day for them.  They told us that the locals don't like to golf when it's cart path only and because they have had so much rain, they simply stay home.  It was great for us, no pressure and no waiting.  It was a little cooler today (16c) and we did have a little bit of rain but nothing that lasted much longer than 5 or 10 minutes.

So far, we've been having a wonderful time.