HUNTING ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA 2015....1 of 4

After a very difficult winter I was especially thankful to be back on the road again with Teddy and Saffire.  We headed to the beach for some vitamin D and ocean PT!  This trip found the Baby Car and the ocean kayak tagging along behind us.  We had an easy trip down and two and a half wonderful weeks at the beach.  

The weather was awesome, both in the good and the bad sense of the word.  So many beautiful days of sunshine and ocean breezes with long walks and a diverse and changing variety of sea life along the shore to entertain us.  

But the power of Mother Nature also asserted itself when a torrential storm unleashed a large branch into the top of poor Saffire's roof.  Luckily it didn't pierce all the way to the interior ceiling and thanks to my amazing good friend Luanne it was quickly given a patch which will hold until we get back to St. Louis to get her properly repaired.  

Highlights of the trip were of course visiting with old friends and making new ones; golf twice at Lady's Island CC where I have to brag I beat Luanne twice because it may never happen again!; a day out with Teresa and our cameras exploring Beaufort and the National Cemetery and last but oh so far from least kayaking the Atlantic Ocean with the dolphins!!  

That was such an amazing experience, to be so close to them and see the size and sleek power of their bodies and to hear them breathing.  Truly one of the cool experiences of my life!

Standing alone on the beach with the tide rolling in, thinking that you could actually get in the water there and end up on the coast of Ireland, how amazing is that!  I truly love the mountains but there is something about the ever changing sands, the water, the clouds and the life that teems there that inspires deep awe.  

I am posting from home.  We arrived about noon with dark skies and rain but it was nice to pull into the driveway after a wonderful trip.  We stopped in Asheville for a quick shopping and one night brewery tour excursion, then went on to Levi Jackson State Park in Kentucky.  

I'm afraid I should have waited to post until I was fresh as the pictures are a bit out of order, but heck, variety is the spice of life, so enjoy the next four posts of a wonderful trip to Hunting Island, 2015!!

Teddy and I both love the long beach walks.  It's never boring like walking the neighborhoods at home, the ocean is always leaving interesting things behind.  This is an old crab trap that washed up on the beach by all the downed trees.

Sunset over the marsh.

The beach at Hunting Island is a great place to find fossilized shark's teeth.  Ellen and Luanne are the two most dedicated hunters and vie for the most and largest found.  

Most are a lot smaller than the tooth on the left.  I bought the tooth at a shop in town, unfortunately it was after Ellen had left for home.  

While on a walk with Teresa and Luanne, I "found" this amazing tooth and with great excitement shared the find.  T had been with me shopping, so she was in on the fun.  We put it over on Luanne completely and it was a great laugh on the afternoon stroll!!

HUNTING ISLAND...2 OF 4

So these are some of the pictures that are out of order, taken at the end of our trip.  

The first three are taken at the Farmers Market of Asheville.  Lots of homemade goods and a fun place to shop and take pictures. 

The Snowball bushes at our campground reminded me of the bushes that were in our yard in Kirkwood when I was growing up.  

The rest of the pictures were taken at Levi Jackson State Park in Kentucky.  The log cabin was the mill and the stones leading up to the cabin were old mill stones on display.  The sweet goslings were swimming with their parents in the mill pond.

Spring wildflowers in the woods at Levi Jackson

HUNTING ISLAND....3 OF 4

Teresa and I went poking around Beaufort one day and came across an old cemetery.  

Check out Hannah's impressive age...101 years and 6 months!!!!

                                                  Snowy Egrets in the marsh

                                                           Sunset over the marsh

                                                      The lighthouse at Hunting Island

            The pine trees at the campground drop huge pinecones and they have a spectacular
             red glow when dropped in the campfire.

HUNTING ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA 2015...4 OF 4

                Saffire and the "Baby Car" that follows us wherever we go!

   A whelk shell commonly called an Olive Shell, we saw a lot of live ones the first week but very few shells to be found and no live ones to see after that week.

A huge rain storm came through one evening and as you can see a large branch fell from above and pierced three holes in poor Saffire's roof.  Luanne to the rescue, she climbed up, removed the tree and patched the roof!  It was a good job but I'll have to take her in to the RV hospital now that we're home!

  For a few days the Horseshoe crabs were everywhere at the end of the Island.  Teddy was quite interested in them.  It was cool to see their footprints in the sand, they moved oh soooo slowly!

                           

This was the day I went out kayaking and saw the dolphins.  What an amazing experience that was!!!!

One day I wandered down a road I had been by many times and stumbled upon this little deserted chapel.  The original construction was from 1740.  

On our drive out to the Island we pass the Beaufort National Cemetery where soldiers are buried.  I'd often wanted to go in and this year Teresa and I walked all around it.  It was commissioned by Abraham Lincoln after the Civil War.  It is a peaceful place, surrounded by a red brick fence and dotted with live oak dripping in moss.  

In the Jewish tradition mourners place stones on the headstones of loved ones when they visit.  I'm sure that is what someone was thinking of when they placed a coin on the stones of a whole row of Unknown Soldiers from the Civil War.

I think Patricia must have been one smart, tough broad to become a Navy Commander during WWII and Korea,  she certainly did it her way!

And perhaps this gravestone touched me the most of all, Ralph Henry Johnson was a baby of 19 when he recieved the highest honor our country bestows.  He died a hero in the Vietnam war.  So many of his fellow soldiers returned to a nation that did not honor their service and left them disturbed for the rest of their lives.  It could have been my brother, my cousin, my friend.  They came home.  Ralph didn't and I'm sure his family still mourns.