The Finale!

9 July 2022--Spent a couple days visiting with our friend Denise in N Myrtle Beach, which got it's name back in 1900 in a "name the town" contest.  Crepe Myrtle bushes are abundant here, so the name is no surprise.

 

Like most beach towns, odd attractions abound. lol  The middle pic is an upside down building.

   

Beyond the schtick, we spent a good 3 hours at Brookgreen Gardens, approximately 9,000 acres of beautiful gardens and outdoor sculptures.  There are over 2000 sculptures here--I'll spare you most of them--lol.  (I know you were thinking, "oh no, Paula, don't do it! lol)

  

The 3rd pic here in the 1st row is a tribute to the owners/developers of this property.  Archer and Ann Hyatt Huntington bought what used to be 4 plantations as a place to showcase her sculptures.  Most in here are not hers, but some are.

    

This 1st flower is called "fireworks".

  

  

More sculptures. Denise is in the 2nd pic.

  

  

This next series of pics are by far my favorite part of the gardens.  These live oaks are up to 250 years old and absolutely beautiful.  Behind Cathy and me in the 3rd is Live Oak Allee, a section of the gardens that are fully worth the trip all by itself.  Blow the pictures up and watch the video to truly appreciate the majesty of these trees.

    

    

We didn't go at night, but each night they light up the trees with sort of Christmas lights or lights like these in the pics below.  Looks very festive!

  

This Don Quixote sculpture was done by Anna, but his cohort Sancho Panza was done by someone else years later.

   

They have the most different looking squirrels...look at his face and how long his tail and legs are.  It's called a fox squirrel.

   

It was brutally, and embarrassingly, humid there.  lol  Someone actually remarked to me in passing, "hot, huh?"  You think? I'm walking around a sopping mess!

  

Denise is just starting to wilt, but Cathy is barely glistening as we head into the Cypress Swamp area, where they had some info on the slave population and a small zoo.

  

In 1850 Joshua Ward owned this property and was the largest slave owner in the country.  Most of the slaves in this area came from the coasts of Africa, where the climate was similar and rice had been grown for thousands of years.  They were brought here for their agricultural skills to grow rice on all the plantations in this area.  Here is a list of some of the names of people who actually worked here.

  

Wasn't much of a zoo, but I'm toast at this point so we gladly called it a day--I'm now the nerd who has their glasses constantly sliding down their nose--ugh! lol

  

Denise let us use here golf cart so when we got home Cathy and I and the dogs took a drive along the beach and ended up at Denise's place 6 blocks away from our RV Park.  Denise's condo is a block from the ocean, so we made plans to do some beach walking the next day.

  

  

Denise's partner of 25 years passed a year ago in May.  These are pics of her and her motorcycle in the Badlands and her in Maine.  She was a very nice person, and we all miss her.

  

  

Off to the beach, with Denise in her poker shirt, "All In"!  The beach here is beautiful, and the water was warm...just perfect!  After walking the beach a bit we drove around in the area of the Intercoastal Waterway...I love looking at these big River Boats.

        

Of course no trip to the beach would be complete without ice cream, so although I needed it like a hole in the head, this place called to me...lol

  

So, our touring is done.  It's been exactly 7 weeks since we left Ft Myers back in May and we had a wonderful time, but we are tired. lol  We are going to John Prince Campground in Palm Beach County, FL for 10 days of rest and fishing, so if I do another blog at all it will be to show you all the fish we catch.  lol  Thanks for following along!