Brookgreen Gardens

 I stumbled across Brookgreen Gardens online and I almost didn't visit because I didn't know if I wanted to forfeit my beach time to visit a botanical garden.  My reasoning was that we can visit gardens almost anywhere we visit but the beach is fairly rare as far as how often we can visit.

I'm so glad I pushed past that thinking and decided to branch out and see something different beyond just the beach fun.  I had no idea it would be as large or grand or interesting as it is.  This place ranks up there on our top ten list of attractions outside of natural attractions.  It is that great of a place.

 It is huge, with 9,100 acres.  It is well done and has a wonderful historic sense, having been founded in 1931 by Archer Huntington and Anna Hyatt Huntington.  It is quite frankly, breathtaking.  I must have said wow at least once every ten or fifteen minutes.

First off, are the trees.  The amazing, some of them 300 year old, trees.

Then there are the gardens.  The gardens are laid out the shape of a spread wing butterfly.  There are different sections, each with its own theme and beauty.  It would take me hours to describe them so I'll just point you to the website: here.   

As we walked through them we were so taken by how many spaces were made just to sit and take in the beauty for as long as you'd like.

 

There are water features throughout the gardens.

And there are even spaces for children's fun in the Children's Peace Garden.

 The gardens alone would have been well worth the visit.  On top of the gardens,  there is also a wildlife refuge and incredible art galleries and sculptures.  I'll leave the other parts for another day because there is just too much to tell to fit in one blog post.

If you are in the area, please visit this place.  Tickets are $12 for adults and they are good for a whole week.  You really can't beat that, can you?

Living the life in South Carolina!

Project 365~Sept 25 through Oct 1

I had so many pictures this week already that I thought I'd just put all my Project 365 ones in one post together.  Here they are:

 

  

 

Myrtle Beach State Park~The Boardwalk

When we were in OBX this summer, one question I was asked over and over again on the phone was, "is there a boardwalk there?".  There wasn't.  There is one here in Myrtle Beach though.  We haven't visited it yet so I can't share what I think of it.  I can say that I've loved all of the boardwalks I have visited so far so I am guessing I will love the one here too.

In the meantime, we enjoyed the boardwalk at the State Park.  It connects the park areas to the beach and connects the access points to the beach to each other.  

There is just something about boardwalks that scream summer to me.  I know, it isn't summer...but it still feels like summer here. 

And the view is just gorgeous from here!  I'm content to just hang here for a bit!  Can you blame me?

Living the life in South Carolina!

Hog Heaven~Bike Week in Myrtle Beach

When Austin was about three years old, he was obsessed with Harley's.  He could tell if there was a Harley around long before he could even see them.  Meaning, he knew one by the sound alone.  We'd be driving on the interstate and hear the roar of a bike coming up behind us and he'd shout out, That's a Harley!  And he was always correct in his guess.  I was, and still am, so impressed by that.  The boy has good taste.

Imagine our surprise to land in Myrtle Beach and realize we coordinated our trip with Bike Week/Harley Davidson Bike Week.  This has added such a fun dimension to our visit here.  They are in the campground we are staying at.  They are at the places we stop to visit.  And they are on the road whenever we drive.

 

There is a Harley Davidson dealership right up the road, and each day we've passed by there are tons of bikes there to drool over.

We are in Hog Heaven!  Can I show you my favorite?

 

I had no idea they made pink helmets.  That is gonna be me someday, mark my words!

Living the life where we dream to be bikers in NC!

What the Rest of the Family Is Up To

While we hang out in South Carolina, the rest of the family is doing their thing in Florida and Illinois.  The princess is growing up, like little ones tend to do.  She is one of the happiest babies I've ever seen.  Ashleigh is fantastic at sending me pictures and videos of the little peanut so I can see her smiles almost daily.  Ashleigh is working tons of hours and still cooking up her daily feasts.  I don't know how she is juggling it all, but she is.

Ambir is busy working, being a girlfriend and modeling.  Yes, our super model is doing some formal modeling now which is no big surprise to us.  She has always loved to be in front of the camera so it's only natural that she be paid to do so! 

Aric is busy working and taking care of his own house and all the things that go along with that.  He is also attempting to get thrown out of stores every chance he gets by having too much fun there by playing like a child (or fun adult).  I don't have any photos of his craziness like dressing up like a cat, so I'll just have to visualize it.  We are looking forward to seeing him very shortly.

Auburn is working two jobs and in her little bit of spare time she does things like jet skiing.  It's a  rough life!  I thought it was so sweet that the only thing she wanted for her birthday is for Austin to come and visit her.  Who would have thought that they would actually pick to spend time together someday? 

We are here, still soaking up the goodness of South Carolina.  We are enjoying it and we are also looking forward to seeing our Florida kids soon!

Fishing Pier at Myrtle Beach State Park

I think fishing piers are kind of like boardwalks.  They may not scream summer in quite the same way, but they do seem to have the same air of relaxation about them.  They seem to say, "pull up a seat and stay awhile".  The pier at the State Park was one of the nicest ones we have seen at a State Park.

There are benches to sit at and fish, or just watch the water.  The pier has places to measure and clean your fish.  And there are people both young and old and everywhere in between.  I could sit and people watch here for hours and hours and hours.

The view is not too shabby either!

I like this one much better though because you can't see the buildings as much.

I'm going to miss this place when we leave here.

Living the life in SC!

Benjamin's Calabash Seafood Buffet

I don't tend to write about the places we eat at that often.  We don't eat out tons and when we do it tends to be when we are out on a date so I'm not thinking of taking the camera out then.  I really couldn't resist this week though.  We saw a bunch of advertising for different seafood buffets and it had me wanting to sample one before we left.  We picked Benjamin's Calabash Seafood Buffet as our pick. 

The place was very nice, our service was terrific and with over 170 items on the buffet-we ate more than enough seafood before we left.  Yummy!

Afterwards we went to Outdoor World/Bass Pro Shop and I have to tell ya, the guys just crack me up in this store.  It is one of the few places that Nathan actually enjoys shopping at and Austin has every camo inspired gadget that he could dream of all in one place.

Living the life in South Carolina!

Myrtle Beach State Park~The Beach

So far we can tell there are many touristy things to do here.  Things like mini-golf, entertainment shows, shopping and lots of places to eat.  None of those things are the reason we came here though.  We came here for this reason:

Or to be more specific, we came here for this reason:

We drove to the Myrtle Beach State Park to visit the beach.  There is a great park complete with a full service campground and fishing pier here.  You can see some of the park here:

I mostly wanted to focus on the surf and sand today.  So the other parts will just have to wait.  Don't tell Ava we came here without her.  The beaches are pet friendly here, so I'm sure we will bring her before we leave the area. 

Ahhhh....I can feel my shoulders relaxing already.

Living the life in South Carolina!

Gloucester VA to Myrtle Beach SC

We are so happy to have a moving day today!  Since our time in the OBX was cut short, we purposely looked for a beach area to stop off at on our way to Florida.  Neither one of us had ever been to Myrtle Beach.  There was a Coast to Coast park there so it was a perfect fit.

We saw this one our way there:

And we saw lots of touristy things like this when we arrived:

It is really hot here.  More so than we were expecting.  We are curious to see if we will love it here or not.

Living the life in South Carolina!

Lazy Week in Gloucester

We are settling back into a routine with Austin being back home with us.  I got my staples out and am finally feeling somewhat normal.  Ava is thrilled to have another guy around which means I have been bumped down to third on the list of people she adores.  We bought an island to put in the space where our dining room table was.  Beyond that we are doing the normal, everyday things in life like laundry.

In other words, it has been a very laid back, lazy kind of a week.  We are loving our campsite still even though it has rained quite a bit so we haven't sat outside like we normally would.

Mountain Top and Valley

One wonderful thing about where Nathan's family lives is that you can see the mountains pretty much from anywhere you are at there.  The scenery is breathtaking.  It is so lush that we find ourselves saying, "it is so green here" each time we visit.  It's a wonderful place to enjoy nature at its finest.

 I never tire of this scenery.  I don't think I ever will tire of it.  I mean, can you imagine seeing this and saying, you know what...I'm done with all of this beauty?  Nope, not gonna happen.

What I rarely did when we lived here, and really enjoy now though is the ride coming in.  The ride that allows us a whole different view of this magical place.  The drive over the mountains, where we look down on the valley below.  That is what we enjoyed today.

It is still so green and still so beautiful.

Just an entirely different perspective.

Living the life in Virginia!