2021 - South Carolina - Day 05 - Myrtle Beach to Charleston (Boone Hall Plantation)

 We got up to another breezy cool morning in Myrtle Beach.  The weather has been pretty wonderful.  Temperature has been perfect.  The wind...a bit too strong.  But hey...all good.  We used our breakfast package to once again get breakfast at the Hotel.  This time, however, we were smarter and figured out how to share plates in a way that we did not have as much food. The food was pretty good.

After checking out, we got in the car and headed south to Charleston.  As we drove, we started to figure out what we were going to do the next 48 hours in Charleston.  We opted to purchase a tri-package where we would take a harbor tour, a downtown carriage tour and visit the Boone Hall Plantation.  We purchased it over the phone and then changed our destination from the next hotel to the plantation.  

We arrived at the plantation just after noon.  The plantation was pretty cool.  It has been used for such movies as The Notebook, North and South and Alex Haley’s final roots chapter called ‘Queen’.  The plantation is used for many things.  They have various ‘harvest days’ where they celebrate the beginning of a given crop harvest.  They have acres of land where they grow a ton of different crops from Pecan trees to strawberries with many other things as well.   We saw blueberries, corn, grapes, etc..  Quite a long list of things grown here.  The mansion on the premise was redone.  As a matter of fact, the owners of the plantation sometimes live in the place in rooms upstairs.  Along the property are preserved living areas where the slaves once lived.  The bricks and everything that were used to build them came from the property as it used to have 3 brick kilns that produced over a million bricks a year.  The bricks were actually used to build Fort Sumter.  We walked through all the buildings, down the amazing entry road that was lined with 86 live oak trees.   There used to be 88 but a hurricane took out one of them and a lightening strike another.  We also jumped on a trailer pulled by a tractor that took us around the property for about a 45 minutes or so.  It was narrated by guy who was very ‘dramatic’.  Kind of funny to watch as much as listen.  We also listened to a couple of lectures.  One lady described the situations of the slaves.  Another lady actually acted out some things, singing songs, talking in the dialect spoken back then.  Funny, as we came up to the area to sit to listen to this black lady, she started banging a big stick on the ground to the side of the little stage.  It turns out she was killing a copperhead rattlesnake that was slithering along the foundation of the little house there.  She had not problem killing it and picking it up with the big stick.  The whole audience was amazed as they watched her do that.  From that point on, everyone was monitoring the ground under their feet!   All in all, I think we stayed a couple of hours there.  We even grabbed a hot dog, some salad and a small Bundt cake to share for a quick lunch.

After the plantation visit, we headed to our Country Inn and Suites hotel.  It is North Charleston...a bit away from the downtown.  I think it is about 12 miles or so away.  We’ll see.  We will do the harbor tour and the carriage ride tomorrow in the afternoon.  It is supposed to be a warm day here...around 88 degrees.  That will definitely be the hottest day while here.  We will see.  I will end this post later tonight and post pictures after we have eaten dinner.

Wow....dinner was amazing tonight.  We went to Lewis BBQ in Charleston.  The BBQ was purchased by the pound.  At first glance, the prices seemed a bit high.  But once you buy portions and sides, it turned out to be reasonable for BBQ.  But man...was it so darn good.  Brisket, pulled pork, green Chile corn bread, Mac-n-cheese and potato salad.  We have enough for a meal tomorrow or when we travel on Saturday.

After dinner, we drove downtown looking for the Savannah Candy Company.  We found it.  But parking is so expensive down here.  We also found the carriage company that we will use tomorrow.  So we now kind of know how to get to where we need to go.  Anyway, the candy company had some nice chocolates....gophers, pralines, etc..  But that was not enough, so we went to get some ice cream.  We are going to be in a food coma when we get home at this pace.  But the food was great.  Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the sites.  But tonight....it is all food.

Lastly, we played 5 crowns before going to bed and I set an all time ‘high’ record.  Pretty sad.  Should have never stepped up to the card table.   Until tomorrow....

Pictures:

Just some pictures around the plantation....

This lady is now named the ‘snake killer’.  She was a one lady show in so many ways singing, acting and killing snakes (which was not part of her act!).  She was really good describing the culture and languages of the enslaved people.  Apparently most came from West Africa (Angola) and brought rice and other things with them.

The pretty, long, driveway up to the mansion on the plantation.  Everything here has been restored and preserved.

These were the quarters of the slaves.  But these were the ‘skilled’ slaves that were most loved and used in close ways by the owners.  They are pretty sure the other slaves did not live so well.  But in some cases, two families, up to 16 people, lived in one of these little huts.  Pretty sad how humanity chose to treat humanity.

This is the back of the mansion...a nice little courtyard.

Road leading up to the mansion lined with live oak trees.

First time I’ve seen a cotton field with cotton on it.  Pretty cool to see.

Another picture of our snake lady telling us about the history of the plantation.

Along side the property there was a large waterway flowing quickly by.  It was a pretty place where they had a reception house.  Pretty nice location for a wedding reception.

This is the ‘gin’ house.  It is short for engine.  It provided support for all things motorized and generating energy.

The mansion....

If you look on the log, you’ll see a number of turtles sunning themselves.   Out in the middle of this pond, there were a bunch of turtles too.  Still no sighting of an alligator!

Happy back seat drivers.....

Happy vacationers.....

Can you say BBQ YUM!!!!  Lewis’ BBQ....gotta go there when in Charleston, SC.

The entire group.  Having a grand time seeing the south!

Our snake lady shared how they used a broom in their marriage ceremony reading from 1st Corinthians in the New Testament.  After a couple was married, they ‘jumped’ over the broom that was laid at their feet.  They would then put the broom over their bed or under it.

Great trip we are having!

2021 - South Carolina - Day 04 - Myrtle Beach Kids Day

 Good morning!  Yesterday was a really fun day.  We started the day by sleeping in a bit.  We did not head off to breakfast until around 9:30 AM.  We bought a package for this hotel that included breakfast and what a hearty breakfast that was.  Huge portions on the food.  And it was pretty good too.  We get to do this again today before we check out and leave for Charleston.

After breakfast, we got into our swimsuits and headed to the pools and the beach.  We were like little kids as we were the first to go to the ‘Lazy River’ here on the hotel property.  We just floated around and around for a good hour then hung out by this pool conversing with people as they floated by.  We got great details from folks from Ohio, West Virginia, upper state New York, New Hampshire and Virginia.  It is always fun for me to strike up conversations with others.  You learn so much from them as you talk with them.  Good times.

Once lounging at the pool started to burn our bodies, we headed to the beach and

 went for a lazy walk.  The wind and the surf were up a bit making it a red flag day which meant here that you could only go into the water up to your waist.  The water was a bit colder than the pools but it was swimmable.  None of us really go in though.  I was the most tempted and did wade out almost to the top of my thighs.  The beaches here are lined with hotels and I would imagine that in prime time, this place is hopping with people and families.  But now, I would guess the town is about 25% full which is nice for us.

I guess around noon we returned to our rooms to get showered and to figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our day.  We had decided earlier on that we would go bowling at the alley here at the hotel.   But then we decided to be even more kid like no go mini golfing....which we did.  They have lots of amazing mini golf places here.  We drove down the main drag a bit and chose a jungle themed one.  We had a lot of fun.  I think the Wayment’s kicked mine and Denise’s booties.  Ilene had two or three hole in one’s...which is not all that easy on these nice courses.

Following our mini golf session, we all started to get hungry.  So we churned over where to go and in the end we drove about 30 minutes to North Myrtle to a place called Barefoot Landing where they have lots of nice shops, the Alabama Theater (which had not shows going due to Covid) and lots of eateries.  In the end, we chose to eat at a place called Taco Mundo, which was referred to by a friend who comes here often.  This place sat right on a water way that I was told stretched all the way to Florida.  It was a very nice setting to eat some really good tacos.

After ‘linner’, Denise and Ilene wanted to find the candy shop named ‘Wee-R-Sweets’.  Ilene put it into her GPS and we followed it to....an Alligator Adventure park.  The GPS told her that the sweet shop should be exactly where this Alligator zoo thing was located.  So funny as we parked in a wine tasting establishments parking lot and then wandered the street wondering how the GPS could be so off.  In the end, we did find it back down the street a bit a ways away.  Denise read it was across from a McDonalds.  So when we saw McDonalds and looked across....sure enough...there it was.  It was a nice little shop.  They make their own taffy there...tons of flavors.   We bought a bit of that.

Once we were tired of sweets, we headed back to the hotel to go bowling.  We raced back there as the 50% off deal ended at 6 PM and we were pushing it.  In the end, Kim raced up there to the alley while Ilene, Denise and I went to our rooms to get the coupon and to get socks.  The nice girl at the alley honored the coupon and we aggressively bowled for an hour.  So much so...I was sweating.  It was warm.  We actually got 2 games and 9 frames in...almost three complete games in an hour.  The system there kept track of combined scores.  And this time, The Tiner’s got the Wayment’s....pay back after our disheartening loss at the golf course earlier!  We had a lot of fun.

Lastly, we went up to our rooms, got cards and headed down to the pool to play cards there.  I got in my swimsuit as I was hot and sweaty and wanted to cool down with a quick swim....which I did...one lap around the lazy river.  We then tried to play cards by the pool.  But after a few hands of Hearts, it was obvious that the wind was too strong and we returned to our room to play cards the rest of the night.  I must say that everyone was quite mean to me while playing Hearts as they kept giving me the Queen of Spades...over and over....and quite soon I hit 100 points and the game was over.  I think I won....not!

It was a fun active day.  I think we all really enjoyed Myrtle Beach.  Off to Charleston to explore it a bit in the 48 hours we will have there.  

Some pictures:

From our balcony looking out across the Atlantic Ocean....

Beach walk....really enjoying being by the ocean again.  

Happy card players in our room at the Coral Beach Resort Hotel....

Bowling a 145!  Got worse from there.  Loads of fun though for an hour or so.  The resort has some fun things to do.

Lazy river floating and swimming.  Little kid stole my tube!  <No...just kidding.  Needed todo a little swimming.>

Ilene and Denise enjoying the really slow float around the lazy river.  On one side, due to the wind, you’d just stop and have to paddle your way through that section.  Pretty funny.  Not a very strong current at all.

Mini-golfers at the Jungle course.  We chose this one because it had a fair degree amount of shade.  None of us are sun seekers!

Lounging by the pool.  So relaxing.  It was a really down, relaxing, day.

Eating Tacos at Taco Mundo Kitchen and Cantina.  Great location.  Food was yummy too.

Another great day on the South Carolina coast line!

2021 - South Carolina - Day 03 - Off to Myrtle Beach.

 Today we got up and got going around 9:00 AM.  We were out the door by 9:30 AM heading towards Myrtle Beach.  We first needed to get some breakfast.  So we found a place called Plantation Cafe and Deli.  It was a good breakfast stop.  Once we stopped for some gas, we headed north towards Myrtle Beach.  But as we drove, Denise and Ilene decided they wanted to find a plantation.  The drive to Myrtle Beach takes about 4 hours.  But Denise and Ilene found the Hampton Plantation along our route.  It was a pretty cool stop.  The plantation had a nice big master house but also had lots of stuff showing reminders of those who were enslaved there.  It was a green grassy area where they used to grow indigo followed by rice in later years.  It was pretty buggy though.  So buggy that Ranger Mike donated some of his bug spray to our cause.

We arrived at Myrtle Beach around 4:15 PM.  Our hotel\resort is pretty nice.  Upon registering we asked for rooms together and on the top floors.  Well they put us on the top floor which would be ok if the corridors were on the inside.  But they are not.  And being a bit afraid of heights, well, I go down hugging the walls as I walk down the corridor.  It is so high.  We have a partial view of the ocean from the balcony.    But not sure I can go out on the balcony....so scary.

For dinner, we drove to a place that a friend had recommended to us.  It was called Carolina Roadhouse.  the food was really good so the recommendation was awesome.  Funny...both couples order the same exact things...double order of ribs with an extra baked potato.  The salad with the meal was so good...they put the kitchen sink in the salad.  Really good.

After, we drove down to the boardwalk and checked it out.  It did seem a bit scary down there.  I don’t know, maybe we were just cold.  We took a few pictures, but jumped back in our car and headed back to the hotel there to check out all the pools and things they have here.  We also took a quick stroll down the beach.   The hotel is the Coral Beach Resort and sits right on the ocean.

Tomorrow we plan to just have lazy beach day.  But we will see!

Some pictures:

The home at the Hampton Plantation.  George Washington once stayed in it.  And part of the Revolutionary War was fought here and the Underground Railroad passed through here.

Ranger Mike giving us some background on the plantation....

The back of the mansion on the plantation....

The owners and their slaves sitting on the porch.  I’ll let you guess which is which!  :-)

Peeping im’s .... Tim and Kim peeking through the windows of the plantation mansion.

On the beach at Myrtle Beach.....

The Washington oak tree on the plantation....named after George Washington’s visit there.

Our hotel.  If you go to the top floor and go 3 rooms in from left to right on the wing furthest away from the beach, that is our room.  They call it a partial ocean view room.

Enjoying being together on beaches...

We finally look small....funny chairs on the boardwalk at Myrtle Beach.

Ending our night each night playing cards.  The Wayment’s smoked the Tiner’s tonight in Five Crowns.

2021 - South Carolina - Day 02 - Biking Hilton Head Island

 Happy April 26th....a beautiful morning it was and day it has been.  I slept like a dead person...getting full 8 hours of uninterrupted (no bathroom wake up calls) sleep.  Felt so good.  Up at 8 AM, bathed, fixed breakfast for all and out the door by 9:30 AM.  Wonderful!  We did play some cards until about 10:30 PM...naturally I won Crowns.  Actually it is pretty rare that win.

Upon leaving, we headed to Wheelz of Hilton Head Island to rent some bikes.  Finding the place was really easy.  We are staying on the North end of the island off of Folly Field Road.  And the bike shop and where we wanted to ride was on the South end...about a 6 mile drive.  The bikes at Wheelz are awesome compared to the bikes we rented on South Padre Island a few months back pre-Christmas.  Kim rented an electric bike which is so cool ... more to come on that.  We paid about 15 per bike....electric was $30.  It was supposed to be for 4 hours but the guy giving us the bikes said have them back before dark.  He said he had a ton of bikes so told not to worry about it.  So off we went....to the beach.  We wanted to ride in the wealthy area of Sandpiper area.  We wanted to ride out to the Lighthouse in Harbor Town.  But because only owners and guests can go in and out of this area, you have to go to the beach and ride on the beach and then cut into this area.  So that is what we did.  It was a great ride on the beach.  There were quite a few people already out enjoying the sun and waves.  The wind was at our back and the breeze was so cool and refreshing.  We were on the beach for about 3 miles.  Once we came to the Sandpiper Beach Club, we cut in land and headed to Harbor Town...which is just an area of small shops and this Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse was under some construction all around it.  We could have gone up it...but chose not to.  We went out on the pier where we could see some holes on the golf course where the RBC Heritage tour is played each year.  Beautiful course.....beautiful area with all the water and fancy boats.  While on the pier, dolphins surfaced many times as they cruised around in the bay.  That was kind of treat.  As we’ve been riding, we’ve been looking for alligators.  None seen yet. 

After spending some time at the Lighthouse, we decided to go to The Low Country Backyard Restaurant.  This was recommend to us by Scott and Michelle Hayden who had recently been here.  Wow...what a good recommendation that was.  Really good food.  The fried green tomatoes were amazing.  And the crab dip and pita chips were equally good.  All of it was so good.

The ride back to the bike shop was about 10 minutes.  It was almost 2 PM when we returned the bikes.  But first, we all had to try the electric bike.  It was amazing.  You start pedaling and then the battery kicks in and away you go.  You have to pedal to keep going but you don’t have to pedal much.  It was pretty cool...I have to say.

We next headed to ‘Just Towels’.... a towel imprinting business here to see if they have Turkish Bath Towels. This was a print shop....felt like a Chinese migrant sweat shop where slave labor was provided to print on everything made of material.  We had to ask where the ‘store’ was.  Well...no real store...they did have a little show room.  But, no Turkish Bath Towels.  I’ll have to go to Turkey, I guess, to get a couple of towels.

I’m back at the condo now writing this.  We are lounging a bit and will soon be heading to the pool to hang out and enjoy that.  Fun day so far!

The pool area was very nice.  Nice big pool, big hot tub, etc..  We stayed there for a couple of hours swimming, lounging and just visiting.  It was really a nice way to relax and spend the afternoon.  We figure we’ll have lots of beach time the next 3 days at Myrtle Beach.  But while at the pool, I heard a woman say to her friends that she had just had lunch at her favorite restaurant which was called Fishcamp.  so we looked it up online and it looked amazing.  So after cleaning up, off to Fishcamp we went.  It was rarely close.  But it is a popular place....we had to wait an hour.  So we got our names in and they would text us.  To kill time, we ended up walking out on a pier, driving around and so on.  The bar area had a guy playing music.  So I eventually went back there and listened.  It was pretty busy.  But as the sun went down, so did our body temperatures.  We got so cold.  But nothing that we could do.  The food was a amazing.  We had some calamari and then split an amazing seafood pasta.  Denise wanted their bread pudding, even tried to place her order before her food.  But then she told the gal to wait until after we ate.  So when that time came, she ordered the pudding.  Unfortunately our server returned and told us they were out of it.  Bummer.  But, being the kind of guy I am (and Kim), we drove to another restaurant (Hudson’s Dockside) and there they found some bread pudding.  It was pretty good. 

We are now stuffed, tired and ready to go to bed.  Tomorrow we leave Hilton Head and head north to Myrtle Beach.

Pictures:

Harbor Town Lighthouse on Hilton Head Island....

Kim and Ilene on their bikes.  Kim had a battery on his to assist with the ride.  That was cool.

The guy singing at The Fishcamp restaurant....

Lunch at The Backyard.  All our meals have been amazing.  Even the breakfast cooked by our personal chef this morning!  (Me).

Waiting for a table at The Fishcamp restaurant.  Lots of eateries are on the water.  Really nice.

Two satisfied bike riders and lunch fed souls....

Loving the pool.  They heated it a bit.  So it felt really nice.  We are really liking the condo we got through AIRBNB.

Lighthouse again.  Fun bike ride out to it.

More bike ride shots....

So fun riding on the beach...especially when you have the wind at your back.  We figure we rode 3 miles on the hard sand.

Starting our day looking back at the condos we’re in.  We are on the ground floor to the back of the building.  Last night the folks above us must have been dancing or something with someone tripping all the time.  They made a lot of noise until about 10:30 PM.

Our lunch...a shrimp BLT salad with fried green tomatoes.  You can also see the crab dip and chips to the top of the picture.  All so yummy.

Great 2nd day on Hilton Head Island!

2021 - South Carolina - Day 01 - Savannah, Georgia

 Well...trying to blog again on my travels.  With some dear friends, Kim and Ilene Wayment, we took off to South Carolina to experience some of the Atlantic coast there.  We left on April 24th kind of late in the day which was going to put us in Charleston, SC at 11 PM.  Unfortunately our plane arrived an hour late...at around 12 AM.  The bad news was that our car rental agency closed at 12 AM.  I had called many times to advise this agency that this might happen and all times they told me that they should watch my flight and keep someone there.  Well....that was not the case.  We arrived at the counter at 12:05 AM and they had left already.  We\I was so ticked off.  They would not be back until 7 AM.  There was a guy at the National car agency who told us that they had just left.  We asked him if he had cars.  He had none.  We noticed a sign at Hertz that said to walk to their garage and someone ‘might’ be there to help us.  So we thought what the heck...we have 7 hours to burn.  Well...we got there and indeed there was a lady still in the booth.  She was serving a man.   Once she was done with him, we asked if she had a car.  She smiled and said yes.  In the end, she was so kind to us and rented us a same sized car for $50 less than what we had reserved.  We were so thrilled....2 hours later, at 2:30 AM...we arrived at our condo at Hilton Head Island tired and amazed!!!

Today is Sunday and I was able to get about 4 hours sleep waking up at around 7:30 AM.  I laid there a bit but then got up and went for a walk to check things out.  Turns out the beach is about a 5 to 10 minute walk.  It is beautiful there.  It is beautiful here.  And the air is not muggy and quite cool.  Feels so good.

At around 10:30 AM, Kim and I decided we needed some food for breakfast.  So he and I went to a Krogers near by and brought some eggs and stuff to make a nice breakfast.  I made bacon, cheese omelets with some fresh fruit.  It was pretty good.  

A little after noon, we decided to drive through Hilton Head to check out the island in the car.  It takes about 20+ minutes to get around the island.  After doing that we headed off to Savannah, Georgia to check out some parks and the old historical part of Susannah.  We ended up in Forsyth Park.  We found a parking spot quickly and started walking.  It is a really nice park...lots of people out enjoying the beautiful day.  As you walk through the park you pass large statues of revolutionary war heroes.  Even after you leave the park the street continues to have plazas with such memorials of Revolutionary War heroes.  As we walked, our bladders starting speaking up that we needed to find a spot.  So we found a restaurant named The Hitch that allowed us to use their bathroom  It was around 3 PM and everyone was feeling some hunger pains already...so we got some food there.

After eating we continued walking around the old historic area.  The homes are pretty amazing and the trees with the hanging moss look pretty cool too.  

We headed back to Hilton Head arriving around 6 PM.  We all then were tired and took quick power naps. Following that, we walked out to the ocean and walked the beach.  We then jumped in the car after returning to get Kim some dinner and us a snack.  We ended up at a burger shack sharing onion rings and milk shakes.  

Great day!

Pictures:

A cannon ball jelly fish....found all over the beach.

The beach at Hilton Head....

Linner (Lunch\Dinner) at The Hitch in Savannah.....

Monument trail in Savannah at Forsyth Park.....

Cool bridge that you go by coming into Savannah....

Me at the beach.....

Awesome trees all over Savannah....

Sun setting at Hilton Head.....

Denise and Ilene outside our condo....

Girl Scouts founding location plaque....

Girl Scouts founding location....