Love Botany Bay!

Really enjoyed my tour of Botany Bay Wildlife Management Area!  While Chris and Pam enjoyed the beach, I ventured off to explore Botany Bay.  It is composed of Bleak and Sea Cloud Plantations.  An amazing place to view wildlife, explore a truly natural beach and to see an environment of farmland, woodlands, marsh and beach.

Packing up to leave for home.  We have enjoyed our week here on Edisto Island, SC.  I hope to come back someday.

Canopy of Spanish Moss draped over Live Oaks

Beautifully natural beach at Botany Bay WMA

Large, intact shells are everywhere!  But not for the taking 8^)

Trail through a hammock island between marsh and the beach.

One of the many ponds built to attract wildlife.

Beaufort: What a gem!

Pam and I spent the day exploring the Beaufort, SC area yesterday.  While it is less than 10 miles from Edisto as the crow flies, it took 1.5 hours to get there!  Nevertheless, Beaufort is a small town worth visiting!  We arrived at the Beaufort Visitor's Center which is housed in the Beaufort Museum which in turn is housed in the Beaufort Armory.  Neat place!  Very helpful folks work there.

It was time for lunch, so we enjoyed lunch at one of several restaurants on Beaufort's waterfront, "Plum's."  Good food.  Enjoyed some clam and lobster bisque and a corned beef sandwich with some Belgian draft.

After lunch, we explored historic Beaufort for a while, then headed to the heart of the Lowcountry.  We enjoyed a visit to Fort Fremont, a fort built during the period of the Spanish American War.  I managed to get some shots before the mosquitoes chased me to our car.

Spent some time in Hunting Island State Park.  Lovely place!  Features a great Hunting Island Lighthouse, several trails, ponds and camping.

Picked up some great BBQ at Po Pigs on the way home.  Awesome stuff with the spicy vinegar based sauce as well as the spicy mustard based sauce typical of SC.

Plums Restaurant: Where we had lunch.  Great place for sandwiches.  Sat outside on the porch.

Fort Fremont - built during the Spanish American War is open to the public.  It is in good shape!

Hunting Island State Park  - Fountain in a pond near the visitor's center.

Beach @ Hunting Island State Park

Talking to her friends and enjoying the beach on Hunting Island.

Hunting Island Lighthouse

Scenic Edisto

We spent the day following SC Highway 174 through Edisto Island, stopping to photograph scenes along the way.  It was a hot and humid day!  But we did stop to relax and cool off occasionally.  We enjoyed some really great barbeque pork at Po Pigs BBQ, South Carolina style!  Lots of different sauces to try.  Loved the vinegar style so reminiscent of NC BBQ.  But also enjoyed the mustard based sauce which is more typical of SC.

Later in the day, we indulged in some shopping therapy by hitting the Edistonian gift shops.  Picked up some local books and a present for my Mom.

We also stopped at a sweetgrass basket stand run by some fine folks of Gullah decent.  Talked to them for a while.  Very cool folks!  They trace their ancestry to Angola.  Six generations of their family have been weaving baskets.

McKinley Washington, Jr. Bridge marks the beginning of Edisto Island.  This photo was taken from Dawhoo Landing, just past the bridge.  Part of the old bridge was preserved as a fishing pier.

Edisto Island Museum is well worth a visit.  Pam and Chris were not convinced until we were inside 8^)

Pam found a beautiful bread basket made by a Gullah family who have been weaving baskets for six generations.  We talked to the lady on the left of this photo.  Her Mom and dad were behind the stand.  She explained how they make their baskets and gladly answered my questions about her family's heritage.

SC 174 is often covered by a canopy of Live Oaks covered with Spanish Moss.  Very beautiful and much cooler to drive through.

There are many VERY old churches on SC 174 including Trinity Episcopal Church shown here.

I just loved strolling through the cemetery adjacent to Trinity Episcopal with its huge Live Oaks.

This is the Mystery Tree is decorated by a local anonymous artist who changes the decorations in keeping with the seasons.  This looks like a back to school theme 8^)

Scenic Trail - Edisto Island State Park

Really enjoyed the Edisto Island Interpretive Center.  Great place to learn about the ACE Basin environment and wildlife.  The Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers meet to form the estuary, so important to the health of our oceans and the fishing industries.

Walked three scenic trails near the center.  One went to a dock in the marsh.  Another took us to the Bache Memorial which is really a highly accurate baseline marker installed by a surveyor called Alexander Bache.  He surveyed the US coast line using triangulation and a small number of baselines.

Our last hike took us to the Spanish Mount mound created by Native Americans in the area.  It is composed mostly of oyster shells, but also contains pottery.

Edisto Island Interpretive Center

Spanish Moss Hanging On Live Oaks

Spanish Mount Indian Mound

Kayaking Fisherman

Edisto & Kiawah Islands

Spent the morning on the beach.  Nice breeze kept it from getting hot.  The beach is narrow here.  The sand is darker and a bit more course than the white fine sand of the Gulf Coast.  But typical of the Carolinas.

In the afternoon, we drove over to Kiawah to see our friends Susan & Trey.  Nice drive through the Lowcountry.  It is only 12 miles from Edisto as the crow flies, but 53 miles by car!  The rivers, marshes, estuaries cut through most of the area in this part of South Carolina.  A shortage of bridges makes travel from one beach to another a matter of driving inland before one can find a bridge across to the next peninsula or island.  We enjoyed our visit and dinner overlooking a gulf coast with the Atlantic Ocean right behind the green.  Really pretty place!

Love the swirling fronds of this Palm adjacent to our rental.

Good Morning Monday!

Headed out to to the beach this morning.  It feels much cooler than yesterday!  After lunch, the plan is to head to Johns Island, north of here to visit the Ravenel Caw Caw Interpretive Center and to visit with our friends Susan and Trey near Kiawah.  Should be a great day!

Beach Walk

Had a great time at the beach today!  Went for a walk on the beach with Pam and Chris.  Took some shots along the way.  Came back to the house for lunch.  Hit the Piggly Wig for necessities like real beer (Palmetto Amber).  Picked up some shrimp for salad tomorrow.  Enjoyed an awesome seafood dinner at The Dockside Restaurant.

Chris Walking

Loved the colors

Dune Fencing

Looking For Buried Treasure

Fisherman

Classic Castle

Neat House

Really cool Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis)

Man is it Hot & Humid!

It is 12:30 am and 86.6F.  That's not a bad temperature.  But couple that with really high humidity yields a heat index of 100F!  We just came back from a walk on the beach, dripping with sweat...  Sorry for that visual!

Anyway, the beach is nice.  Lots of nice beach homes that are not palaces.  Many older places with tons of character mixed in with newer designs that look great to live in.  Lots of windows, porches, decks.

Lots of families here today.  I assume that will change on Tuesday.  But really not that many people.

I bought Yuengling Light by accident 8^(  We're going to have to hit the Piggly Wiggly for some real beer!

Besides the beach, we will be taking a few tours I mapped out of the nearby areas of the island.

We made it! Alive too!

We made it to Edisto Island in about 8 hours.  It as a long day!  Thanks to our son Chris for driving the second half of the 450 miles south from Richmond.  After unpacking the car, we could barely move.  But I managed to grab a couple of snapshots from the deck of our rental.