Buck Hall COE, McClellanville SC

We have spent the last 2 weeks at Buck Hall Recreation Area in SC. It’s shrimp season here right now and we were about the only ones in the campground without a big boat and 3 vehicles :) All our neighbors spent their days on the water shrimping and fishing. This is a hopping place this time of year!

We have spent our time mostly chilling and regrouping. We happened upon Hampton Plantation State Historic Site early on. It was pretty cool. Hampton Plantation, built between 1730 and 1750, is the ancestral home of prominent South Carolina families, the Horrys, Pinckneys and Rutledges. These families worked their many slaves in the rice and indigo fields during the 17th and 18th century amassing great wealth for themselves.

We spent a couple hours wandering the grounds and reading the history. Known as Carolina Gold, the rice farmed in the SC Lowcountry was responsible for social, economic and environmental change. Carolina Gold became an important export and made a huge impact on South Carolina. The planters reaped extreme wealth from it for more than 150 years. They displayed their wealth through grand homes such as Hampton Plantation.

Another day, we drove about 30 miles north to visit Georgetown, SC, the states 3rd oldest city. Georgetown was founded in 1729 and has a nice, little historic district and harbor walk.

We stopped and picked up a couple pounds of fresh shrimp from the Independent Seafood Market on the harbor. After watching all our neighbors bringing home their catch, scoring fresh shrimp right off the boat was pretty satisfying :) And, it was pretty good too :)

The last few days, Bill and Nancy joined us here at Buck Hall. We had a great time. Bill and Rick practiced casting a shrimp/bait net on the lawn :) They did pretty good on the grass. Not sure how it’ll translate :)

We took a trip to The Center for Birds of Prey.

None of my photos turned out so I borrowed one from their website.

Their Mission Statement: “To identify and address vital environmental issues by providing medical care to injured birds of prey and shorebirds, and through educational, research and conservation initiatives.”

Click on the link above if you’d like to know more about this wonderful place.

The weather here has been pretty wonderful with sunny days in the 70’s. We got in a walk on the Charleston Bridge Saturday morning. It’s 2.5 miles across, 5 miles round trip. Great walk, although there were way too many people! We probably should have chosen a week day instead.

Today, we leave Buck Hall and travel to the Savannah area. We’re looking forward to more exploring. Thanks for stopping by.

Our Week in a Nutshell and What We Learned

Monday: Finished up with dental work-learned major dental work has not gone down in price recently

Tuesday: Eye exams-learned we both have minimal change in our prescriptions, so getting new glasses is entirely up to us!

Wednesday: Flu shots-we learned that pharmacists and Minute Clinic providers take a very late lunch. After 3 attempts to get our shots at different locations, we finely scored at 4:30 PM

Thursday: Annual mammogram-I learned that things look good (preliminarily, at least) and that was good news

Friday: We celebrated that everything turned out great :)

Saturday: We packed up and headed south- We learned never to travel I-95 on a Saturday!

Sunday: We are staying put, waiting out the weekend crazies and catching up on laundry before heading to Buck Hall COE in SC for the rest of October

See you next time and thanks for stopping by.

Asheville NC and A Sociable Couple of Weeks!

I can’t believe our 2 weeks in the NC mountains and the Asheville area are over! The time flew by and we didn’t get to half of what was on our list. I guess we’ll just have to come back one day :)

Asheville is a very cool place to visit. The entire downtown area is very walk-able with plenty of restaurants, shops, street performers and breweries. The surrounding area is full of things to do and things to see. If hiking is your thing, there are hiking trails galore!

One day we took a short drive south to the Dupont State Forest to do a little waterfall viewing. We settled on the 3 mile Hooker Falls/High Falls trail which gave us a good uphill work out and 3 beautiful waterfalls to ooh and aah over :) The trail was wide and, for the most part, fairly easy to maneuver except for the steep inclines as you move up in elevation.

First falls and the easiest to get to, Hooker Falls…

Next up, Triple Falls…

And, last but not least, High Falls…

It was a fun day and I think Rick expressed it well :)

Our friends, Bruce and Laura, joined us the last weekend of September for some fun.

We split our time between the campground where we walked, ate and enjoyed a campfire each night and exploring more of Asheville. We had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures of anything…except our food at Salsa’s. This made the 2nd time in a week that we ate there :) YUM!

The following Monday, I joined an old friend and high school classmate in Hendersonville for a girls day out. Sue and I hadn’t seen each other in 46 years but we picked up like it had been yesterday :) Sue and her husband, Dick moved to Hendersonville 25 years ago and they just love it. I got the grand tour of the town. A big tourist attraction in Hendersonville is the hand painted bears. Very cool.

We had lunch at Mike’s on Main Street, an old timey 50’s style diner.

We stopped to visit with Sue’s neighbor Robin who is the proud owner of a brand new 32 foot motorhome!  She and her husband are excited to join the world of RV’ing. They are just planning to be weekenders. It was nice to meet you Robin!

Sue and I finished up our day at Burntshirt Vineyards for a little wine tasting. We had a blast!

The next day, we joined Ronnie and Cynthia at Pack’s Tavern in downtown Asheville and celebrated Rick’s birthday. I think he would have loved that yellow pick-up for a b’day present :)

Instead, he got a good meal and a beer! :)

We finished up our mountain stay with another get-together with Sue, this time with her husband Dick. They came for lunch and to see Lucy in person :)

Rick threw some brats on the grill, Sue and Dick brought potato salad, coleslaw and beans and we feasted :) They also brought 4 raspberry filled donuts, one with a blue candle for Rick and another with a pink candle for Sue. They had both had birthdays within the last few days so it was a double celebration. It was a great way to end our visit. Thanks for joining us Sue & Dick,  and thanks, too, for the leftovers! :)

The next day, the rains came and the cold front moved in. We had wanted to do some paddling while we were here, but it’ll have to wait until next time :)

We are now back in the Raleigh/Durham area, finishing up those doctor/dentist appointments. Unless something unexpected happens, we should be leaving for South Carolina on Saturday, working our way to Florida for the winter.

Thanks for stopping by.