Autumn Vacation 2008, Part V, The Finale (Finally)

Leaving Myrtle Beach, we headed to North Carolina to visit another niece and her family, and see the lovely fall sights. My niece and her husband are the managers of a Christian camp in a beautiful area. They lived in a small trailer house with their two children for 9 years, never complaining. Finally, they were privileged to work together with many supporters to build a beautiful log cabin-type home. The kids have wonderful space of their own, including a large loft play area, and even an additional small loft in each of their rooms. I would have loved to have their bedrooms when I was a kid! They sure deserve this lovely place after all of those years of being squished!

The view from their porch was fabulous.

We were delighted to be able to stay in this little guest cabin. It was fun to read the comments that had been left by previous guests. It was well equipped and I could have stayed there more than two nights. Sorry about the lack of lighting! It was early and the sun hadn't arrived yet.

There was only one problem - the sleeping area - there were two choices. We could sleep on a hide-a-bed. My experience with these torture devices has not been positive, so we chose Option #2. This was to go up the spiral staircase you can see in the picture below - there was a very nice comfortable bed up there. The problem is one that you may or may not have - depending upon your age. We left a few lights on below so that we wouldn't go pitching into the living room when we had to make our trip or two down to the "facilities" below.

Heading back up to the house for breakfast the first morning, I enjoyed catching God's wonder as the moon was going down in the west and the sun was rising through the woods to the east.

There had been a bit of rain during the night, and as I caught this beautiful group of leaves, I was sprayed with drops of moisture.

As you know, if you've read me over the past years, I love autumn and the colors God gives us to enjoy. I have lived in the Midwest, where the colors are fabulous. I lived in Arkansas when I was a kid, and didn't truly appreciate the grandeur of autumn, and wish I could see it again. I have visited the Boston area, hoping to see the profusion of color change, only to be a bit too early. I have lived here in Colorado for many years, where the colors are mostly brilliant yellow and orange. I don't believe we were in North Carolina at the peak of colors, but it was beautiful.

We took a little break at the top of the world, East Coast version - Mount Mitchell. Now it's not nearly as high as the peaks here where I live, but it was glorious.

We thought about eating at the highest restaurant in the East, but decided the choices offered and the prices asked were not to our liking, so we passed on that opportunity.

Russ had a new GPS that provided us with a lot of enjoyment. Those ladies get pretty bossy! And mixed up if you don't follow what they think you should be doing. R entered "Customize" and here's a picture of the route "she" gave us. We didn't name "her" as others have done - we should have! She sent us on a merry ride.

But it turned out to be a blessing - what beauty we saw as we bounced along on a very narrow dirt road - we could not have turned around if we had to. We didn't know where we'd end up, but it was a fun journey.

When we came out of the woods, we found ourselves close to Asheville, where we finally got some lunch - once again, the weight watching went out the window as we ate at Fat Buddies Bar-B-Q. What a name! I'm not crazy about barbeque, but I have to say it was pretty good. I really really wanted to take a little side trip and visit Billy Graham, but couldn't talk the rest into it ;-)

We headed back to the campground, stopping for our grand-niece's soccer game, then some Mexican food - my word, how did our stomachs survive that day??

The next day was when I had lunch with Nancy close to her home town. If you missed that episode, check it out here.

The last day with R&C, we were relaxing on their deck before heading to the airport after lunch. This little guy landed on the picnic table when we opened the umbrella and we watched this amazing bit of God's handiwork. The transformation took place before our eyes in a matter of about 5 minutes.

The flight home was fine - I got an aisle seat! But we had one glitch - when DC's carry-on luggage was being processed, they told him he had to meet them and discuss a problem - it seems that he had packed the large jar of honey he had bought up at the top of Mount Mitchell -his only souvenir. Bummer! We totally forgot about that "no liquids" rule!

If you have a few more minutes to spare, go on over to Kristen's place - she finally was able to carve out a few minutes to update you on her life. Please keep her on your prayer list! Life is not easy for the single mom of 4 little girls.

Autumn Vacation 2008, Part IV

I'm glad you all enjoyed the pontoon boat ride - I loved seeing the alligators - you know my fear of water - as long as I'm not in the water, I'm perfectly safe from alligators. They were small and really fun to watch as they glided back and forth in the pond.

Continuing our vacation in the Myrtle Beach area -- we had a wonderful lunch on the grounds of Brookgreen Gardens. They make use of many volunteers, which I am sure keeps their costs down. Most of today's post will be the beautiful flowers - you know me and flowers! I'll throw in a few of the sculptures, but not a lot, since we have so many here in our town - one of theirs was one that we have in our sculpture park.

There won't be much to say, because the beauty speaks for itself.

It was as if the butterflies were posing for me.

I love this one - the web with the creator in the middle.

See the black bees?

The variety was fabulous.

The last magnolia blossom of the season?!

Next stop - The mountains of North Carolina.

Kristen has written a great update on Feisty and other fun things. She wishes she had more to visit all of you, but she greatly appreciates your encouragement and prayers! Check it out, if you have a few minutes.

I'm re-posting this picture, because I couldn't resist!

Autumn Vacation 2008, Part III

The next leg of the vacation took us to Brookgreen Gardens, outside the city of Myrtle Beach. In 1931, Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington founded Brookgreen Gardens, a non-profit garden museum, to preserve the native flora and fauna and display objects of art within that natural setting. Today, Brookgreen Gardens is a National Historic Landmark with the most significant collection of figurative sculpture in an outdoor setting by American artists in the world and has the only zoo accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums on the coast of the Carolinas (taken from the official web site).

It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time. There are hundreds of sculptures, and hundreds of thousands of flowers, I am sure. The setting used to be three rice plantations, and our first order of the day was to go on a pontoon boat river ride with a great woman tour guide who had a wealth of information and presented it very well. These little alligators were giving us a little side show prior to the trip.

As we journeyed down the river, she told us all about the labor-intensive process of growing rice. Of course it was accomplished by slaves and done in the humid heat of summer. There is still some evidence remaining of the rice fields.

The foliage that you see floating on the water is called Water Hyacinth. I tried to get a picture of a blossom, but was unable to catch one as the boat moved past and my camera didn't move fast enough. This plant was brought to this country and introduced as a deterrent to erosion. Unfortunately, it backfired and has taken over in a way that is not healthy.

Oops - there's another gator, swimming among the water hyacinth.

Another plant that was brought (from Japan) for the same reason is kudzu. It is everywhere in Georgia, North and South Carolina, and is a huge problem. There is a lot of work being done to find or create good uses of this plant, which actually looks quite pretty until you realize it's smothering other kinds of growth. Nancy told me of a friend of hers who is using it very creatively.

Of course there is the Spanish moss, which is neither Spanish nor is it moss. But it's fascinating. (That's R&C on the left).

Remember in the Part II when I mentioned DC and his brother reverting back to their childhood personas when they are together? Check this out.

Next episode: More of Brookgreen Gardens - the flowers and sculptures.