Myrtle Beach

I took a long, slow ride north on Highway 17 and am now staying in Myrtle Beach. I think Myrtle Beach is a cheesey and touristy town. I saw at least a dozen lagoon or pirate type entertainment centers.

The state park was nice though. I took a couple mile hike through a forest before I got to the beach. The white sandy beach was lovely. Walking on the beach is my favorite.

They had a board walk along the beach before I reached the campgrounds.

 

Audubon Swamp Garden

I spent a couple of days in Charleston, South Carolina. I met an old friend. She took me out for lunch, gave me a tour of her town home, and drove me around town for a couple hours and went shopping together. The next day I visited the Audubon Swamp Garden. Look at these lovely knees on the cypress.

At this nature preserve they build sunning platforms for the gators.

I watched this American bittern hunt for 5 minutes. As he moved on his or her log, the log turned and the bittern had to keep moving to keep it's balance. Soon another bittern flew in and they hunted together. I was lucky to get this view of a bittern.

A great blue heron made a nest on top of a tree out in the lake. This must be a very safe place for a heron nest.

This tree had a dozen  great egrets perched in it's branches.

Woah, maybe I shouldn't proceed on this path. When I came back 30 minutes later the gator had moved on. Another smaller gator was ten feet away.

Turtles don't share the same sunning ramps as gators.

Here is the tree with the heron nest and a couple gators sunning on a ramp.

I like Charleston, it's a cute little town.

 

Riverboat Cruise

We took a river boat cruise of Savannah on Easter Sunday. The back of the boat had a paddlewheel but it was only for decoration; it didn't actually turn. They had a brunch cruise but we didn't participate in the brunch. That is the convention center across the river.

A largo cargo ship was coming up river.

We went under this bridge. The city plans to raise the height of this bridge to accommodate larger ships in the future.

 

Lighthouses

We climbed a few lighthouses in Florida and Georgia. Some were 150 steps, 175 steps up and this one was 230 steps up. This one was on Tybee Island.

I can see a long way from the top. 

I met a lady who is visiting all the lighthouses in the SE section of our country. Climbing a lighthouse is a good workout.

 

Juliette Gordon Low

While in Savannah we decided to visit the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace and museum. Juliette preferred to be called Daisy. Her parents owned 70 slaves and she was born into wealth. When she got married a piece of rice got lodged in her ear canal causing pain. She went to a doctor who said there was nothing that could be done so she ended up deaf in one ear at an early age. Her marriage did not last long. She started Girl Scouts after meeting Richard Baden Powell in London. She sounds like a very interesting lady. In 2016 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom thanks to the efforts of Michelle Obama (a former girl scout).

 

Dolphin Cruise

We went on a dolphin bruise out of Brunswick, Georgia which is one of the largest ports in the country. We motored right by Driftwood beach where we were walking the day before.

We saw 3 dolphins many times. Unfortunately the tour guide was a condescending, full-of-himself guy who just loves to hog a microphone and blabber on and on dropping names and mentioning prices. He was a boorish man.

 

Driftwood Beach

We got off our bikes to walk on Driftwood beach on Jekyll Island.

I can see why they call it driftwood beach.

In a pond back from the beach we saw a great egret. Those 3 birds in the back are black necked stilts - lifer birds for me!