After seeing much of the Beaufort area around us we took our next three days off, loaded up Foster and a suitcase in the car and drove north 4 hours to Murrells Inlet, SC. I used Air BnB and found us a two night stay at Murrells Inlet Cottage. Perfect for us as the owners, Chris and Paul, welcomed dogs in their little rental. We left by 9 Sunday morning and had a beautiful ride along Highway 17, a four land highway with very little traffic and fronted with pine forests. We took this bridge as we left Charleston and continued on to Murrells Inlet.
As we drove away from the busy-ness of Charleston we returned to the beautiful drive and saw a sign for Hampton Plantation State Historic Site, so a little detour.
The park is set back off the main road on a rutted and bouncy dirt road. The park is also dog friendly so we set out to see the remains of a once very prosperous rice plantation. First visit was this brick chimney from one of the slave quarters.
For some reason Paul and I both thought that cotton was the only major crop grown on southern plantations. Rice was introduced in the South Carolina Low Country in the early 1700's was labeled Carolina Gold. It was an important crop for more than 130 years, and the wealth it created we saw in the grand homes much like this Hampton Plantation. According to our Ranger's talk, no other commercial crop grown in South Carolina during this time could match the success and wealth of rice.
On our tour of a near by plantation we also learned that many times a plantation owner would have more than one plantation and often as many as ten or more…kind of like a corporation today with a few owners holding the majority of the wealth.
The house is well preserved by the state and it's tucked away among live oaks like this enormous "George Washington" tree and magnolias.
The house began as a modest frame structure built by a Huguenot settler and grew into the large Georgian country house. I was so surprised to see the bright colors in the rooms but these have been verified as original to the house.
Just a little south of the main home was the Kitchen House.
Since Foster couldn't join the tour of the house and it was too hot to leave him in the car, Paul sat on the porch and I did the tour by myself.
It was such a beautiful day, a cool breeze with bright sun so I just had to wear my newly purchased cowgirl boots that day.
And always nice to have a chance to have the top down on the car, no rain in the forecast.
We got back on Highway 17 north, stopping in Georgetown to have lunch along Winyah Bay.
Such a wonderful lunch at The Krazy Fish restaurant then we walked the harbor walk to see more of the sweet little town. Even though it has the second largest seaport in SC the industrial area is across the river and not really noticeable in town.
We only had another 20 miles to drive to Murrells Inlet. We checked in then took Foster for a walk along the marsh boardwalk. Great day for bird watching.
The main reason I had chosen this area for our getaway was to see the nearby Brookgreen Gardens, noted as one of the top gardens of America. So, it was our first day's outing.
We were a little early in the season, so there were only a few of the flowers in bloom, so disappointed we missed the amazing azaleas that would be blooming a few weeks later. In addition to it being a beautiful garden, it is also the historic property of a former rice plantation. We took a tour which was wonderful, (only us and a driver)to see the outlying areas of the slave quarters and the family cemetary. We didn't get a chance to do the pontoon boat ride which rides along the waterways of the rice plantation so I must be destined to return to this place another time.
We walked the property to see as many of the sculptures which are spread all over the gardens.
The daffodils were blooming and there were trails everywhere to walk.
While I kept looking at the flowers, Pk caught a little nap in the sun.
The gardens are committed to the collection of American figurative sculpture, especially those that work well when in a garden setting. The collection contains more than 1200 works by 350 artists! Amazing, and I'm sure we only saw such a small part of them.
Though I didn't get the azaleas, we did see the lovely trees in bloom.
We ended our day with dinner back along the boardwalk, then set out first thing next morning on our bikes to visit Huntington Beach State Park, with a look at the little bay and
passing this oyster shell recycling center.
i loved this house we passed on the bike path, a gorgeous orange shuttered home.
A look across the marsh at some of the restaurant and shops.
We headed home Tuesday morning and passed these beautiful roadside stands selling the local seagrass baskets. There must have been at least a hundred different little stands lining both sides of the roadway.
After a stop at Trader Joe's, our first in months, we were back to our park by early evening and ready for work the next morning.
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