Easter holiday

laelene Posted in lifestyle glimpses,Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
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For the first time in my life, I got Good Friday and Earth Day off (what a fabulously quirky company I work at) so Panda and I planned a little vacation for this weekend. I took Monday off so I’d have 5 days and his schedule is so odd with his travel that I’m not sure if he had to take any days off. Since he got solicited to sit in a timeshare presentation awhile back, we decided to schedule that for this little Easter break we’d be getting. The location we’d chosen was Myrtle Beach, because it’s about as far as we can drive in a reasonable time and we’d enjoyed it the first time we went. The timeshare offer was only for 2 nights, so we planned to spend a night in Charleston to explore a new place while we were at it.

As it turns out, he couldn’t make it back until the night of the first day of our trip (when we were supposed to be in Charleston), so we headed out in the middle of the night. He flew in at 5 pm, took care of some business, and we napped until midnight or so. We then crawled up and made sure Smokey had enough food and water laid out. I scooped her litter one last time to ensure the freshest box possible and we were off at 1 in the morning. We talked along the drive for the first two hours as it rained all through the night. I started to get tired between 3 and 4 and finally decided to sleep. I kept waking up paranoid that Panda would be too tired to drive, so I always asked him how he was doing before crashing again. We made a pit stop at a Chick-fil-a right as it was opening at 6:30 and I felt much better after eating. As it was getting brighter, I woke up again and finally felt somewhat refreshed. I offered to drive and took over for the last hour and something that it took for us to reach our first destination: Middleton Place.

green tree-lined road with little sky showing

As, such wonderful greenery!

panorama of middleton place near charleston south carolina

Welcome to Middleton Place!

small section of green rice paddy at middleton place

They have a mini rice paddy to give you a sense of what it’s like.

alligator laying on grass of bank and head of other alligator peeking out of water

Alligators were just chillin’! Can you spot the one in the water?

kneeling in front of giant bush of white and pink flowers

They usually have tons of flowers, but most didn’t survive the storm from the previous night.

crowd of kids and parents gearing up for easter egg hunt at middleton place

They were hosting multiple Easter egg hunts for kids that morning.

giant stork walking on path at middleton place

That stork calmly walked around like it owned the place.

brown water buffalo standing by water looking up

Was this water buffalo gazing up at the sky?

brown goat sitting on tree stump

When I first saw this goat, I thought it might be fake.

family of black momma pig and three baby piglets

Momma pig had some babies!

black piglet sniffing person's hand

This piglet was so hungry it tried to eat my finger.

brown and white water buffalo pair drinking water and staring

Getting stared down by the water buffalo.

brown and white water buffalo pair nuzzling

Aww look at them nuzzling.

group of different fowl including chickens, roosters, and geese

Such a pretty variety of birds on the farm.

petting farm cat walking on picnic table

Farm cats are always so bold.

giant white rabbit in cage with brown one behind it

Bunny rabbits for Easter! And check out my speckled egg nails. 🙂

peacock walking around farm near people

Peacocks just roamed around.

male peacock grooming feathers

A lady thought that this peacock grooming would actually spread his tail out.

male peacock with feathers spread out to groom himself

Such brilliant colors. Too bad this guy had no competition on the farm to give him a reason to show us his plumage.

white tents at middleton place for wedding

We were asked if we were the couple getting married here today. Do I look dressed for a wedding?! 😛

giant oak tree on middleton place property

A very large oak with plenty of character, even after some major branches fell.

pair of swans sitting in water by edge eating grass

As we headed out, we tracked down the swans.

two 2-piece meals of fried chicken with sides at bojangles

For lunch, we had Bojangles. We still prefer Popeye’s.

black and white bird flying in for piece of bread on ground

When I saw birds, I happily busted out the old bread I brought to feed animals on the trip.

parking lot in midst of trees with no paved roads or painted lines

The parking lots for the plantations were basically part of the forest.

charleston tea plantation america's only tea garden

The only place in America you’ll find them growing, harvesting, and making tea! Bigelow owns this one.

fields of tea plants and giant machine for harvesting tea leaves

Fields and fields of tea bushes that just look like a regular plant.

close-up of tea leaves of camellia sinensis bush

This my friends, is what you start with when you want a nice cup of tea.

horse-drawn cart with tour of charleston

Time to swing by downtown Charleston! Of course the first thing we see is a horse-drawn tour.

fragrance room at colonial candle store in charleston

At Colonial Candle, they had Fragrance Rooms where you could experience a candle.

fried green tomatoes atop bed of corn covered with cheese and sweet and sour sauce

For dinner, I tried fried green tomatoes for the first time. YUM

view of myrtle beach area inland from patricia grand hotel 16th floor

We arrive in Myrtle Beach and get a room at the Patricia Grand.

shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, hush puppies, and she crab soup at mr. fish

Lunch the next day consisted of all sorts of creamy options.

sea salt scrub made by fishermen in restroom of mr. fish restaurant

In the restroom they had a fabulous salt scrub that I almost wanted to buy.

store of all purple things at broadway at the beach in myrtle beach

Out to the Barefoot Landing area and I had to check out the Purpleologist.

wall of racks and racks of globe candles with many designs

Walking by another store, I saw someone making candles so I went in.

round candle with starfish and lionfish design

I loved the intricate look to them!

lady holdking candle while carving into it

I wanted a UCLA one, so the lady made it on the spot.

blue and yellow ucla globe candle hand carved

Check out that beauty! The yellow part will glow when I light it.

The final morning, I woke up just as the sun was rising.

The final morning, I woke up just as the sun was rising.

people down on beach and chairs with tents laid out

By the time we headed out, people were roaming the beach. I had no idea those crescent things became wind-blocking tent things!

flipped car on side of road

Along the drive home, we happened upon quite the accident. Yikes!

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