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.
As, such wonderful greenery!
Welcome to Middleton Place!
They have a mini rice paddy to give you a sense of what it’s like.
Alligators were just chillin’! Can you spot the one in the water?
They usually have tons of flowers, but most didn’t survive the storm from the previous night.
They were hosting multiple Easter egg hunts for kids that morning.
That stork calmly walked around like it owned the place.
Was this water buffalo gazing up at the sky?
When I first saw this goat, I thought it might be fake.
Momma pig had some babies!
This piglet was so hungry it tried to eat my finger.
Getting stared down by the water buffalo.
Aww look at them nuzzling.
Such a pretty variety of birds on the farm.
Farm cats are always so bold.
Bunny rabbits for Easter! And check out my speckled egg nails. 🙂
Peacocks just roamed around.
A lady thought that this peacock grooming would actually spread his tail out.
Such brilliant colors. Too bad this guy had no competition on the farm to give him a reason to show us his plumage.
We were asked if we were the couple getting married here today. Do I look dressed for a wedding?! 😛
A very large oak with plenty of character, even after some major branches fell.
As we headed out, we tracked down the swans.
For lunch, we had Bojangles. We still prefer Popeye’s.
When I saw birds, I happily busted out the old bread I brought to feed animals on the trip.
The parking lots for the plantations were basically part of the forest.
The only place in America you’ll find them growing, harvesting, and making tea! Bigelow owns this one.
Fields and fields of tea bushes that just look like a regular plant.
This my friends, is what you start with when you want a nice cup of tea.
Time to swing by downtown Charleston! Of course the first thing we see is a horse-drawn tour.
At Colonial Candle, they had Fragrance Rooms where you could experience a candle.
For dinner, I tried fried green tomatoes for the first time. YUM
We arrive in Myrtle Beach and get a room at the Patricia Grand.
Lunch the next day consisted of all sorts of creamy options.
In the restroom they had a fabulous salt scrub that I almost wanted to buy.
Out to the Barefoot Landing area and I had to check out the Purpleologist.
Walking by another store, I saw someone making candles so I went in.
I loved the intricate look to them!
I wanted a UCLA one, so the lady made it on the spot.
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.
By the time we headed out, people were roaming the beach. I had no idea those crescent things became wind-blocking tent things!
Along the drive home, we happened upon quite the accident. Yikes!
