Murrells Inlet SC | The Beauty Around Us

South Carolina Vacation: Taste of the MarshWalk

Saturday, March 4, I got up around 6:00 am. I watched for the sun to rise. It was overcast, so there wasn’t much of a sunrise.

The sun did come out eventually, though,
bright and shiny peeking through the clouds.

Late morning Marge, Neil, Bob and I went to the 9th annual Taste of the MarshWalk at Murrells Inlet. Being able to attend this event is why Marge and Neil invited us to stay with them for two nights. We are so happy that we stayed. What a great event… good food, drinks, live music and vendors.

Shortly after returning to the condo from Murrells Inlet, Bob and I walked over to the next building (south tower) of One Ocean Place. We met my cousin and his wife for the first time. I have been working on my ancestry for a few years. Tom and I are Ancestry DNA matches. We share a grandfather. My maternal third great grandfather is Tom’s maternal second great grandfather. Tom’s daughter took a DNA test as well. I found Wendy on Facebook. Soon she and I became Facebook friends. Tom messaged me to ask if I had any photographs of his grandmother. I didn’t have any pictures but told him that another cousin might have a picture. I contacted Carolyn, whose mother is Tom’s grandmother’s sister. Carolyn was able to share a couple pictures with Tom of his grandmother. Tom, Carolyn and I are now Facebook friends. Unplanned, Tom and his wife Geri spent the same vacation time in the Surfside Beach / Garden City Beach area as did Bob and I. We had a good visit. It is nice to make the acquaintance of a new cousin. I hope to one day meet Tom and Geri’s two daughters and grandchildren.

Around 4:00 pm I noticed how clear it was on the beach. The lighting was great too.

The beach seen from 10th floor balcony at One Ocean Place
Clearly visible are Myrtle Beach in the background
and the Surfside Pier (under construction) in the foreground.

Later I noticed the moon shining brightly over the ocean.

The sun set magnificently around 6:15 pm.

Sunset from the 10th floor of One Ocean Place in Garden City Beach

Marge, Neil, Bob and I ate dinner at Pizza Hyena in Surfside Beach.

We waited an hour for our pizza. The pizza was good and worth the hour wait. There are three restaurants near each other–Pizza Hyena and across the street the Gracious Pig Smokehouse and the Chimichanga Llama Cantina. All three restaurants are members of the Dining & Design team of restaurants founded by Nate Anderson in 2017. It is a lively part of town near these three restaurants. The cantina had live music that could be heard throughout the area.

Do you see Jupiter and Venus aligned in the night sky?
(look just to the left of the umbrella)

This was our last night in South Carolina. The next day we began our drive back home.

South Carolina Vacation: The Marshwalk

On Friday, March 3, after we had packed up the car, we went to breakfast at a nearby Eggs Up Grill. Bob ordered steak and eggs with a fruit cup and garlic toast. I ordered a Red, White and Blue Waffle with bacon. My waffle came with strawberries, bananas and blueberries with whipped topping. Breakfast was delicious.

After breakfast we drove to Murrells Inlet and walked the MarshWalk. I photographed several feathered friends.

From Murrells Inlet we drove to One Ocean Place in Garden City Beach. We are staying two nights with our friends Marge and Neil in their oceanfront condo on the 10th floor. We spent the remainder of the morning and afternoon conversing amongst ourselves, reading, napping and, in general, just enjoying each others’ company. Bob and Neil also played music together for a little while.

Bob and Neil at One Ocean Place on balcony of 10th floor condo

We also went for a walk on the beach.

We walked to The Conch Cafe for dinner. Marge and I ordered open-faced tuna salad melts. I had a cup of seafood chowder with my tuna salad. Bob ordered a crab cake sandwich. Neil ordered a grilled mahi sandwich.

In the evening we watched a movie on Netflix starring Meryl Streep called “The Laundromat”. The movie is based on a real-life story about insurance fraud.

South Carolina Vacation: Two River Walks and a Walk on the Beach

Conway is located a little less than 20 miles from Surfside Beach, and we had not been there before. We decided to visit Conway the morning of Wednesday, March 1.

En route Conway, we ate breakfast at The Breakfast House in Socastee. Bob had an omelette with hash browns and rye toast. I had a Belgian Waffle with blueberries, one egg and bacon. The Breakfast House is a great little place with very good food and a friendly staff.

We arrived in Conway shortly before 9:00 am. I had read on the Internet that the Conway Riverwalk was a historic walking trail and that it is the oldest thoroughfare in Conway. The Riverwalk was our destination.

We accessed the Riverwalk from 2nd Avenue, just off US 501.

The trail started out on a paved walkway.

Soon a boardwalk replaced the paved trail.

The Riverwalk follows alongside
the meandering Waccamaw River.

The Waccamaw River is a blackwater river. Blackwater rivers are usually slow-moving and found around the swamplands of the southern U.S. Blackwater rivers are stained by the decaying plant matter in the water.

On the right of the boardwalk is what remains of an old warehouse
that was used by steamboats in the 1880s, I believe.

According to information read on the Internet, the Riverwalk is about 1.5 miles round trip. We left the trail at Laurel Street. We didn’t see any directional signs telling us where to go to continue the Riverwalk. So we turned right and walked into downtown Conway. Conway is an 18th-century town. Much of the area is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places. The town features mostly small brick buildings, some dating back to the early 1820s.

Laurel Street Fountain
We turned right at this fountain and walked to downtown Conway.

As we got our feel for where we were in relationship to where we had parked our car, we stumbled upon City Hall.

We returned to our car about 9:30 am. We had thought our visit to Conway would be longer than 30 minutes. We decided at this time to drive to Georgetown, which was located approximately 40 miles south of Conway.

We arrived in Georgetown an hour later. We parked along Front Street and walked the Harborwalk from the Kaminski House Museum to the Rice Museum/Town Clock. The waterfront 10-foot-wide and four-block-long boardwalk is alongside the Sampit River.

This is one entry point for the Harborwalk.

I took this picture of the Harborwalk near its entry point at the Rice Museum/Town Clock.

We visited Georgetown last year, too, and walked the Harborwalk. If you click on the “last year” link, you will see pictures that I took last year. All along the Harborwalk are signs to not feed the alligators. As we did last year, we looked for alligators. We didn’t see any alligators again this year.

We spent about 30 minutes in Georgetown. Again, we thought our visit to Georgetown would be longer. I want a do-over for both Conway and Georgetown. Next year we plan to return to both Conway and Georgetown, but later in the day. Both towns have restaurants that we would like to try. We would also like to tour the Kaminski House Museum and the Rice Museum in Georgetown as well. And, yes, you heard right … NEXT YEAR. Our reservation for “Nanny & Pops” is already on the books!

Leaving Georgetown we took U.S. 17 north to Murrells Inlet, where we ate lunch at Judy Boone’s Traditions Family Kitchen. Lunch was an all-you-can-eat buffet. Neither of us eat as heartily as we used to do. The buffet was $10.99 each, which was reasonable. We got our money’s worth. After lunch we returned to “Nanny & Pops”, our Airbnb rental.

Around 4:15 pm we went for a walk on “our beach”. It was high tide. We walked from “Nanny & Pops” to the 1st Ave public beach access and on the beach to Melondy Lane public beach access, a distance of approximately 1.1 miles.

Approaching Melondy Lane public beach access
The tall building is One Ocean Place, the location of our friends Marge and Neil’s condo that they were renting.

My knee was hurting, and I didn’t think I would be able to walk back to “Nanny & Pops”. Bob walked back to the rental, via the roadway not the beach. He got the car and came after me. While I was waiting for Bob’s return, I messaged Marge. She saw me from her balcony at One Ocean Place. We waved at each other.

South Carolina Vacation: Brookgreen Gardens Third Visit, Part Three

We visited Brookgreen Gardens for the third time on Sunday, February 26. Our first stop was in the Rosen Galleries, in which is featured an exhibition of some of Auguste Rodin’s best-known sculptures. Leaving the Rosen Galleries, we meandered through the gardens admiring the outdoor sculptures, flowers, and flowering shrubs and trees. I shared a number of pictures of flowers, trees and sculptures in my previous blog post. This blog post will complete our visit to Brookgreen Gardens.

“Pegasus” is the largest sculpture at Brookgreen Gardens.

“Triton on Dolphin” by Benjamin Franklin Hawkins

“The Tortoise Train” by W. Stanley Proctor

We obtained directions from a helpful garden steward to the Grainger McCoy Exhibit. Apparently, we walked right by the exhibit a couple times!

I took only a few pictures, as the bird sculptures were behind glass and difficult to photograph without reflections destroying the beauty of the sculptures.

This was the last day that we visited Brookgreen Gardens. Our tickets were still good for 2 days. Later in the day we stopped at our friends Marge and Neil’s condo and dropped off two tickets to the gardens. Marge and Neil planned to visit Brookgreen Gardens the next day.

South Carolina Vacation: Brookgreen Gardens Third Visit, Part Two

We visited Brookgreen Gardens for the third time on Sunday, February 26. Our first stop was in the Rosen Galleries, in which is featured an exhibition of some of Auguste Rodin’s best-known sculptures. Leaving the Rosen Galleries, we meandered through the gardens admiring the outdoor sculptures, flowers, and flowering shrubs and trees.

I took the following pictures near the Welcome Plaza and Keepsakes Museum Shop.

Allow your eyes to follow the garden path, and you will see a glimpse of the next art piece that I photographed.

This art piece was seen along the garden path
adorned with twin peacocks.

Moving away from the Welcome Center and the Keepsakes Museum Shop we arrived at the first two sculptures that I photographed.

“The Visionaires” by Anna Hyatt Huntington

“Diana of the Chase” by Anna Hyatt Huntington

From “Diana of the Chase” we entered Live Oak Allee.

Live Oak Allee
I love the Spanish moss hanging off the live oak branches.

Live Oak Allee ends near the sculpture of Dionysus.

To the left of “Dionysus” is the Old Kitchen, which offers sandwiches, wraps, quiche, salads, desserts, beverages, and light refreshments.

While meandering through Brookgreen Gardens we pulled out a map of the gardens several times. We wanted to see as much of the gardens as we could, without doing much backtracking. It was at the Old Kitchen that we realized we had missed a couple sculptures back towards the Welcome Center. So we backtracked a little bit.

“The Fountain of the Muses” by Carl Milles

This is a good place to end this blog post, right before we visit the largest sculpture at Brookgreen Gardens. I will wrap up our Brookgreen Gardens visit in my next blog post.

South Carolina Vacation: Brookgreen Gardens – The Rodin Exhibit

We visited Brookgreen Gardens for the third time on Sunday, February 26. We arrived at the gardens around 10:00 am. We parked in the main parking lot. I took so many pictures during our visit that they merit at least three blog posts.

Our first stop was in the Rosen Galleries. Featured in the Rosen Galleries from Jan 28, 2023 through Aril 25, 2003 is an exhibition of some of Auguste Rodin’s best-known sculptures. At the entrance to the exhibit, a docent directed us to a sign on the wall that told us about Auguste Rodin.

“At the peak of his career, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was regarded as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo. He rejected nineteenth-century academic traditions that dictated what was proper in art and instead transformed sculpture into an art that conveyed the vitality of the human spirit. His vigorous modeling emphasized his personal response to the subject, and he conveyed movement and emotion by inventing new poses and gestures. He created his own form of artistic expression. Today, it is acknowledged that Rodin’s work led sculpture into the modern era and that his studio practices led artists there, too. Because both during his lifetime and after his death his work could be seen all over the world, it is celebrated for its innovations, risks, and inventiveness. Rodin continues to influence artists as an example of one who accepted being controversial if it meant being true to his own aesthetic ideals.”

I photographed a few of the sculptures. Each sculpture was accompanied by an informational placard.

“Balzac was renowned for his corpulence, his appetites, and the disproportion of his body (his legs were very short)….Rodin took on the task of “creating for an impatient committee of sculpturally unsophisticated writers a heroic public monument destined for the heart of the nation’s capital. The subject of this daunting effort was a short, fat, ugly man who wrote books.” … Rodin gave Balzac more physical strength than he really had, perhaps suggesting the writer’s intellect could inform his physique.”

An informatory placard was displayed on the wall next to the picture of “The Burghers of Calais”.

“The Burghers of Calais was commissioned in 1884 (1337-1453). In 1347, King Edward III of England laid siege to Calais. This siege prevented food from entering the city for 100 days. Edward offered to end it if citizens of Calais would bring him the keys to the gates; he told them that he intended to then execute these citizens (“burghers”). Nevertheless, six burghers volunteered….”

Here are four of the six sculptures of the burghers.

“Said to be the youngest of the storied six burghers, Jean de Fiennes is also the most vocal. It’s as if walking forward, he turns sideways to yell or speak about his self-inflicted fate…Jean de Fiennes carries no props; instead, his open mouth and expansive gesture provide the theatricality necessary for the occasion.”

“…Unlike the other burghers, Pierre de Wissant seems to have no predetermined front and back. Instead, the figure twists and turns, the head looks down and backwards at the lagging-behind foot that picks itself up to move toward doom…”

“…Jacques De Wissant’s raised right hand allies him with the gesture made by his brother, Pierre, but sets him apart from the other burghers. Perhaps the gesture is to shield his eyes from the scene before him. His hands, legs, and feet are somewhat larger than they should be …, as if to convey the man’s reluctance to move and the weight of the oversized key he carries.”

“Eustache de St. Pierre, the only one named in the medieval Chronicles, was described as an old, civic-minded, and wealthy man; the first to volunteer for the task. The figure of Eustache steps forward on the left foot, leading the burghers from their assembly place in the Town Square. His body implies movement-in-progress…His whole body seems to bear a burden as it moves…”

I hadn’t heard of Auguste Rodin before walking through the Rosen Galleries. I believe I will recognize his name henceforth!

There is more to share about this visit to Brookgreen Gardens, so please check back soon.

South Carolina Vacation: Brookgreen Gardens

Later in the morning of Friday, February 24, after photographing the sunrise, we drove to Brookgreen Gardens. This was our second visit to Brookgreen Gardens. A couple days ago we explored the Lowcountry Zoo and the Floyd Family Farm. On this day we walked the Lowcountry Trail, where we learned about rice fields and the slaves who worked and lived there. We parked across the road from the Leonard Pavilion, where we began our self-guided tour of the Lowcountry Trail.

The Lowcountry Trail is 1/4 mile in length. The trail crosses the hillside overlooking Mainfield, a Brookgreen rice field.

Brookgreen Gardens
Overlooks of Rice Field along the Lowcountry Trail

There are four stainless steel figures along the Lowcountry Trail: the plantation owner, the overseer, an enslaved African male, and an enslaved African female. All four figures are the work of Babette Bloch.

Brookgreen Gardens
Lowcountry Trail: the Overseer

Brookgreen Gardens
Lowcountry Trail: an Enslaved African Female

Brookgreen Gardens
Lowcountry Trail: an Enslaved African Male

We did see the plantation owner figure, but I neglected to photograph it.

From the Lowcountry Trail we walked back to the Leonard Pavilion. We explored more of Brookgreen Gardens from this starting point.

The sculpture “Pledge Allegiance” by Glenna Goodacre is located in the Falk Family Garden near the Leonard Pavilion.

The sculpture “Heron, Grouse and Loon”by Elliot Offner is in front of the Leonard Pavilion.

The remaining photographs were taken, as we meandered through the gardens.

“Park Bench Statesman” by Maria J Kirby-Smith

“Gazelle Fountain: by Marshall Maynard Fredericks

“Time and the Fates of Man” by Paul Manship

“Riders of the Dawn” by Adolph Alexander Weinman

The Labyrinth is located along the north end of the Trail Beyond the Garden Wall.
It is a medieval, seven circuit Chartres style labyrinth of shell and natural grass.
The Labyrinth overlooks a tributary creek of the Waccamaw River.

There are several ponds throughout Brookgreen Gardens.
Any of the ponds can contain alligator(s).
Do you see the alligator in this pond?
Look to the right of the sign, between high grass and short grass.

Here is a close-up picture of the alligator!

There are many more sculptures at Brookgreen Gardens, and I am not done sharing some of those sculptures. Stay tuned for one other day during our vacation, when we returned to Brookgreen Gardens.