Southeast US Day #13: Pawleys Island and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina- August 2, 2019

Last night was so frightfully late and we had no appointments today. So, while my husband K got up around 8 and left to exercise, he let me sleep.  Since the Hampton's breakfast ended at 10, he came back to get me at 9:30. I was pleasantly surprised to find oatmeal, which has been my substitute on trips this summer for the porridge I had in Scotland in June.
We asked at the front desk about public beaches out on Pawleys Island and the clerk didn't know of any. Rain was predicted anyway, so we decided to just drive around the island and see what we could see. We had put Pawleys Island on this itinerary, because K and his family, maternal grandparents and aunt and her family had come here summers, when he was young. He hadn't been here since he'd gone to college and he wanted me to finally see it. He already knew my family's vacation spot of Ocean City, Maryland, being a Maryland native, too.
We headed out at 11:26 to explore with the odometer reading 58,592. The waterway in between the mainland and the island was basically a river of grass. Out on the island, we turned right to begin a circle tour. I got a good view of the waterway. There was no place to park, as there were signs indicating each little pier belonged to a house on the other side of the road.

The houses tended to be large and looked like they belonged at the beach with their big porches and parking often underneath. K didn't recognize anything, but many of the houses did look like they hadn't been here for over 45 years. No doubt, many of the older ones were torn down and replaced.
When we reached the southern end of the road at 11:51 (58,599), we discovered that there was indeed a large parking lot and beach access. We wanted to at least see the ocean, so we parked and climbed the stairs over the dune. The beach was hard and broad and the dry sand was not soft an fluffy like it is at Cocoa Beach. There were folks out on the beach, in spite of the weather. It occurred to me that the rocks there to preserve the beach also served to separate the public beach from that behind the houses. We were going to walk a bit, but it started  to drizzle. So, we were back in the car at 12:09.

We decided to look around the island more, which was tricky, because no road really circled it. But, we made the best of it. I like look at houses and getting ideas for my miniatures. There really isn't much to do on the island. I think we saw one place to eat and K didn't even see the store, where they'd pick things up.

When we came off the island at 12:32 (58,609), we stopped in the Hammock Village, which had lots of little shops and some places to eat. In the back there was plenty of parking. Pawleys Island is known for the hammocks made right here in a shop in the Village. They are very nice looking hammocks and you can watch it being done, if anyone is in the weavers' building. I found some gift items and some items for us in various shops. The rain stopped, but it was still grey.

 

It was hot and we were a bit hungry, when we left at 2:18. Five minutes and seven miles up the road, we stopped at a small building called Ice Cream Paradise. The place was decorated with Hawaiian items and had an incredible number of flavors. I got a Triple Chocolate Mudslide that was terrific and K got Peach, which he really liked. While we were there, some obvious regulars came in to celebrate an older guy's birthday.

    

We left at 2:46 and dropped stuff off at the hotel, since it was nearby. We left again at 3:07. We had known last night that rain was possible today and my cousin and her husband recommended Brookgreen Gardens as a back up plan. So, we headed there next, parking at 3:15 (58,611).

 Thanks to AAA, we saved a dollar each on admission, which then came to $34 for the two of us. The visitor's guide confirmed that, as my cousin had said, the place was a botanical garden and home to a lot of sculptures. There was also an interest in Low Country history and animals.

We decided to take the shuttle from the Welcome Center out to the farthest point, which was the Zoo. We were out there by 3:50 and were soon learning about the the animals that had been part of the plantation that had been on this land and then the native habitats. They did a nice job of telling you about each habitat and who would have lived there. There were appropriate sculptures throughout.

The first signs told of the Marsh Tacky, but the horse they had did not seem to be one. The sculpture here is Timber Wolf Family by William Henry Turner (1990).

The first habitat was the Cypress Swamp, which isn't just a South Carolina Low Country thing. We have them in Florida, too. We entered the aviary, where the birds- I'm pretty sure they are Black-crowned Night Herons and Snowy Egrets- did not seem to be bothered by us at all.

 

Next up were the otters, but it was impossible to get a photo of them through the glass. So, we'll go with this great sculpture, First Fish by Carter R. Jones (2007).

The creeks in the garden are all tidal. The salt water of the ocean pushes fresh water back up into them. I've never heard of such a thing.

When we reached the Upland Forest, we found a red fox, who did not seem to be enjoying the heat any more than we were.

Next were the Birds of Prey Aviaries, which were individual caged area. We got to see a bald eagle and beautiful owls, like this barred owl and this barn owl.

We didn't see any gators or wild turkeys or deer, when we passed through their individual areas. However, we did see this entirely appropriate sculpture of Whistling St. Francis by Leo Osborne.

We caught the shuttle back and decided to go in the shop before it closed. It had lots of garden items, of course, but other things, too. I was quite taken by the large, colorful Gullah dolls of Charleston by genya. Each has a basket in her arm of beans, rice, or cotton, for example. I could not talk myself out of it, even though they were $130 each. I chose one in a neon pink print skirt and head wrap and carrying a basket of beans. We put our purchases in the car, before catching the shuttle again out to the Lowcountry Trail.

This was the history part of our visit as we walked along a pleasant boardwalk overlooking Mainfield, a restored rice field of the former Brookgreen Plantation. There were interpretive panels and buttons to push with audio clips with stories of life here from the viewpoint of the overseer, enslaved people, etc. Strung together the clips formed one cohesive story about the death of the trunkminder from a burst appendix and the young man, who would take over his job. It was heartbreaking to hear the way the man's symptoms were ignored. It was heart wrenching to hear the young man talk of the girl he wanted to marry and then to hear the plantation owner talk about the girl he intended to have him marry.

Babette Bloch created the four stainless steel figures of the key people in the story.

The panels really did a good job of giving details.

The overseer's house used to be in this area, but it has been moved. They have done archaeological digs here and found where the overseer's smokehouse was, for example.

 

 

We found ourselves getting very caught up in the story and were quite disappointed, when some of the recordings didn't work.

When we finished, we looped our way back past the Wall Lowcountry Center and admired its flower and vegetable gardens.

We then entered the sculpture garden, which is spread out over a vast lawn and in groves and in various gardens.

I wasn't going to bother with the title cards for these sculptures, but there is so much going on in this first one, that it is just easier to include the card.

Baryshnikov in Flight by Greg Wyatt just blows me away, because I cannot figure out how he achieved the balance.

Gwen Marcus's The Bather really makes you think she is about to dip her toe in the water.

I loved the look of Live Oak Allée and its red plants. It wasn't surprising to find the sign that indicated that this led to the old plantation house at one time. I like the water lily pond being there in its place.

We didn't have enough time to go off into all the gardens. I wandered into the Peace Garden Room for Children, which was a pleasant flower-filled area, with sculptures of children and some that would appeal to children.  The young man depicted in I'm Tall by Alex Palkovich just seems so proud of himself. I worked hard to frame Freedom of Youth by Rosie Sandifer just right, so that it would look like the rope was attached to the tree above it.

 

I was now on the other side of the pond and found the golden Dionysus by Edward Francis McCartan, that the gardens consider important enough to put on the map. It is quite impressive.

A more traditional St. Francis was done by Julian Hoke Harris.

K and I made our way to another sculpture on the map that he wanted to see- Don Quixote by Anna Hyatt Huntington. It was quite good. I thought that it was cool that they put Carl Paul Jennewein's Sancho Panza nearby.

We saw and heard them setting up for an evening concert. This seems like an excellent place for that.

The last sculpture we saw was another whose title card was important to put here.

Oh, and those wild turkeys that weren't over with the other animals? We saw them near the parking lot before we left at 6:52.

At 7:10 (58,620), K pulled into the parking lot of Crab Daddy's. It seemed silly to be on the coast and not have seafood. I was pretty ticked to find that they had only Pepsi products, which I won't drink. We shared the 3 piece Devil Crabs for $6.99. They turned out to have no crab taste. I ordered the Steak and Lobster Tail for $16.99, which was just okay. K got the Fried Seafood Feast for $19.99 and said the calamari was tasteless. It was a truly disappointing meal in a noisy place.

 When we left at 8:10, we were treated to a lovely sunset to the west and a double rainbow over our shoulders to the northeast.

 We stopped at 8:16 (58,621) at a Murphy's Express in Murrells Inlet for a diesel fill-up. We'd gone only 223.7 miles on this tank, but it would make tomorrow easier. We got 6.177 gallons for $2.529 each. We'd gotten 36.215 miles per gallon, which wasn't bad.
Five minutes later, we were on the road again. K was being kind and taking me up to Myrtle Beach to the Hard Rock Café, so that I could get a guitar pin for my collection. I have a t-shirt from the first Hard Rock in London and the front is covered with the city guitar pins from around the world, that I've picked up on travels. We were following the GPS, which took us to a large shopping and entertainment complex. We finally decided on a place to park at 8:43 (58,364) and set off on foot to find the Hard Rock.
We'd chosen the parking spot wisely, because we found the Hard Rock just three minutes later. It didn't take me long to pick out the pin. Then, we looked around a bit. It was mainly food and entertainment and lots of people. I rather liked the folks in the lit up outfits.

We were not interested in the entertainment and there were no shops per se, so we left at 8:59. We arrived back at the hotel at about 9:34 (58,657). Now, it was time to pack to leave tomorrow.