Barefoot Landing 6 '07

Today Bruce and I checked out Barefoot Landing  in North Myrtle Beach.

  It turns out to be a huge shopping, dining, and entertainment center  built to attract tourists with its pirate 's  island themed architecture.  

 While the complex does have some larger named chains e.g. House of Blues, it is mostly a lot of little tourist shops filled with tourist and novelty items.

Never the less we had a good time  clowning around with their props.

California Dreamin 6 '07

Laguna Beach Hotel

Even though the trip to California was set up for business reasons, we tried to make it as enjoyable as possible.  We spent a couple of days with my Laura, David and the grandsons.  David caught Bruce up on the latest info on MS Vista, while Laura, Dylan, Ryan, and I made cookies and visited the bookstore.  I think I told you that the youngest grandson Ryan has an nondescript neurological disorder similar to autism.  Laura has been working with him ever since it was diagnosed and he has made dramatic strides.  He is talking clearly, interacting with and making eye contact with others, and laughing and smiling like a normal little boy.  Laura said that he is more interactive with Bruce and I than he is with most adults, but I think with time he will feel confident enough in his verbal skills to reach out to everyone.

On Tuesday  I joined Bruce in Las Vegas where we ate our way through Las Vegas for a day (The Paris Casino's Eiffel Tower Restaurant has THE BEST foie gras). 

Wednesday was Bruce’s Medical exam....he couldn't eat so we ran more errands before the test.  That afternoon we booked ourselves into the Hotel Laguna.  It's right on the ocean with its own private beach.... a good place to sleep off the Demerol the hospital had given him.  The hotel is also right in the center of the art community so in the evening we were able to join in the community art walk, have a fine meal in the hotel's ocean front dining room, and still have time to enjoy the jazz concert in the hotel's rose garden. 

There are a lot of things we really miss about California: (the beach weather, the gardens and tropical flowers, the hills, and of course family), but we don't miss the dirty air, the traffic, or the fast pace of California life.  It was really nice to come home to a place where people smile back and return your greeting. 

Beach goers 6 '07

Pawleys Island Beach looking South

The beaches in South Carolina are phenomenal! I actually go swimming in the surf here.  I lived near the Pacific Ocean in California all my life, but haven't gone swimming since I was a teen.  The water in California is just too cold (it comes down the coast from Alaska).  Here the water comes up the Atlantic coast from the Caribbean.  It is warm enough to stay in all day without getting a chill. The continental shelf spreads out a long way, so it is shallow with few large waves.  I love it. 

BJ at the North end of Pawleys Island Beach

Even the access to the beach can be an adventure.  The beach entrance on Pawley’s Island is a wooden walkway between some very old historic homes. (You can check out this beach from the web cam on the Pawleys Island pier at www.http://pawleys.org) 

Pawleys Island Pier is a favorite hang-out for surfers

 In Huntington Beach State Park, you take a stroll through the forest, and over the sand dunes before you reach the beach.

 One of HBSP beach entrances

The sand here is soft and powdery white.  At low tide it is packed hard enough to ride a bike or drive a vehicle on.  It’s great for walking.  There are lots of shells and birds but few people.  There’s almost no one on the beaches on weekdays.   (I hear that the Grand Strand beaches north of us are a bit more crowded).  It’s so peaceful.  We bought ourselves some beach lounges and a boogie board just so we could spend more time there.

Drought. 2007

Like most of the US, South Carolina is in a drought.  It’s not as bad here along the coast as it is in many states, but it is still affecting us. Normally,  Pawley’s Plantation waters its golf greens and residential gardens with rainfall and has a back up system of  retention ponds AKA golf course water hazards.   This year they’ve sucked down the ponds to the point the resident alligators are being exposed.  Last week the golf course officials decided to cut off gardening water to the homeowner’s properties, so now the homeowners are faced with the challenge of keeping their personal landscaping from dying by using city supplied household water.  In our case, the condo’s landscaping is young enough and the plants small enough at a little sprinkle form the hose will keep everything green.  The real challenge is watering the herbs.  There isn’t a water faucet on the upstairs deck. Earlier in the year there was enough rain that I didn’t need to worry about it, but now we are having a drought so I have been hauling buckets of water to them from the bathroom sink.  Bruce is working on finding an alternative solution

Fresh Herbs Forever 6 '07

I ’ve been growing fresh herbs since I was nineteen years old.  Moving into a very dark nearly windowless condo, with no personal in-ground yard-space, created a challenge to that tradition.   How could I grow my sun loving herbs? 

  But where there is a will, there’s a way.  I purchased lots of deep plastic tubs and arranged the herbs all over the outer edges of the upstairs decks.   We now have nearly as many varieties herbs growing on the deck as we did in the herb garden Southern California

Pawley’s Plantation / Country Club Living 6 '07

When we first moved here one of the neighbors described it as “a year round summer camp for adults”.    That’s a fairly apt description..

     Driving through, the grounds have a “woodsy” feel of a camp in the forest (maybe because they cut down the forest to develop the golf course.)

Pawleys Plantation Country Club

 There’s always some special dinner or tea or other social event going on, and of course golf.  I favor the first set of activities and Bruce has a love hate relationship with the latter.

 13th Green at Pawleys Plantation

South Carolina’s Estuaries. 6 '07

Pawleys Island Marsh

One of the things that attracted us to South Carolina was its estuary rich environment. The entire coast is lined with them, and most appear healthy.   In California we had been docents for the Friends of Newport Back Bay and for the California Fish and Game.  Knowing  the what the lack of estuaries on the west coast  is doing to our migrating birds  and fish populations, has only added to our appreciation of the importance of these ecosystems.  

South Carolina Estuaries take two forms: fresh water and salt water.   The salt- water form is caused by tidal input from the Atlantic Ocean, and the fresh from the huge muddy rivers which flow into the lowlands before meeting the Ocean.   Of course the two inter-mingle at some point, but before they do, there are some very distinct differences.  You can be certain we will write more on this topic in the future.

Cat-tail and alligators are to be found in the freshwater.

One of Pawleys Plantation Alligators

Low tide on the salt water marshes expose huge Oyster beds 

 Oyster Beds at Hobcaw Barony