10/21/10: Myrtle Beach to Charleston!
We started off the day with an amazing sunrise on the beach that just seemed to go on and on and on!
Following that amazing experience - just a continuation from last night - we packed up, checked out and then had a meager breakfast in our hotel. But I didn't think we were even getting a complimentary breakfast here, so I'm not complaining.
The first stop on our agenda for the day was Tanger Outlets. Bob saw a sign for it on our way into Myrtle Beach yesterday, and he wants to stop at Timberland and see if he can get another pair of the shoes he likes. Timberland is all he wears, and every year or two he gets the updated version of that style.
After our GPS led us to the wrong Tanger Outlet (apparently there is more than one in this area!) we discovered there was no Timberland outlet store there. But I did get this great shot of a Carolina Mockingbird in the parking lot!
So our GPS didn't seem to have an address or direction to the Tanger Outlet we'd seen the day before. Most of the time "she" is very good, but once in a while she fails us, and this was one of those times. But to give her the benefit of the doubt, it's probably a newer outlet, and wasn't in her database! But... we thought we knew how to get back there, and after following a rather confusing road sign, we got on a highway that seemed unfamiliar, and .... we drove and drove and drove!
It quickly became obvious that we were going in the wrong direction....however we weren't seeing any exits on this highway, so we could get ourselves turned around. We literally drove for nearly 20 minutes before we found an exit. At that point, Bob declared that he was never going to come back to a state that didn't have exits on it's highways!!!
Eventually we made it to the Tanger Outlet that we wanted, after wasting over an hour and a half of our morning!! We found Timberland, and Bob bought two pairs of shoes, a belt, a jacket and a fleece vest! He did very well for himself that day, and it helped make up for the lost time!
At some point during the morning, I had discovered that I didn't have my camera battery charger - I'd left it plugged into the wall in the motel room! (I wasn't doing very well with my chargers on this trip). So when we left Tanger, we had to return to the motel to pick up the charger - but at least it wasn't out of our way! We actually had to pass by that way to get back on U.S Route 17 (Business) which would lead us through Pawley's Island toward Charleston.
So, with all of that out of the way, we were finally off to do some more sightseeing in the area, like Pawley's Island!
Pawley's Island is a place I've wanted to see for some time. I've read novels that were set in Pawley's Island, and I'd seen photos posted on my Daily Pics photography site and I had some kind of vague image of what it must look like. But when we arrived there and took the bridge across the marshes, it was really not like anything I had imagined. We drove around looking at the expensive beachfront homes, which reminded me of Westhampton or Long Beach Island on the Jersey Shore. But the marshes - oh, those marshes!!! That's what I wanted to see, the famous lowcountry marshes, and it's wildlife. We were rewarded well that day, with several kinds of seabirds: Great Egrets, a Small Blue Heron, and some Great Blue Herons!
Most homes in the area seemed to have these boardwalks into the marshes:
A Great Egret:
Great Egret and Small Blue Heron
Then we saw some Great Egrets and... juveniles? That's what we thought at the time. But in doing some research since we've returned, I now wonder if the smaller egrets are really Cattle Egrets, minus their summer plumage? I'm not at all sure about this one...
The black bills on the smaller egrets make me think they are NOT the juveniles that I originally thought they were!
After spending over an hour on tiny Pawley's Island, photographing these gorgeous birds, we got back on the highway toward Charleston. U.S. Route 17 wound through more low country marshes and rural areas. As we neared Charleston we started to see roadside stands popping up along the side of the highway for Carolina Cider Company. Billboards announcing Peach Cider and other scrumptious-sounding items went on for miles, and caught my attention! This was a place I wanted to stop! We did and I purchased three kinds of cider and several other items. Bob tried boiled peanuts - something we'd seen down here for days now - but he didn't like them. I haven't tried them yet.
Carolina Cider Company (photo not mine)
Carolina Cider Company Cider (photo not mine)
boiled peanuts (photo not mine):
And then we started seeing the stands for the sweetgrass baskets! I love baskets and I'd heard about the famous Carolina Sweet Grass baskets made by the Gullah people of this area! At the first stand we stopped, I was totally taken aback at the prices! Yikes, the smallest, cheapest mini-basket was $80; a decent sized basket (10 or 12") was way over $100! I had no idea they were so expensive!! So I decided to ask my friend Deb about it - she lives in Charleston and would probably know the best places to buy and the best prices!
Sweet Grass baskets (photo not mine)
We arrived at our motel late afternoon, checked in, then went to explore Charleston, and have dinner! After exploring several seafood restaurant recommendations, we decided on dinner at A.W. Shucks! Great food! Bob tried the "she-crab soup" and I had my first "fried green tomatoes" and loved them!
Palms
After dinner, we walked around the market area.
Charleston Marketplace:
When it started to get dark, we went back to our motel. And that was the end of Day 6, a great day in the South Carolina Low Country!
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