A couple of weeks have passed

Our beach vacation sadly came to an end - but we knew it would. Thankfully, Todd snapped some really beautiful shots at sunset on one of our last days there that we will certainly cherish. We tried to walk the mile-and-a-half to an inlet at the opposite side of the island to collect shells... but with a 2 1/2 year old... that was a pretty lofty goal. We did snag some shells along the way. (Mercer was mainly interested in throwing them in the ocean, however, so if we saw something we wanted to keep - we had to hide it or else it was destined to swim!)

While we were on the coast of South Carolina, we took a trip into Charleston -- about an hour away. Todd & I haven't spent much time there, even though we lived fairly close when we lived in Savannah. We played "tourist" and did things we thought Mercer would enjoy. We think he had a good time. He saw dolphins in the water, boats, horses, and roosters. (There were some chickens & roosters wandering around the street in one part of town where the horse stables were. Mercer tried to say cock-a-doodle-doo. To our amusement, he said "ca-ca-doo-doo." : - )

We rented bicycles one day. We rode to the beach in the morning... to a playground on the other side of the island... to eat ice cream at one of the few retailers on the other side of the island... and continued on to the SC State Park beach to look for sea shells before wearily riding back to the condo. When asking Mercer what his favorite part of the day was -- he said the ice cream. What?!!? We can do that anywhere! Oh well!

The last day there, Mercer wasn't feeling well. He laid on the couch with Todd all morning, so I went to a part of the island that's been turned into a nature preserve. Botany Bay Plantation is now owned by the state and open to the public. It is a unique undeveloped parcel of land approximately 4700 acres which spans marshes, farm land, and beaches that look the way that the coast looked before the other area shore-lines were cleared for beach-goers 70 years ago. It boasts one of the most diverse array of wildlife of any other place in existence (according to some educational information on site). I saw several dozens species as small as sand crabs... as large as heron in the sky... to dolphins in the water. Most of the plantation structures are no longer there, but there are a couple which are interesting: A Gothic ice house & gardener's shed.

I can imagine that sunrises at the plantation would be AMAZING. We will have to make it a point to get up early and go out there sometime, as we have already decided that we want to go back to the island, as it's one of the last non-commercial beaches left on the east coast.... nothing to do but play in the sand.