We took a different "day trip" this year from Edisto. Last year, we went to Charleston for the day. This year, we stuck to experiencing nature - going on an ecological journey through the ACE Basin. (ACE stands or Ashepoo, Combahee, Edisto Rivers) The ACE Basin is the largest estuary on the east coast - where fresh and salt water come together - supporting a variety of wildlife in a unique habitat.
We had dolphins playing in front of us and swimming up to meet the boat. Mercer was interested in seeing the dolphins the first few times (but about after seeing them a dozen or more times the excitement faded). 
He was interested in eating lunch on the boat. He was interested in the (gross) little potty on the boat. He was interested in my hat. The birds - not so much. Oh well. The fresh air was great for all of us.
The next stop that day was to some nearby ruins that Todd and I have been to before of the Old Sheldon Church. Mercer wasn't as impressed as we are by them, but he seemed to have a good time running through the remains of the structure and trying to swing on the tree that was low to the ground. 
Another place that we went that was "further afield" from our post at the beach is called Bottany Bay. I blogged about it last year. I went by myself because Mercer was sick & had fallen asleep on Todd's lap on our last day at the beach on our trip in 2010. This year - happy to say - no one fell ill.... so we went out to this former 4000+ acre plantation. The state of SC manages the property now and it is free to visit. There is a variety of wildlife here as well. 
The marsh didn't seem as fascinating this year as last -- but probably b/c we were immersed in it during our boat tour. The highlight of the visit was the naturalized beach and the shore full of shells.
There's a strange tradition there of placing the conch shells found on the trees. You are not allowed to take shells from the property, so perhaps people wanted to display their finds?
Mercer caught right on and joined in with the same tradition.
We decided that next year, we will take a picnic lunch and spend more time on that beach.
Yes - we decided that we would like to go back again. There's not a great deal of things to do there, but that's the allure. And - 'til we have exhausted all interested in this place - we may be calling this "our" beach spot.
The boat tour dock was outside of Beaufort, SC and "claims to fame" by being the Bubba Gump Shrimp dock in the movie Forrest Gump. Sorry - we didn't take any pictures of the dock - but we did take a lot of pictures of the various birds that we saw. 
We saw orange-billed oyster catchers, yellow leg gulls, herons, egrets, ibis, and a pair of mating _____ (something) that we forgot the name of - but was somewhat rare to see. Unfortunately, Mercer started to throw a fit on the boat / screamed / and they flew away. We caught a glimpse of one of those rare birds after it landed just around the bend in the river... thankfully for the others on the boat tour.
We saw orange-billed oyster catchers, yellow leg gulls, herons, egrets, ibis, and a pair of mating _____ (something) that we forgot the name of - but was somewhat rare to see. Unfortunately, Mercer started to throw a fit on the boat / screamed / and they flew away. We caught a glimpse of one of those rare birds after it landed just around the bend in the river... thankfully for the others on the boat tour.
We had dolphins playing in front of us and swimming up to meet the boat. Mercer was interested in seeing the dolphins the first few times (but about after seeing them a dozen or more times the excitement faded). 
He was interested in eating lunch on the boat. He was interested in the (gross) little potty on the boat. He was interested in my hat. The birds - not so much. Oh well. The fresh air was great for all of us.
The next stop that day was to some nearby ruins that Todd and I have been to before of the Old Sheldon Church. Mercer wasn't as impressed as we are by them, but he seemed to have a good time running through the remains of the structure and trying to swing on the tree that was low to the ground. 
Another place that we went that was "further afield" from our post at the beach is called Bottany Bay. I blogged about it last year. I went by myself because Mercer was sick & had fallen asleep on Todd's lap on our last day at the beach on our trip in 2010. This year - happy to say - no one fell ill.... so we went out to this former 4000+ acre plantation. The state of SC manages the property now and it is free to visit. There is a variety of wildlife here as well. 
The marsh didn't seem as fascinating this year as last -- but probably b/c we were immersed in it during our boat tour. The highlight of the visit was the naturalized beach and the shore full of shells.
There's a strange tradition there of placing the conch shells found on the trees. You are not allowed to take shells from the property, so perhaps people wanted to display their finds?
Mercer caught right on and joined in with the same tradition.
We decided that next year, we will take a picnic lunch and spend more time on that beach.Yes - we decided that we would like to go back again. There's not a great deal of things to do there, but that's the allure. And - 'til we have exhausted all interested in this place - we may be calling this "our" beach spot.
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