Spring is here … though to be honest I’m still waiting for winter. March in Maine used to mean cold and snow but temps have been near 50 most of the month and up until last week’s snow storm we had green grass in places.
Sigh.
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It’s been damp and too warm all winter.
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Though I admit the morning fog is soothing.
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His Lordship?
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Never misses his morning coffee.
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And now that his scratchy post has been returned to its normal living room site…
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All is right with his world.
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I just hope the furniture stores don’t mind a little cat hair on their fabric samples.
Thought I was done with the Boneyard Beach photos?
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Almost…
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I promise.
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But who could resist framing their spouse in driftwood?
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Making our way back to the path, I snapped my last photos.
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And my husband joined in the odd shell placement tradition…
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Trying to balance one on the sign.
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Success.
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Exiting through the marsh …
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We climbed back in the ungodly expensive rental behemoth…
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Of which my husband had become entirely too enamored.
It was late afternoon of our last day of vacation so we took a leisurely drive around Edisto Island and enjoyed some of its quirks.
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No one knows who erected this odd marsh angel but apparently she changes with the seasons and has become a local favorite.
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This is the only acceptable answer to the question what do I do with dead palm tree stumps?
Hula girls, that’s what.
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We drove past this native while on the main beach road.
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It was a wonderful sight so I made my husband turn around and circle by him twice to ensure decent photos.
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A poo covered jacket seems a small price to pay for such a beautiful friend.
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This bottle display is an old Gullah way of driving out evil spirits. They have to be blue, but sorry… for the life of me I don’t remember why. The Clemson tiger paw is a modern addition.
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Remember the herd of tiny deer we saw every night? I wondered where they could possibly live in so busy an area…
Day 7, the last full day of our southern anniversary vacation started like the previous 6… with a card.
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This trip was our gift to each other so I opted for a card a day instead.
I’m thoughtful that way. 😉
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It also started with the malfunction of my very last can of (the now reformulated and totally awful Aussie instant freeze… may a pox fall upon their houses and render every last one of the executives bald) hairspray.
Oh, the horror!
With my drastically unsecured hairdo, we headed out that morning to buy a thank you gift for our neighbor who was caring for Lord Dudley Mountcatten in our absence. On the way out of the store I chuckled at the appropriate license plate of the elderly owner.
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And speaking of moss…
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We decided to make the most of our last day and return to the Botany Bay preserve to fully explore Boneyard Beach at low tide.
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Passing under that gorgeous canopy of trees again on the way in.
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It never got old.
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Our previous two trips to the beach were shortened first by loss of daylight and then by rising tide.
We hoped for better viewing this time.
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I know the pictures don’t do it justice…
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But you have to trust me, this place was amazing in person.
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Even with bad hair and high winds.
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The skeletal remains of all those trees made it feel like another planet.
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Or maybe this one after some kind of Planet of the Apes scenario.
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Look…
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My husband smiled, so you know it was special.
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I swear if I lived in this area I’d be here everyday…
After an interesting but not nearly long enough tour of Fort Sumter, we disembarked the ferry and spotted a resort with a highly recommended restaurant called the Fish House.
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Arriving at 4:00pm since we’d skipped lunch…
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We had the place to ourselves for a short while and moseyed up to the bar.
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One Harborview with Cathead Honeysuckle Vodka, Lemon Simple Syrup, Prosecco, and fresh basil in… things were looking good.
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The view on one side was the USS Yorktown… which I wanted to tour but with only an hour before it closed and $100 for two tickets the husband said no. He’s lived on those ships and had no desire to pay to see another.
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Low country shrimp appetizer? Yummy.
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A Siren’s Mule with Mount Gay Rum, Ginger Beer, Lemon Simple Syrup, Mint Leaf, Lime and Blue Curacao?
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Even better.
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We had to laugh at the menu typo and passed on the She Carb soup.
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Husband had the lobster ravioli which he said was wonderful and silly me… who thought since I was down south I should try local seafood… ordered the tilefish.
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Word of advice – do not order the tilefish.
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The sauce? Flavorful. The risotto? Creamy. The charred lemon broccoli? Perfect.
The tilefish?
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I think this fish made out of actual tile in the rest room would have tasted better.
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This one as well.
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Yup. Those too.
Lesson learned? If you don’t know what it is, don’t order it.
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Bad fish aside, it was a nice place.
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It must have been because we stayed until after dark and the beast of a Lincoln was lighting our way when we left.
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At least we had good timing for some beautiful Charleston skies on the way back.
Or more precisely over the locally famous Ravenel bridge …
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To Patriots Point where we had tickets for a ferry. We arrived early as traffic can be tricky and stumbled on a press conference in the parking lot with the USS Yorktown in the background.
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The mayor and two other officials were rambling on about an upcoming spring yacht race…
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Which we wouldn’t be in the area for nor cared anything about, but my husband being my husband…
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Had to stand there and listen to the whole thing because at the end there was a question and answer period and he asked a question. Why? Because the man has to talk.
While he was doing that I looked around and took photos…
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The bridge from Patriots Point.
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The memorial and half of the Yorktown. I wish I’d known the ship was here, I would have scheduled time to tour her.
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Our ferry.
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The harbor.
And since my husband was still standing at the press conference? I checked out the gift store.
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Where the gifts were decidedly low brow.
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As well as deadly.
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This was absolutely bizarre to me. You’d never see ammunition for sale like this in Maine. It was just sitting there on the floor, in open boxes… where any child could take one.
WTH?
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Press conference over, we boarded our ferry.
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Under the watchful gaze of some pelicans.
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Who pose quite nicely for tourists.
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The ferry had two decks but it was a cold and windy afternoon so we went downstairs to cut the breeze.
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Charleston.
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A U.S. Park ranger gave an interesting lecture on the history of the place we were going to see.
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And though it was an overcast sky…
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It was still a lovely ride once I dragged my wind beaten spouse upstairs to the open deck.
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After 20 minutes…
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There it was.
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Sitting at the mouth of Charleston harbor.
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We disembarked…
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And walked on the very ground where the Civil War began.
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.