My Carolina Vacation

I just got back from a wonderful vacation and wanted to share with you all some of my favorite pictures. We started off in Southport, North Carolina. It's a small ocean front town and the (proud!) location of the movie Safe Haven. They sure loved talking about it! We (my parents and I) stayed here for 2 nights.

This is the beautiful and historic Robert Ruark Inn where we stayed.

 

I don't have any pictures of the little town but we did take the ferry to Carolina Beach.

  

I think this picture of all the seagulls following the ferry is so funny.

 

Then we headed south to Pawley's Island, South Carolina. We stayed here for 3 nights. This is at Huntington Beach State Park. All those little dots are tiny crabs.

There were millions of these little guys waving their tiny claws around.

And there were lots of egrets. I took about a hundred pictures of this bird because he was such a good model.

While there, we met up with some family friends who were staying in Georgetown, South Carolina. We visited the beautiful Brookgreen Gardens. The flowers/plants/trees alone were just amazing.

Not to mention the beautiful statues, all made by American artists.

This one was huge.

This is only a tiny taste of all the fountains and statues in the park.

We took a water cruise and learned about the history of the abandoned rice fields and plantations. We saw a little blue heron.

I think this might be a darter bird?

And I saw my first and only alligator! Apparently, this is a tiny one. Ugh.

Then we went even more south to Charleston, South Carolina. We stayed there for 2 nights. We stayed at the Edmonston-Alston House.

All of the architecture was so beautiful. The city is full of such history.

We visited Fort Sumter which is where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.

Mandatory cannon pose.

Then we headed back north to the small town of Beaufort, North Carolina. We stayed there for 2 nights as well.

We took a ferry out to the Shackleford Banks.

We saw some wild horses on the island that are thought to be the descendants of wild mustangs that swam ashore after the ships crashed.

The water there was my favorite of all the places we visited.

Then, sadly, our vacation was over. I am currently in the peeling stage of my sunburn turned tan. Not fun. We've been back since Monday evening and after a few moments of vacation brain, I'm back in the grind of things.

I loved being in the south. It's so refreshing. Everyone is so sweet. No one is in a rush and angry all the time (well I won't say no one). If it wasn't so hot, I'd move down there in a flash. Although, being on the water in all the cities we stayed in, it really wasn't much hotter than it gets in Washington, DC. At least down south, no one blares their horn for a full minute just because you were a second late going on a green light. I don't know if I could ever actually move down south. I'm too in love with snow. Plus, my teeth would probably turn yellow from all the sweet tea.