Nomad Feet: Brookgreen Gardens and Pawleys Island

With summer quickly receding all I can say is good riddance. While my loving spouse and daughter went on an awesome trip to Scotland and then down to England I got to stay home and babysit two overactive dogs and two indifferent cats. The problem with this situation being? By now everyone should be well versed in my simmering disdain for both suburbia in general and the contemptuous but pleasant hellhole I live so I will spare you poor souls by not rehashing the sacrifices I made by keeping the home fires burning and the grass cut.

That being said several months before the two left on their glorious adventure my wife and I negotiated a series of day trips to the coast for myself as sort of a recompense for not getting a real vacation. In the greater scope of things, my little excursions were and are quite insignificant compared the their grandiose vacation, but it usually doesn't take much to keep me happy so I was okay with taking these simple day trips.

Last Saturday was my latest day trip and while my original plan to catch a tour boat in Georgetown, South Carolina that would cruise up Winyah Bay to an uninhabited barrier island didn't pan out, my daughter and I did do something else just as good. My daughter, Darth Wiggles, and I decided to hit Brookgreen Gardens down by Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.

Brookgreen Gardens is a 9100-acre sculpture garden and wildlife preserve that was once four separate plantations, whose presence on the property has largely been erased. The creation of Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington their original intention was to create a winter home, but she soon decided to use the property to showcase her own sculptures. Eventually the property went public and began displaying the sculptures from many other artists. Today Brookgreen Gardens is one of the major tourists' attractions on Grand Strand and last Saturday it was a refuge for this weary knucklehead.

I didn't get the information on that sculpture but it's one of the first items you see upon starting the tour.

Didn't get the name of this one either, although I take a picture with it on every visit.

This is called "Young America" by Joseph Walter. There is a confidence and intelligence in the lady's pose that I wish our country had right now.

This is mainly a landscape picture but the sculpture on the lower left is called, "Bella and the Bug."

Part of the continuing appeal of Brookgreen Gardens is the serenity of the grounds. I can see myself sitting on the bench under that tree and reading a book. Yeah, part of why I like it is the tree itself, it has a real majesty. 

"The Saint James Triad" by Richard McDermott Miller.

"Time and the Fates of Man" by Paul Howard Manship

Just a nice scene that I really like.

And another, notice the lack of people which wasn't hard since it was still rather early in the day.

Yeah, I dig butterflies.

"Baboon" by Marshall Maynard Fredericks.

Peaceful scene.

The sculpture is entitled "Eat More Beef" by Sandy Scott. The photobomb in the background is by Darth Wiggles.

Nice scene but I didn't get any info on the statute

Cool picture of a flower.

Another nice scene.

No info, but I included it because of its depth.

Eventually, my daughter and I made our way to Pawleys Island to walk the beach. The surf was quite rough that day, so much that hardly anyone was in the water. Little did I know but a storm had formed off the coast. 

Like I said, no one was going out very deep that day. God knows, given the stupid stuff I did as a kid in the waters off Pawleys I should have drowned many times. I sure as Hell never let my own kids do anywhere near the crazy things I did. Best example is that long before I could swim all that well I would regularly go out to the point the water was way over my head. 

Just proof that I did get my feet wet. Getting down to the coast is such a  rare occurrence I often need a record of it to remember. That's all the picture I'm going to publish.