Nomad Feet: Brookgreen Gardens

My daughter is currently on spring break and needed to get out of the house. So, we hit Brookgreen Gardens down on the the coast near Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. This sculpture is at the entrance of the gardens on Highway 17 and they do not make it easy to photograph. There is a sign at the front saying no parking and no stopping. Which makes sense because traffic is always heavy in that area. My daughter had to scramble around cars to get this shot.  

This is "Narcissus" by Adolph Alexander Weinman 1870-1952

We picked a near perfect day for our road trip. The temperature was around 70 degrees and the humidity was non-existent. The only slight problem was that Spring had only just begun to pop. Not much was in bloom and the staff was still getting things ready for summer. If you go to Brookgreen Gardens during the summer months drink a lot of water!

One of the biggest scams ever perpetrated by Disney films was to portray Zeus here as a loving family man happily married to his wife Hera. In the Disney animated movie Heracles they do just that and it's a laugh riot for anyone with a vague notion of his extramarital proclivities.  

A nice relaxing pathway.

One of the few flowers I saw in bloom. Sorry I don't know the species

I believe this sculpture is of Artemis.

Wise words.

A beautiful setting.

No trip down to the coast would be complete if I didn't stop and visit Pawleys Island. Got to admit, I was disappointed because there wasn't any breeze on the beach.

 

Nomad Feet: Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve

Last Saturday, I escaped the suburban prison camp for a day trip down to the coast. When I left Columbia I didn't have a destination but halfway down to Charleston I decided to hit the Botany Bay Plantation Heritage Preserve. It was formed in the 1930's from the merger of Colonial-era Sea Cloud Plantation and Bleak Hall Plantation located on Edisto Island. The property went to the state in 1977 as a wildlife preserve and was opened to the public in 2008. The drive down was long, especially after arriving at the entrance. This picture is of the dirt road leading down to the beach area.

 

  

Once you arrive at the parking area, there is about a half-mile walk down to the beach. This causeway with the marsh on either side was beautiful. Another thing that made it paradise was the complete absence of human-made sound. The only thing I could hear was the sound of the surf, the rustle of the marsh and some birds. It was heaven, especially after what seemed to be countless months of political advertisement on the television. 

A section of the marsh. You can't see them but numerous hermit crabs were living out their lives in the mud.

First view of the beach. Unfortunately someone stepped into the frame. 

I arrived about an hour after the preserve opened and while I wasn't the first person there, the beach was mostly deserted. Being "undeveloped" the beach is littered with fallen trees.

I actually took a selfie where I was smiling but didn't include it because it would ruin my stern visage.

It was a beautiful day. The tide was near high tide and since this was my first visit, I didn't wander that far sense over concerns that I might get cut off by the incoming water.

All told, I was there about an hour and I was surprised how warm it got that morning.

As you might have noticed, there is a huge number of large shells on the beach. This is because of the $450 dollar fine if caught taking any off the beach. Instead, previous visitors seem to like to display them on some of the fallen trees. 

When I was a kid Pawleys Island had a similar number of shells on the beach. But that was way before it became such a well visited location. Tourists and resident kept taking home conch shells to the point it ruined the ecosystem. 

I took my time heading back to the car. More people began showing up and I didn't want my first impression ruined.

Could have sat at this spot for hours. When I do return I will bring a comfortable chair.

Another look at the marsh.

 

Tried to catch this conch shell against the ocean. The lighting was wrong so I didn't waste anymore effort. My camera isn't really the type for taking such difficult pictures. 

Final shot, another collection of shells bleaching in the sun. Botany Bay is one of the finest examples of South Carolina in its raw, unspoiled form. I usually don't speak highly of this state, but when it does things right you have to point it out. Wish I could saw the same about its politicians. Speaking of which, give them half a chance and they'll have this small piece of paradise carved up with condos on the beach and oil rigs drilling out in the water. 

Celebrity Equinox Cruise: December 14-21 THE FINAL SEGMENT

Like all good things, the beginning of the end of the cruise began after we left Cozumel. We were at sea the next day and I imagine most people were doing their best not to think about the impending return to reality. My wife and I staked an early claim to a couple of lounge chairs in the Solarium to read and relax. The seas that had been extremely rough the day before were still particularly bad with the water in the Solarium pool sloshing back and forth as the ship rolled through the waves.

After several days of hanging out in the Solarium with all the blue-hair old folks, part of me wanted to head outside and get involved with the younger crowd. I was really enjoying all the quiet but after several days of it, part of me wanted something more lively in the way of stimulus. I did try to join the younger crowd but quickly rejoined the blue-hairs once realizing out out of water I felt.

The final stop on the trip was Grand Cayman. While there is nothing wrong with Grand Cayman we've explored the place on previous trips and found it a bit of a tourist trap. The Equinox almost cancelled its visit on our trip because of the lingering storm. There are no port facilities on Grand Cayman forcing visiting cruise ships to anchor offshore, from there small boats ferry people to the island and back. Because we stayed on the ship here are a couple of pictures from previous cruises.

This is a small segment of Seven Mile Beach. It's a party place typically catering to young folks without kids. Going back to my dilemma of not being comfortable with the blue-hairs while being unable to keep up with the younger folks is part of the reason I stayed on the ship.     

On the previous visits, the standard tourist spots like Buffett's Margaritaville was overflowing with Americans making them unattractive to me. My wife, daughter, and I hit this local spot and had a fantastic lunch with a genuine Caribbean atmosphere.   

After leaving Grand Cayman the final night on the ship was filled with activities. This one was called "Silent Disco" where the participants wear headphones that provide three channels of music. The idea being that it allows people to dance to literally their own music. It was a bit freaky, but I found it quite fun.

Yes, I did dance that night with my music being the stuff on the Latin channel. 

The part I miss most is the buffet. Especially early in the morning when most of the other passengers were still asleep. 

  This is the final installment of these posts. For the longest time I wondered just what would be the last picture. I thought about posting one of the ship terminal with thousands of people either scrambling to get off the boats or begin their journeys. If you remember, I hated Fort Lauderdale and decided not to go that route.

So the last picture of the cruise is of a platter filled with bacon. Right now my wife is planning another cruise for 2021. Unfortunately, wifey is talking about taking her sister on a North Sea cruise that would include a trip into the Baltic and a stop at Saint Petersburg. Me going to Russia just ain't going to work for a whole bunch of reasons. 

Celebrity Equinox Cruise: December 14-21 PART FIVE

For me the best part of the trip was visiting the Mayan ruins at Tulum, a recognized World Heritage site facing the Caribbean Sea. The trouble was that getting to Tulum was a bit of an adventure since the Celebrity Equinox docked on the the island of Cozumel.

The seas were already rough as we pulled up to the docks on Cozumel with the ship you see already tied up. There was a second cruise ship in the immediate area that for some reason that had anchored nearby instead of docking. Scuttlebutt among the experienced travelers was that both of these ships were based in Europe and that do regular transatlantic runs. That's what you get when you live in countries were bosses and management don't think of worker vacations as infringements on their rights to squeeze every damn cent of profit out of their employees.  

To get to the ruins we had to board a ferry to the mainland, which involved us doing the kindergarten-like walk from the Equinox to the smaller vessel. The Mein Schiff 1 you see in the picture was a beautiful ship and I would have loved to see the insides if it was possible. Ignore the drop dead gorgeous blonde in the picture. Yeah, the guy in the orange shirt knew I was checking out the blonde crew member of the Mein Schiff 1. On a side note, there are a whole series of cruise ships carrying the Mein Schiff name, you would think a premiere cruise line could cough up some euros for better, more original names.  

This is the ferry that took us to the Mexican mainland and brought us back. I give the locals that crewed it the highest marks in professionalism and seamanship. The only problem I had was with the weather conditions that made the trip to the mainland difficult and damn near intolerable returning. I didn't get seasick going out but the rough seas coming back to Cozumel had me dry heaving into a plastic bag. In fact, coming back to Cozumel the crew had to stop the boat twice to check its condition after something outside came loose. By that time, I was French kissing the barf bag and going through my first flop sweat in years. It got so bad my wife was worried my heart might go bonkers. It didn't and fifteen minutes after we finally got back to the docks I was back to my usual abnormal.     

Not exactly sure why I took this picture or included it in this post.

This was the stairway leading up to the entrance to the ruins. Had a fine collection of people from North America and Europe. All during the time I heard French, German, Spanish, and what I think was Dutch I wanted to scream out that I was an American that hated trump. I resisted, mainly because my wife would have probably slapped me across the back of the head.

The entrance to the ruined city. Tulum was one of the last cities built and inhabited by the Mayans. It reached it peak between the 13th and 15th centuries and managed to survive for around 70 years after the Spanish began their occupation of what would become Mexico. 

As you might be able to guess, the diseases brought by Spanish colonization resulted in significant moralities among the native population. This disrupted Tulum's society eventually causing the city to be abandoned.  

I first found out about Tulum years ago from watching a documentary on the Mayans. Further research on my part turned up beautiful, sunny, and clear pictures highlighting the green of the vegetation, the light blue of the sky, and the dark blue of the ocean, along with white fluffy clouds. On the day of our visit it was cloudy and rainy throwing off my ability to take a decent picture.  

THis was our tour guide who said his name was Jesus. He was extremely knowledge on the Mayan civilization and took excellent care of his spoiled norteamericano guests. That being said, I got a heavy vibe that he didn't like me. Part of that may have come from the army surplus booney hat I was wearing as well as my camouflage backpack. It wouldn't be the first time that the stink of the "Ugly American" caused me an issue with citizens from other nations. I'm tall, Caucasian, and pretty much a poster child for white American privilege even though I try not to be a dick.     

Too many similar pictures, yeah I know. Was trying to get one to be decent given the conditions and my lack of talent.

I believe I snapped about ten of these while playing with the preset filters on my camera.

One of the current locals at Tulum. He seemed wholly unimpressed with everyone. 

Not sure, since I never could get the tour guide's attention to ask a question, but I guess this was a well.

Probably the best picture out of the bunch. You can actually see some blue sky.

Really wasn't up to spending hours researching the use of the different buildings. Time at the ruins was incredibly limited since the ship had to leave later that afternoon.

By this point the tour guide had broken us into two groups, one that went straight back to the shops and the other which stayed to take more pictures. I stayed to take more pictures and didn't get a chance to prowl all the neat souvenirs.

I did get to the cliff face to snap a bunch of pictures there. No, I didn't get the sunny skies or crystal clear waters like I have seen in magazines. But at least I can say I have seen one of the most remarkable sites on Earth. 

And in the space of a few minutes the clouds came back in and made taking pictures difficult.

Clouds rolled out again but by this time I was down to about 10 minutes before I had to race back to the bus.

The path leading out of the city.

Our next stop was a beach resort that was supposed to be a place to relax and swim. Except the weather had turned bad again with it raining steadily. We got our meal, great local seafood, but no one wanted to go swimming in the rain.

Not sure if this is a real fishing boat or a decoration.

I didn't go swimming but I did take a long walk on the beach. My wife stayed under the shelter drinking coffee.

After the nightmare return trip to Cozumel, the Equinox soon departed for Grand Cayman. As we were heading out I caught sight of one of the Disney ships heading into Cozumel. By this time of the cruise I was perfectly happy with Celebrity Cruise Lines and didn't miss Mickey at all.