The Most Amazing Sunset

Huntington Beach State Park, SC. A few minutes from our campsite. One of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen.

Looking North-East. The reflection of the sky on the water just kept getting pinker and pinker.

Looking South-West 

Other pictures from the beach

Who is John Galt? and The Kazoo Factory

I never expected to ask someone, "Who is John Galt", but yesterday we got the chance!

We took the factory tour at  The Kazoobie Kazoos Kazoo Factory (America’s only Plastic Kazoo Factory,) located at 12 John Galt Road, Beaufort, SC.    

So of course, we had to ask the tour guide, ”Who is John Galt?”

This is how the conversation went:

Us - ”Who is John Galt?”

Tour guide - “Uh, there was a character in this book…”

Us - “Yeah, yeah. But why was this street named John Galt Rd?”

Tour Guide - “? No one has ever asked me that”

So we still don't have the answer to the question, but we had a fun time at the Kazoo Factory tour, including

• A hilarious film starring kazoos

• A live demo of the Kazoo, the Wazoo (excessively loud kazoo), the Kazoogle, the Wazoogle, the Kazoobie Kazoogle,  the Electric Kazoo with amp, and various other devices to blow or hum into

• Built our own kazoo

• And got to play a rousing rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," with our group

Highly recommended! 

In Search of Forrest Gump

Beaufort, SC. The second-oldest city in South Carolina and totally charming 

We strolled around the historic downtown following the Visitor Center’s “Historic Homes and Attractions” map.

Next, we decided to do a Forrest Gump scavenger hunt. Apparently, a lot of the movie was filmed in the area.

Now I don’t remember much of the movie. But using the brochure we bought at the visitor center as a guide, Lights, Camera, … Beaufort, 3^rd edition, by local author Ginnie Kozak, we found the building used for the “Gump Medical Center.”

Next, we went looking for the tree which had a major role in the movie, at least according to Ms. Kozak. 

These are the directions from the brochure:

Now, first of all, everyone knows what it means when any directions include the words, “It’s hard to miss ”  ...

Secondly, notice there is no address given for the tree. Or any street names in the directions other than US 21.  A search for “Carolina Shores subdivision” showed a place 199 miles away.

But after some creative googling, and almost giving up, we found it! Let me know if you would like GPS coordinates.  

Here are some non Forrest Gump related photos from downtown

This is the historic synagogue Beth Israel 

When we peeked in on Sunday, it was rented out to this group

Thanks Eric and Raya for recommending Beaufort! 

Spanish Moss

Tendril of Spanish Moss

Fun Fact 1 - Spanish Moss is neither Spanish nor moss.

I don’t know how many times we heard this over the course of our trip. A guide or ranger told us this on practically every single tour or guided walk we were on.  

Spanish Moss is a actually a bromeliad (all the guides said it is related to the pineapple), and native to the Americas.

Fun Fact 2 - Spanish Moss prompted the first automotive recall.

Henry Ford stuffed the seats of his first Model T's with Spanish moss. He had to do a recall when it turned out that little red bugs called chiggers live in Spanish Moss and were biting drivers on their rear ends.

We heard this numerous times over our trip as well. Not sure if is actually true or just a good story to tell tourists. It is more likely that chiggers are found in moss that has fallen to the ground than what is up in the trees.

Fun Fact 3 - The Spanish Moss Trail is a rails-to-trails bike path in Beaufort County, SC.  

Many trees along the way are draped with, you guessed it -Spanish Moss.  

Getting Our Money's Worth - NYBG Reciprocal Admission

I am a botanical gardens junkie. (I know this comes as a big surprise to many of you.) 

As members of the New York Botanical Gardens, we get reciprocal admissions to gardens all over the country. We got in to all these for free! I may have forgotten a few. Given that most of these were over $20 pp admission, we certainly got our money's worth from our NYBG membership on this trip! 

And we are not home yet...

For the record we also went to a few gardens that did not have reciprocal arrangement, as well as countless places with gorgeous landscaping.

Savannah

As we travel north it is getting colder. Our gut reaction to the colder temps is that fall is coming.  After all, it has been summer for the past 3 months, and fall naturally follows summer. 

But then we see the trees starting to bud, or azaleas blooming and are strangely disoriented.  

Is there such a thing as “Season Lag”? What are the lasting effects of having missed winter?

Some photos from Savannah

 

Going to have to read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil