Myrtle Beach, NC

We had a wonderful visit in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We stopped by there last year as well, but this year the weather, though cool, was much nicer than all the rain we had last year.


We pulled our motorhome into the driveway of Carol and Obrey Smith's house. This is something not normally acceptable to their home owner's association. However, since Obrey is on the board, they gave their permission. It's nice to know folks in positions of power.


I have known Carol and Obrey for more years than I care to admit. Actually, Carol and I go back to high school days. Then she married Obrey a couple years after graduation, moved away from Kansas as did I, and we have rarely seen each other over the years since.


We had a great time catching up on days gone by, comparing our mutual arts and crafts interests. We also engaged in a very productive run to the outlet mall. For some reason, the guys opted to stay home for that one.


All of this reminded Carol and I why were were such good friends way back when. We wish were a lot closer geographically once again.

Carol and Dorene

Carol and Obrey took us to Brookgreen Gardens in Myrtle Beach which was a wonderful outing. This was an amazingly beautiful park/garden/plantation....I really don't know how to describe it...it was all of those things and more.




Don and I were blown away with the amazing Southern Live Oak trees that grace the Gardens, They are enormous and most are at least 200 years old. At one point we walked the Live Oak Allee' (Alley), a lengthy walkway lined with all these beautiful, ancient oaks reaching out and over our heads.

Southern Live Oaks, too big to even get it all in the pictures!

Live Oak Allee'.

Brookgreen Gardens is know for it's Huntington Sculpture Garden, named for it's founders and designers, Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington. The Garden opened in 1932 as the first public sculpture garden in the United States.


Many of the sculptures are created by Anna Hyatt Huntington herself, who discovered her amazing natural sculpture ability pretty much by accident.


The property covers over 50 acres and at one time also was home to a working plantation.


Rather than attempt to tell you about a garden that pretty much defies description, I will just show you a very few of the hundreds of beautiful statues that adorn this garden.




A side note to our Southern California friends: this is the same family associated with the Huntington Gardens and Library in Pasadena, California. We were really surprised to have visited the Huntington Gardens on both the east and west coasts and both, though different, are incredibly beautiful.

Of all the statues, this was the only one that was gold-plated.

This statue includes not only the figures in the pool, but the pool as well.

A better look at the figures in the pool.

St. Francis of Assisi.

This one was magnificent!

This one was mixed in among all of the serious art and provided an unexpected giggle break.

This is a rare aluminium sculpture. It has amazing detail due to the softness of the metal.

I wish I could tell you the names of all the statues and who sculpted them, but hey, this is Dorene, and I can no longer remember what I had for breakfast! Never mind that I have the same thing every day! So you will just have to look at the pictures. Just know, they were beautiful and of the more than 500 that are in that park, these are just a sampling of wonderful, wonderful art.




After this inspiring education in art, we had an equally inspiring lunch at the beach. (Well, almost as inspiring!) My new favorite dish is Grilled Shrimp and Grits!! Oh, YUM!! Notice I said this is MY favorite. Don has yet to taste it and I don't see that happening any time soon, or probably in my lifetime, for that matter. He has issues with grits. (But it is soooooooooo good!)




On Sunday, Don preformed his Nicodemus monologue at Carol and Obrey's church, Forestbrook Baptist Church. It is just a few blocks from their house and we had a great time with the folks there. Southern hospitality is wonderful!


Don, aka, "Old Nic"