Georgetown and Brookgreen Gardens

Yesterday, we went to Georgetown to play golf and look around.  Unfortunately, I have come down with a horrible cold, and ended up not playing golf.  By the fourth hole, I was so tired, all I wanted to do was sleep (thanks to the cold medicine).  So after the nineth hole, Walter and Ralph continued on while I slept in the back of the card.  The best thing I did, because I woke up after two hours feeling much better.

We went into the city of Georgetown to walk around the historic section.  There had been a fire on the main street about a month ago, that brought down five of the old buildings.  It's now fenced off, and according to the townsfolk, will be rebuilt.  We were there, as it turned out, on an auspicious day.  The governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, was scheduled to make a stop and speak to the town about restoring the destroyed part.

 I actually got a few good pics of her speaking to the media and the public.

 

The area along the waterfront was quite peaceful, and afforded a number of opportunities for good photos.

 

 

 

 Some of the charred pier stumps.

 

 I took this through a chain link fence.  Unfortunately, there's a bit of blur from the fence in the bottom corner.

 

 The shadows on the pier boardwalk made an interesting pattern.

 

 

Today, we went to Brookgreen Gardens.  We had been there in March, and liked it, so this was an opportunity to go back and see more of the garden area.  We opted to take one of guided tours.  Good thing we did, as I learned something that I hadn't known before.  When Archer and Anne Huntington bought the Brookgreen Plantation, and turned it into a garden, they also bought the plantations on either side of it.  And that's how the gardens got to be so extensive.  They are actually three plantations.

 

Again, still waters made for some interesting pictures.  I couldn't resist trying to capture reflections in the waters of various pools.

 

 

 

 Water lilies were everywhere.  Some, like this, already opened up.  Others still waiting to bloom.

 

The last thing we did was take a boat tour along one of the old inland tidewater waterways to the entrance to the Waccamaw River.  The plantations in their heyday were rice plantations, and slaves dug out the cypress trees, dug ditches and dikes and planted rice.  In the early days, a slave working in the rice fields when they were first being planted would last about three months.  What a horrible life it must have been.  We saw a water moccasin in the water, but didn't get a picture of it.  It's remarkable how quickly a snake can move in the water.  However, alligators were around and I got a picture of a good sized one basking in the sun. 

 

  He's a biggie. Wouldn't want to meet him in the water.  I'd be gone in two bites, maybe one.