A Pleasant Afternoon at Conway

Paul and I took another drive to Conway this week. We planned to take a walk on the Riverwalk, see the bluebirds and have tea and dessert at The Trestle Tearoom. We only accomplished one of the three - sadly there were no bluebirds at the feeders and we arrived at the tearoom after their closing time of 3 p.m. so we didn't get our treats. Why would a tearoom be closed at 3 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon?

We did get to enjoy a walk on the Riverwalk. I love watching the moss, that hangs from the trees, blowing in the wind. The area looks like a bayou.

One of our favourite areas is a gazebo found at the end of the boardwalk which has several wooden rocking chairs. We like to sit there to enjoy the sun and watch the local people do a little fishing.

There is also a marina and boathouse in the area.

This is one of the bird houses found along the walkway, but unfortunately no birds were at home.

We really liked this ornamental grass found along the trail. The curly tops remind me of fiddleheads, that grow in our home province of New Brunswick.

We took a few minutes to just sit, have a swing and enjoy the beauty around us.

This iris was growing in the garden. They are one of my favourite plants.

This little mocking bird was flying about near the marina. We see many of them in the area where we stay.

The Riverwalk is such a nice area to spent a quite afternoon.

On our drive back to Surfside, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at our favourite restaurant, The Gulfstream Cafe, in Garden City. It was such a busy evening we had to take a table upstairs near the bar and the fish aquarium. As always the meal was delicious.

We look forward to returning to both Conway and The Gulfstream next year.

Spring Blooms continue

Tulip Garden

Violas in Sculpture Garden

Magnolia Trees

Straw Flowers

Double Tulip

Brookgreen Gardens is a place to see

Spring Blooms

Our visit to Brookgreen Gardens

Display of blooms in the garden today

Poppy
Violas

Red Camellias

Old Man Sculpture

Narcissus Cluster

Oak Garden

Daffodil

Narcissus

Tulip Garden

Just a little of what we saw

This morning

I drove Paul to the Tupelo Bay Golf Centre in Garden City. He was meeting our South Carolina friend, Don, for his first round of golf, with his new clubs.

The early part of their day was sunny, but they did get a little wet with a late afternoon shower.

So what does a woman do while her man plays golf - she shops. I spent a couple of hours twacking. I also took time to enjoy some of the spring blossoms in the area. These pear trees are in bloom all over the area and are absolutely beautiful.

I later visited with Irm while the men golfed and then she treated us all to a nice home cooked meal of meatloaf and veggies. They are a lovely couple and have treated us with much kindness during our time here.

Tonight, Paul and I said good bye to Irm and Don, until next year as we sadly leave here at the end of this month.

Ocean Isle & Sunset Beaches, North Carolina

A couple of weeks ago Paul and I made a trip north across the border to North Carolina. Our first stop was Ocean Isle Beach. We had hoped to find some treasures on this beach, but no luck so we enjoyed a leisurely walk. It was a sunny day with just a little wind. One of the nicer days we have enjoyed during our stay in the Carolinas.



We visited the Museum of the Coastal Carolinas in Ocean Isle Beach. Although it was not open for visitors at the time, the ladies working there were kind enough to turn on the lights and let us walk through to see the exhibits. I enjoyed the shell displays, part of which is shown in the picture below and the fish tank. Although a small museum, it is well worth a visit.


Our next stop was at Sunset Beach, only a few minutes drive from Ocean Isle Beach. We found this area to be more nature and less populated which we prefer. We took the boardwalk to the beach and enjoyed a long walk.

Paul and I really like this tall grass and love to watch it blowing in the wind. It grows in clusters all over the area.

These are some of the beach houses along the waterway at Sunset Beach. A lot of them have rooftop decks to get a better view of the ocean.

On our drive back to Surfside Beach we stopped in Calabash, North Carolina for dinner, which is named the seafood capital of the world.

I still feel that our seafood at home in Beresford is high on the list of the best.

Our Sea Shells

A fun pass time for us this year here in South Carolina has been finding seashells. When we arrived here at Surfside Beach in January we joined the Grand Strand Shell Club, attended their monthly meetings and signed up for a shelling trip to Raccoon Key. We hope to take another trip to Bull Island before we leave at the end of this month. We have shells all around our condo and now have the difficult task of selecting the ones we can keep, which will not be easy as they are all special.

We would like to share some of our finds with you. This pail holds some of our finds from Raccoon Key - whelks, channel whelks, and sand dollars. I have over 50 sand dollars from that one trip and one very special sand dollar that Paul found for me on Valentine's Day on our beach walk.

Sand Dollars

Whelks

Lettered Olives

Starfish, Pen Shell, Scotch Bonnet (rare), Sea Urchins

Angel Wings, Tulips, Channel Whelks, Nutmeg & Nassa Shells

Cockle Shells

Paul also found this Horse Conch which still needs a little cleaning but a rare find.