Folly Beach, South Carolina

We are not moving to South Carolina, despite what I said Monday. I really like it down there, but I do not think that I would last once it got hot. We did go down for a week, however, thanks to our two-week spring break. After spending the first week battling the kitchen floor to get the new tile down, we needed a vacation in the worst way. I was not happy that we were not able to complete the project before leaving, but we were at least ninety percent done. Hopefully, we will be able to get the rest done this week because we have a guest coming from Rwanda to stay with us on Saturday.

It felt great to escape the madhouse, aka The Cape of Dreams, and relax on the beach. Most of Douglas’ family was there to celebrate his brother’s 40th birthday. His birthday was last September, so they were only six months late. The majority of our time was spent with family. We love those crazy kids. (By the way, what do you think of Douglas without his winter beard? Are you pro-beard or anti-beard?)

We never went into downtown Charleston on this trip, but we did take a couple of excursions. On Tuesday, we went to a couple of antique stores on James Island. Last time we were down we visited the antique stores in the center of Charleston. I found those to be too expensive for us, but the ones on James Island were more in our price range. A World Apart was my favorite store.

I wish we had brought the truck, because they had a lot of things that I wanted, like the bench that Douglas is sitting on in the picture above. I found a piece that would be perfect for the living room. I want to replace the Ikea cabinet. This is not a corner cabinet, but the glass sides would provide the open feel that I am looking for. It was priced very reasonably; alas we had no way to bring it home.

I also liked this drum set. My brother-in-law is a drummer, and I always buy him a percussion instrument on my travels. At $500 this one was a little expensive, so he will have to settle for a picture.

We ended up buying this kitty Buddha. There was also a frog Buddha; we should have bought him too. Now I have to decide where I am going to put the kitty Buddha. This is where he looked best, on the deck of our rental house, but unfortunately, I could not bring the ocean back with me.

After A World Apart, we went across the street to the Terrace Oaks Antique Mall. They did not have as many things that I just “had to have,” but I did like this wardrobe. It was beautiful and a good price. There were nice brass rods with brass hooks on the inside.

On Wednesday, we visited Magnolia Plantation. We did not tour the house or slave quarters, but we did walk around the grounds and beautiful gardens.

The conservatory was awesome. I wish we could build one in our yard.

It would also be fun to have a maze out back.

There were flowers everywhere…

…and stunning old trees.

However, our favorite part by far was the swamp tour.

We saw turtles galore,

ducks,

birds.

One bird was gathering sticks for his wife, who was building their nest in a tree.

We also spotted five alligators, some of which we were uncomfortably close to before we realized they were there. Thankfully, they were not hungry at the time.

By the way, there are two alligators in this last picture. Can you find them?

There was also an albino raccoon in the petting zoo. Normally, I am against keeping wild animals in small zoos, but an albino raccoon would not live long in the wild, since it has no camouflage. As raccoons are nocturnal animals, we did not know if we would get to see his face. We went back right before we left and had to wait a long time before I finally got a picture. Patience paid off in the end.