Road Trip

The sun broke through after 16 or 17 days of gloom and rain and we're finally going to get above 50 degrees.  So let's saddle up and take a trip to Brookgreen Gardens just outside of Myrtle Beach near the quaint, South Carolina town of Murrells Inlet.

We visited these gardens in January during our stay in Winter Quarters.  Since returning home, I've finally gotten enough spring cleaning done that I'm turning my attention to organizing pictures from our time away.

The weather in North and South Carolina was especially warm during our trip in January and February.  Look at all  that was blooming on the late January day we visited the gardens!

Even the magnolias were blooming.  And who can ever get enough of the camellia's?

This was my second visit to Brookgreen Gardens.  We'd been through here five years ago.  Prince Charming declined to go with me on the first visit, the idea of visiting a sculpture garden left him cold.  I convinced him to give the gardens a shot on this trip, and was he glad he did.  Brookgreen has the largest collection of American sculptures in an outdoor garden in  the world with about 1,445 works situated on 551 acres.  The whole complex is over 9,000 acres.  Wear comfortable shoes as you'll do a lot of walking through beautifully manicured lawns.  

Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington purchase four plantations which included forests, swamps, rice plantations and beach front, intending this as their winter home.  But Anna quickly saw the potential to create the first sculpture garden in the U.S.  The gardens originally featured Anna and her sister, Harriet Randolph Hyatt Mayor.

If you've visited Riverside Park in New York City, you may be familiar with Anna Hyatt Huntington's work.

Joan of Arc Photo courtesy of New York Parks' website

The gardens provide a peaceful retreat from the hub-bub of Myrtle Beach, letting you walk through allies of live oaks dripping with Spanish moss.

The colors of the gardens are muted in January, but after months of brown  grass and gray skies of a Midwest winter, sunlight filtering softly through the trees is such a delight.

After a couple of hours of walking, drive into Murrells Inlet along Business 17.  We've eaten in several of the restaurants lining the salt marsh.  You can't pick a bad restaurant and the views are stunning.

Come back next week when our road trip takes us to Middleton Plantation just outside of Charleston for a tour of the worlds largest collection of camellia's at the height of bloom.