Day 178

Today was Mother's Day. I took a bit of a break today. We had to drive 6 hours to our home, so I slept most of the time. I was exhausted once we got back and enjoyed the remainder of the day with my parents and my in-laws.

In the morning, the sun was shining bright over the ocean.

The sun stayed shining for the remainder of our drive.

Day 177

Today we woke to a thick fog. After a few hours, the fog started to lift.

This is at about 9:45am.

Since, rain ruined our fun yesterday, we headed back to Brookgreen Gardens today. We focused on the garden area.

Ferns are growing on the break of the oak trees.

The squirrels here are larger than the ones at home.

These flowers varied in colors.

Lily

I love how the thick leaves of this plant cradled the water from the rain and created rounded drops.

These vines were growing through each hole of this wall.

Ivy was growing all over the bottom of this tree meeting the Spanish moss from the top of the tree.

There was a whole section of trees like this.

Moss growing between the stones of a walkway

Many fountains and pools of water had water lilies and pads growing in them.

Last year, we visited in August and there were HUGE grasshoppers there, called lubbers. This year, we visiting in May and the lubbers were still tiny. However, we found them in large clusters.

Daises

Lizard trying to blend into the leaf

A baby lubber and a few pals

Bubbles occurred naturally from a small waterfall.

There were several turtles on this circle. I liked the turtle with it's feet dangling and the one with it's feet tucked in. John and Alex let me take lots of photos of the turtles, close to the pond, before reading the "Beware of alligators and snakes" sign. Thankfully, we saw none of those.

Dragonfly on lily pad

Day 176

This morning, we woke in Myrtle Beach, SC to a bright sun shine over the ocean.

We decided to go to Brookgreen Gardens, to see their beautiful landscape, butterflies and animals.

Monarch caterpillar chewing on the stalk of a milkweed plant. Only one leaf remained, of 30 plants.

Monarch caterpillar

Moss on one of the oldest oak trees

As we were about enter the first aviary with our guide, he pointed out a copperhead snake that was trying to escape us. I was surprised at how non-violent this very poisonous snake was.

In and outside of the aviary were many of these regional birds. I like the reflection this one casts on the water.

In the butterfly house, were a few butterflies. They were not very active, because by the time we got there, the rain had started.

This is a freshly emerged Monarch butterfly next to it's cocoon. If you look closely at the other two cocoons, you will see wings.

Male cardinal

Female cardinal

Storm clouds over the ocean

Day 175

Today, we left Orlando, FL for Myrtle Beach, SC. This is a long drive, so I slept most of the time. While awake in the car, I took a few photos of the sky, which looked great with the bright sun.

The straight lines across the sky are from plane exhaust. The more vertical ones are natural.

Went we got to Myrtle Beach, we changed for dinner into something nicer than traveling clothes and headed for the beach. We walked along the beach to our dinner destination.

This bee was dead in the sand.

We found 3 dead jellyfish. This one looked the most like a jellyfish.

This broken conch shell was among the thousands of broken shells that were left in huge piles on the shore. I can only assume that the tide brings in huge amounts of shells nightly and leaves them there as it goes out.

Since we are on the east coast, the sun rises over the water and sets across the land...unless you are farther down in Florida on it's west coast. I took this photo through the window of the hall way to our room. We were on the 19th floor. I'm not sure why the glow of the sun created a large blurred circle and a small concise circle, but it's very neat to see. Also, if you look closely, you can see rays radiating from the sun

Day 170

Today, we started our 9 day vacation. We left at 4am. The first leg stretching stop was in SC at a rest stop with a welcome center.

For lunch, we went to Uncle Buba's in Savannah, GA. Then, we walked around Forsyth Park before embarking on the next part of our long drive for the day.

These small birds were eating from the grass along the street we parked on.

The sun was shining bright through the oak trees. Oak trees by the ocean are different than those by us. Salt water causes the tree branches to twist as they grow. They also have Spanish moss growing on them. This is common along the Southern coast.

This pet bunny was relaxing in the busy park. It was on a leash and wasn't nervous around the large amount of people at the chalk festival. Since it's a pet, it doesn't fit with my normal wild creatures. However, it was surprisingly very calm for a bunny in a busy park with lots of dogs.

We headed to Jacksonville, FL for the evening. After checking into our hotel at the Mayo Clinic (I kid you not), we headed for the near by beach.

Like most beaches, there were seagulls. I love the reflective qualities of the water on the sand.

John found this on the beach. John thinks it's a jelly fish. I thought it might be a boob implant.. I know, I'm the gorey one. Either way, it was neat looking. I wasn't allowed to poke it.

The receding water caused ripples in the sand. Darker sand was deposited in the valleys of the ripples. Because the wet sand was so reflective, the setting sun glowed brightly on it.

This is what the sand looks like as it absorbs the remaining receding water.

This is what the sand looks like from being walked on by many people. It's like small dunes.

While walking back to the car, I saw these tall pink flowers...

...and these cactus flowers.

We wanted to eat dinner at the beach. An irony of Jacksonville is all the bars that line the beach. Given that the Mayo Clinic (best known as an addiction rehab) is located in Jacksonville, FL, the large amount of bars must keep them in business with some locals too. Since, we couldn't find a suitable place at the beach to eat dinner with Alex, we went in search of somewhere else. On the way to find a suitable spot, I took a photo of the setting sun. We found Gumbo Yaya. It's a small place with wonderful New Orleans food. Very delicious and worth the search.