South...

After a week of reconnections in the great city of Baltimore, I boarded the Amtrak at Penn Station headed down the coast to South Carolina (whoo-wooo), where the trees are grand and old, the land is flat flat flat and the air is thick with heat and history. (It wasn't actually THAT hot while I was there, but it was deliciously warm and the air does have a sultry, bayou, low-country quality to it...) Molly and John have been there just a year and have done a great job of finding some spectacular nooks and crannies to explore.

We checked out the Brookgreens Garden... The grounds of an old rice plantation turned sculpture garden/arboretum.



We spent an afternoon at Huntington beach. Piers, like this one, have been a reoccurring theme in the long history of our friendship.... (or maybe its just inevitable when you hang out with a biologist who loves the water... :)
... Ah yes, the brilliant Dr. L always hunting up fascinating things to show us...
like this itty bitty little crab fella
and this sea urchin-- slightly put out perhaps at the indignity of having his underbelly inspected by three oogling pairs of eyes-- or do they always just flail their little prickles so...? Dr. L? Ah yes, and notice the little tiny tips of some of the bottom-most prickles, split further for pinching and grabbing hold.... Crazy little buggers!
Oh, and check out this huge half-eaten fish head we stumbled upon...

What a day... walking on the beach, falling asleep in the warm sunshine and stopping for yummy pizza on the way home...

We spent another day canoeing up a river just out of town... with these old swampy Cypress trees that tuck their 'knees' up around themselves because of (?) the constant up and down of the water levels. (if you look closely-- those pointy, stumpy things at the base of the trees... are their knees. You can also see the dark line on the trees, where the water level was up to earlier in the season )

Cooling off in the river on a sultry south carolina summer afternoon....


Molly and I picked some delectable strawberries for the strawberry/rhubarb pie we had a hankering for after our soul food dinner of shrimp and grits. They sure don't mess around! Mmmm...
Thanks Molly and John for such a spectacular long weekend... your lovely little home, goofy little dog and delicious hospitality...