A Little Vay-cay

I REALLY needed this Spring Break - which started Friday. So, like all good teachers, Saturday morning I was pulling out of the driveway for a little vay-cay. Cheesie and Blondie were thrilled because we got to stay in a hotel - their requirement for a holiday. We decided to spend Saturday - Monday at Pawley's Island (Litchfield) down south of Myrtle Beach. We prefer it to the crazy commercial junk in Myrtle - although a little time was spent in that craziness too.

We arrived at Brookgreen Gardens around 1:00 and spent the afternoon walking around the statues. Now, my husband and mom are both VERY addicted to their new cameras (Brian got his for Christmas) and I thought they would enjoy wandering Brookgreen without children. The girls and I brought drinks, snacks, and art supplies so while the "papa-razzi", as we now call Brian, spent hours lost in photographic thought. My kids love drawing at Brookgreen - sometimes they attempt a statue, but most of the time they prefer to draw the flowers. If you haven't been before it is a former plantation that this artist and her husband bought and lived on (as well as the other half that is now across the highway and called Huntington Beach State Park). They created a park for American sculpture and poetry. It is a tremendous place with incredibly ancient oaks. Just off the Oak Allee' is the Children's garden which is my favorite place to be.

The girls and I first attempted the giant trees .

Then headed over to the children's garden. Each girl had a smaller sketchbook, and a larger pad as well as some colored pencils. I think all kids should be exposed to a LOT of nature (No child left inside is a favorite motto of mine), and I encourage parents to check out this blog http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/ as it is a great place to start with kids. I had the same tools in my bag, BUT I had watercolor pencils which are VERY fun. The girls didn't notice the difference until I drew an orange poppy and then dipped my pencil into a fountain to change the pencil into watercolor - Cheesie FLIPPED out, and was soon doing her own. T-Rex enjoyed hanging out and exploring, but drew a lot too.

The girls and I left around 4:30 and went to the hotel to check-in and eat. Brian and my mom were still at the garden, taking pics. Now, a bit of back story.... when I was a kid my mom had taken my sister and I to Brookgreen and told us how when she was a kid there were all these alligators around that you could throw bread to down by a picnic area. She was disappointed to see it gone, but as we walked through the park we came across a field that had a huge alligator in it. For some reason, my mom decided to see how close she could get to it, and as she was sneaking up on it she started laughing because she realized it was stuffed. So, I get a phone call as I"m eating with the girls and Brian is laughing because there was an alligator next to a statue of a woman dipping her foot into a pool of water, and mom had told them about the story of ther aforementioned alligator being stuffed. So he and mom were walking all around this statue and this obviously stuffed alligator taking pictures, and chatting, when all of a sudden Brian almost touched it with his foot and the alligator suddenly shot into the water. He and mom spent a LONG time laughing over that one - me, not laughing so much.

We all ended up at the hotel together after that, and we took the girls down to the ocean. Cheesie doesn't remember going two summers ago (last summer we were more in the DC area than the ocean), so she was VERY excited. It was windy, and cold, but they all insisted on wearing their swimsuits under their clothes. When we got there I told them to roll their pants up, but we weren't swimming because it was evening and cold. They amused themselves for a long while....

until..... SOMEONE had to "ACCIDENTLY" fall in.

Then they all took off their clothes and ran aound in the waves in their swimsuits. They were absolutely shivering when we left, and Blondies' feet were positively purple from the cold, but they had a great time.

I'll post Sunday's activities tomorrow. Have a great week - I know I will.

P.S. If you want to see more pics of Brookgreen check out Brian's photoblog http://www.photoblog.com/dontblink or Mom's http://www.photoblog.com/widcat The pictures on this blog don't do it justice - you can click and enlarge over on their pages.