Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge

It's hot and humid, so perfect for a 8 mile hike, right?  We drove down towards Hilton Head, SC for a hike and exploring at the Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge.  It's 4000+ acres of salt marsh, tidal creeks, and forests.  Even though it was hot, it was a really neat place.  They allow bicycles on the trails, so we'd like to go back (when it's cooler) and explore more places.  We walked out to White Point - a 'beach' that's covered with fiddler crabs and even a couple of blue crabs at low tide.  The picture above was at White Point.

The sheer number of fiddler crabs was amazing!  They flowed around like water whenever you walk to get out of your way.

Here's a close up of a couple of them:

At high tide, most of these plants are under water, but we were there at low tide and could explore a bit.  It was mostly firm ground, but occasionally you'd hit a soft spot and sink into yucky brown/black mud.

On the way to White Point we passed lots of birds - ibis, wood storks (!!) they're endangered and really cool!), and other things I couldn't identify.

                                          Wood storks!

                                        
                                           Ibis

                                          And finally, a blue crab on the beach.

Sunset at the beach

We picked up our friend Beth after dinner tonight and headed to Folly Beach to see the waves and check for any erosion from the storm.  The waves weren't very big (3-4 breakers) but they were coming fast, with little space between them and there was a really strong undertow.  Just standing in mid-calf to ankle-deep water you could feel it pulling on you.  It was a beautiful night for a nice long walk though, followed by ice cream! There were a bunch of crazy surfers out there too. 

There was a bit of beach erosion (the posts below are usually buried in sand and grasses), but nothing like they're getting north of here.  Steve snapped this picture with his phone.

Hurricane

The hurricane eye is going to hit North Carolina and we're only expected to get some wind and rain here in Charleston.  The first bands of rain are coming now (at 11 am EST), and it's not bad - definitely windy though.  Tomorrow night we may head to the beach to check out the waves.  On the news this morning they were reporting from Folly Beach and showing some crazy surfers that were out at dawn ready to surf!  That's nuts.

We've been granted an early release at work today, so I'm heading home soon.  If the winds are too bad, I may go pick Steve up so he doesn't have to ride the motorcycle home.

Update at 9:20 pm (EST)...  All is fine here.  The wind and rain bands were pretty minor and seem to largely be over for us now.  We only had a couple batches of rain and wind and there was a very orange sunset tonight.  The weather people are predicting a very hot day tomorrow.  Yay.  I hope North Carolina and those even farther north stay safe. 

Random thoughts

No decision on the hurricane yet and the next weather service update will be soon, at 5 pm EST, I think.  It's looking more and more like it will largely miss Charleston although one of my coworkers offered to let us stay at their place Friday night if we don't leave and are worried about the tree in our yard.

In other hurricane news a local radio personality offered this comparison:  Charleston hurricane evacuation effectiveness (or maybe efficiency?) is analogous to a two-legged cat trying to bury it's poop.  Nice visual, eh?

And in other happy news, someone came along and took away the big tree limb that came down!  From the sawdust evidence they left behind, it looks like they cut it up for firewood.  Now we can cross "cut the tree into 4-ft sections" off of our evening list of chores.  

Just what we need - more wind

Here's to hoping that Hurricane Irene will stay far away from Charleston...the last thing we need is more wind and rain to knock branches out of our tree!

 

The latest predictions aren't so dire - Irene as a Category 1 aiming for GA/SC/NC.  There's plenty of time to get things figured out and see where it's going and whether we'll stay or go.  I say we're leaving if it's a 3 or higher and going to hit SC. 

Domestic bliss

We were so productive today!  We walked the dog, worked out, picked up sticks, mowed the yard, trimmed the potted plants, hand-washed the truck, cleaned the kitchen, made awesome dinner, did three loads of laundry, went swimming at the beach, and then came home to this:
 

This is the second time in about three weeks that we've lost a big branch from the tree.  I think we're going to have to call the landlord and ask to have someone come look at it.  We dragged it down and then Steve cut it in half.  We have no idea if the city people will pick up something this size (they do pick up larger sticks, but this is pretty big).

Steve found this baby skink in the yard while moving.  We put it in the amaryllis plant that is outside. 

Homemade gorgonzola and roasted squash ravioli

I love any sort of squash or sweet potato ravioli.  Steve doesn't.  He thought these were just ok and said he 'wouldn't order them again'.  (haha) I thought they were awesome. The filling was roasted acorn squash, nutmeg, sage, gorgonzola cheese, and a bit of salt.  No single recipe seemed exactly right for what I wanted to make, so I combined what I thought were the best parts of several recipes into the mix of ingredients I used.  The sage and nutmeg together were great. 

I'm nut usually a fan of making food that require fussy, involved preparation, so making ravioli (or spring rolls or pot stickers) isn't something I do often.  As you can see in the picture below, our assembly technique improved as we worked...the early raviolis (on the bottom) were pretty ugly.  Steve was a huge help with the pasta machine though, he cranked the rollers and helped feed the dough while I caught it coming out and make sure it didn't stick to itself or the counter (I admit that we had to throw a few away before we figured out that part).  Once we filled enough for dinner (it was getting pretty late at this point), we stopped, cooked them in boiling water, then tossed them with a bit of butter and garlic sauce.  Yum.

Cure for a bad day

Steve had a rough day at work, so we went to Folly Beach this evening to relax.  Several powerful thunderstorms had rolled through today, so it was cooler but still humid, and the breeze at the beach was fantastic.  I think all of the storms chased the tourists away because the beach was pretty empty, which was fine with us!  Somebody must have worked long and hard on this sand castle (? - there were designs drawn in the sides, but maybe castle is a stretch...).

Steve found an awesome shark tooth and a large titanium ring in the surf (like the kind that might be a wedding band...bummer for whomever lost it).  Bad day at work?  What bad day?  :)  He was pretty excited about his treasures. 

 One of the local beach visitors.

Went for a ride. Saw some stuff.

 
We took the motorcycle out for a spin today, swinging south to Edisto Beach and making a trip through Botany Bay on the way.  It was nice when we started out - temps in the low 80s.  By the time we got home it was almost 100 and I was cranky. 

There were so many mosquitoes at Botany Bay that when I stopped to take this picture of a huge garden spider along the road, Steve sat on the bike with his helmet on and face shield down to keep them at bay (despite the heat).  I took the picture with my helmet on as well...I was afraid I would be sucked dry if I left any skin exposed.  She was big - about the size of my thumb.  I think those are males around her, but I'm not 100% sure.
 

Lazy Saturday

This morning I remembered why I do sometimes like Charleston - the historic downtown area is fabulous. Despite the heat and the oppressive humidity, walking downtown is awesome.  There's gorgeous architecture, flowers blooming almost all year, secret courtyards, great people watching, and so much history.

Steve is thinking about entering a 10 mile adventure race this winter.  Doing so means having to actually get on some sort of regular running regimen.  To that end, we headed downtown, parked the truck and set off in separate directions...Steve went for a run, and I went for a power walk.  We met 45 minutes later at the bagel shop on King Street for some grub.  As I walked, I thought about what I would do if I wanted to plan the perfect 3-day trip to Charleston.  What would I see?  Where would I eat? (especially if I didn't have a budget limit - Charleston has fantastic restaurants)  I didn't get very far in my musings, too many uneven sidewalks to let my mind wander much, but I did decide that I should put together the perfect plan, then do it and take pictures to share with everyone. 

As a starter, here's a few of my favorite places, and my own fantasy world.  This courtyard is somewhere downtown, only visible for a moment as you walk past the gate.  I probably couldn't find it again without some serious effort canvasing the streets.  I can imagine sitting out here for breakfast on a cool, lazy April morning...

This house, on the other hand, is much more visible.  It's the entryway to one of the huge mansions down by the Battery.  This is where my butler would pick up our morning paper, before delivering it with my breakfast in bed.

Or maybe I'd live in the top floors of this old house, where I could have a reading nook in that peaked window.

Then this would be the alley that runs out from my own private courtyard.  Even in summer, it would still be shady and cool(ish).

Georgia on my mind

This past weekend Steve and I did a short (one night) backpacking trip to Tallulah Gorge, Georgia with the Meetup group.  Tallulah Gorge is where the "Flying Wallendas" did a famous walk across the canyon without any safety gear, setting a new Guinness world record.  We didn't actually get a great look at the Gorge, or make the hike to the river at the bottom, but it was a beautiful area.

As we were getting our backcountry permits, the park ranger was telling us to expect bears and coyotes, making is sound like they were going to be practically in out campsite.  We didn't see or hear either, which was a little disappointing.  There were 8 of us on the trip - four of whom hadn't ever been backpacking before.  It was really fun, despite the heat (mid-90s during the day) and a big thunderstorm on Saturday afternoon.  We were camped about 100 yards above a gorgeous, secluded lake, so we went swimming to beat the heat and wash off some of the trail grime.

There was a permanent shelter at the backcountry site, with a raised floor, roof, and three walls.  It came in very handy as we sat out the late afternoon storm and roasted marshmallow peeps over the camp stove.  Because it was still pretty warm outside and there was little level ground to be found, most of us slept in the shelter without tents.  I was really surprised that the bugs (mosquitos or anything else creepy and crawly) didn't attack us at all that night.  We had a blast, and it was nice to get outside in the "wild" for even a short trip.  I hope we can do more trips like it this fall as the weather cools down a bit.

Here's a few more pictures...Tori, Gina, and Louella taking a break in the shelter to avoid the rain.  They are all from Savannah and hadn't been backpacking before.  They were really fun and I hope we see them on another trip sometime.

Steve, preparing for surgery  peep roasting.

Our new friend Beth digging into a freshly roasted peep.