Later ’Gator – Huntington Beach State Park, Murrell’s Inlet, SC [November 30 – December 2, 2015]

We first visited Huntington Beach State Park in April 2014, and loved it so much that we decided to return for another visit after we left our rental house in Surfside Beach, just 10 miles away.  Huntington Beach State Park was originally the home of Archer Huntington, scholar and philanthropist, and his sculptor wife Anna Hyatt Huntington.  They loved nature and built their house Atalaya based upon Moorish designs on the large and secluded estate.  They created a fresh water pond, where alligators and other fresh water animals thrive, near to the salt water marsh that separates the island from the mainland.  In fact, you can observe the animals in both bodies of water along a causeway that separates the two.

We took a 2 mile bicycle ride around the freshwater pond and got to watch an alligator moving around, and a baby alligator basking on a small island.  Interestingly in both cases, birds swam or waded near to them.  Signage around the pond stated that the wading birds nested near the 'gators because their neighbors ate potential predators.  Both the pond and the marsh had gorgeous vantage points for photographing wildlife.

We also visited Atalaya, the Huntington home.  The home is empty now but the story behind it was fascinating.  It was built during the Depression, and the Huntington’s hired local workers for the construction providing employment for many families in the area.  The house is eccentric yet casual and unpretentious.  We were happy to see that there is a designated oyster room set aside for shucking oysters and processing other seafood.  Interestingly, Anna Hyatt Huntington sculpted animals, and so kept a menagerie of bears, dogs, horses and other animals for her to observe in life.  The audio tour was fascinating and worth the extra $4.

And, of course, the park has a gorgeous, wide, 3-mile long, white sand beach.  We didn't do everything we hoped to do, so we will just have to return!

Thanksgiving in Surfside Beach SC [November 22-30, 2015]

Surfside Beach SC is a lovely community and beach town located south of Myrtle Beach and north of Charleston.  It has a lovely beach that is narrow at high tide and spacious at low tide, and a nice pier.  There was a full moon while we were there, and so we saw very high King Tides on several nights. 

The houses along the beach vary from older one story beach houses to cracker box identical newly built beach homes.  However, we did not see anything like the enormous beach villas that you can find at OBX.  Away from the shoreline, the homes look more like houses you would find in any neighborhood in any town.  The town has several small lakes that collect rain water and drain by way of canals to the ocean.  You use bridges to cross the canals as you walk along the beach.

We found Surfside when we were looking for a more southern beach location for our annual Thanksgiving beach house vacation.  Coincidentally, our neighbors own a home there as well and were able to direct us to the grocery store and seafood market – Fishmongers.  The house we rented was 2 blocks from the pier.  It was different for us to be staying “downtown” with a handful of shops, restaurants and bars within walking distance.  We had a good lunch at Bubba’s Fish Shack – Russ had an oyster po-boy, Dana had Carolina BBQ.

Our house was an older beach house with a huge central room, and spacious bedrooms crammed full of multiple beds.  It has a porch overlooking the beach with comfy rockers for sitting and enjoying the parade of beach walkers.  Our view included daily gorgeous sunrises.

The weather was glorious with temperatures each day reaching the mid-70’s.  We were joined by Leslie, Natalie and Daisy (their dog) for the long holiday weekend.  Together, we spent many sun-drenched hours walking on the beach, playing with the dogs, or just reading a good book on the beach.  We also cooked and ate a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, fished, swam, played cards and completed a jig saw puzzle.  A wonderful beach Thanksgiving vacation.