Beaches

Lots of clouds this morning so no sunrise on the beach.   Had some really great French Toast at a hole in the wall diner just up from the condo where we stayed.    On our way out of Edisto Beach we stopped at Edisto Beach State Park.  We walked on the beach here just to see what we could see (and have that one last walk on the beach).    The first thing was a loggerhead turtle nest marked off!   There were several nests all along this beach.   I wish we could have seen the babies hatching.    And the beach was covered with thousands of shells as the tide was going out.  This was the most shells I had seen in a long time.  I found a conch shell that was not damaged and had to bring it home.  Then there was a whole blue crab which was bigger than my two hands together.        You can see the shells, the roped off turtle nest area and the crab in the collage.

The dead tree and the shell on the stump are at Botany Bay Wildlife area where we drove to next to walk on that beach but also hoping to spot some egrets or herons in the marsh on the walk out to the beach.     The beach was narrow as it has been eroded and changed by various hurricanes in the past couple of years.     Botany Bay is noted for its dead trees on the beach as the ocean encroaches on the forests that used to be there.  There were also shells here...placed on the trees and stumps.  The last two photos are of one of the trees on the beach and a beautiful shell.  

 We were glad to get back to the car as it was hot and so humid with the heat bothering both of our ankles!   

So we decided to check out a distillery on the way to the restaurant we were going to eat before going home!     Tasted a few flavors and one bottle came home!     Then food and the 2 hour drive home.

In the extra collage, the first photo is the dirt road going in to Botany Bay..sunshiny and beautiful.   The second photo is going out this same road an hour and a half later!   A good decision to leave when we did!        

  
And the ankle did great.  Walked a total of 2.9 miles today.    

A long, long day as I did not get home until almost 9pm.   Will try to catch up and look at journals tomorrow as I think I need a lazy day at home!