What I did on my early Summer Vacation

I went home for my birthday  last week. This means that I went to Columbia SC where my parents live now. It was great to be able to sleep late and not have to be bound to a time schedule. On Sunday I got to go and worship with my parents at their church. This is the first time I have done this since 1996. WOW! It was fun standing beside my Dad and singing harmony with him. We kept changing parts that we were singing to see if the other could keep up. ha! I really enjoyed that time. It is amazing how a simple thing such as this can bring such joy. Now if only my brother had been there it would have been perfect. Oh well. He was preaching at his church.  On Monday we set off for Myrtle Beach. The wind, sand, and waves!! When we finally crossed the river and I saw the dunes....it was magical! All the memories of playing at the beach in NC when I was a child came back to me. Building forts and magical castles. We also liked to jump waves and see who could get "under" the wave and come out on the back side. That was a lot of fun. Of course that also meant MANY times missing going under the wave and getting cau

ght IN it. Saltwater up your nose is definitely  NOT fun. 

While we were at the beach we headed to a "castle" of sorts

named Atalaya.This is located at Murrell's inlet. This was built in the 30's by the Huntington's. It is a unique home fashioned after the moorish castles on the coast of Spain. It was incredible to imagine living in this place so close to the ocean. I was envious thinking of waking up to the sounds of the surf pounding the shore every morning. Which is exactly what they did. Of course in the 30's the dunes weren't in place and they had a terrific view of the coast. Today the dunes mar ones ability to see the shore line. But you can still hear it :-).

Wednesday we started the trek through the state parks.  In particular revolutionary war parks. 

Yes I am a history nerd. I admit it. I don't understand all the battle strategies. I just find their struggles,victories and strategy intriguing. I also grew up

 surrounded by this type of living history so it brings a bit of nostalgia back as well. The first place we visited was Ninety Six. Ninety Six was established in the early 1700s. It derived

its name from the mistaken belief that it was 96 miles to the nearest Cherokee settlement of Keowee. The first land battle of the Revolution south of New England was fought there in 1775, and in 1780 the British fortified the strategically important frontier town. From May 22 to June 18, 1781 Major General Nathanael Greene, with 1,000 patriot troops, staged the longest (yet unsuccessful) siege of the Revolutionary War against the 550 American Loyalists who were defending Ninety Six. 

The next day we visited with the Cowpens national park. But it was a sad waste of time. Such an important battle : it was the site of The Only Double Envelopment in the American Revolution and was led by General Daniel Morgan. The Battle of Cowpens  January 17, 1781, took place in the latter part of the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution and of the Revolution itself. It became known 

as the turning point of the war in the South, part of a chain of events leading to Patriot victory at Yorktown The Cowpens victory was won over a crack British regular army  and brought together strong armies and leaders who made their mark on 

history. But the park had little to see other than fields and markers.  We did walk the trails and see a very long and ominous looking black snake. We kindly sidestepped his attention and kept on walking. Albeit a little hurriedly. And just a reminder, Daniel Morgan and his family were the focus of the Mel Gibson film entitled The Patriot.