Enjoying Our Time in the Highs and Lows of SC

For the last two weekends, Paul and I have been enjoying the "highs and lows" of South Carolina. What does that mean? Simply that one weekend was spent in the higher mountains in the area and one weekend was spent in the flat marshlands bordering the ocean. :) As always, South Carolina never fails to make us happy and both experiences were amazing.

The first weekend:
*We knew that we wanted to go up to some of the higher mountains in our area when the leaves started changing colors. What better way to truly appreciate the coming of the Fall Season than by looking out at tree-covered mountains bathed in reds, golds, and greens? We tried to go up to Caesar's Head State Park to do this fall-viewing adventure for two weekends in a row and both weekends that plan failed. Both times something came up that made us do other adventures instead. I think that was God's way of saying: 'Don't worry, I'll let you go there when it's perfect!' The weekend we finally got to go to Caesar's Head, the weather was amazing (sunny and warm!) and the leaf colors were the best they could be. It was too beautiful to truly capture in pictures, but here is one of my favorites:

It was the best way to appreciate Fall. I have never had such an amazing Fall experience before. After the views, we went on a hike that we had done in Spring when we were still contemplating moving to Upstate SC. As before, it was a splendid hike full of secret waterfalls and other delights. This time, we went a little bit farther on the trail and scrabbled off-path to see this stunning waterfall:

I think this twisted tree in the picture makes the waterfall even more magical and pretty looking. :) We also intentionally went to Caesar's Head State Park to see our Fall Colors because they have something that goes on every Fall Season called the 'Hawk Watch'. Apparently, during October and November, hawks and some eagles from the north migrate down south and always stop at Caesar's Head for a rest. Some days you can see thousands of hawks in the sky at the same time! So we went and eagerly hoped to see this awesome sight. At first, we saw no hawks. We were bummed and went off on our hike with a bit of disappointment. However, we decided to go back to the overlook for another try after our hike. Again, we were not seeing any hawks. Then I noticed a guy staring off in one direction with some binoculars. We looked in the same direction and BOOM! there were at least 30 hawks in the sky. It was a really cool sight and we left our mountains feeling very satisfied and happy.

The second weekend:
*We went to Hunting Island State Park on Hunting Island near Beaufort and on the ocean. It was a really cool campground and if we had reserved a site earlier, we could have had a tent right next to the ocean! However, there was a hurricane brewing about 300 miles offshore, so it was really windy and the waves were HUGE, so I am kinda glad that our sight wasn't that close to the ocean this time. :) We plan to always camp near the ocean in the fall because it's one of the best times to catch huge shrimp, crabs, and fish. However, with the hurricane making a ruckus, we ended up only catching crabs and we bought fish and shrimp (for a cheap price!) before we left. Oh well! There are always other years. Anyway, Paul had read about how you can cook crabs right on the fire coals, so we gave it a try and it was so much fun (and delicious) that we had crabs on the fire every night! Here's a delicious picture:

This was a great way to eat crab while camping. We also decided to go to an 'all-you-can-eat' crab legs restaurant while we were in town because it was a good price for such an amazing feast. It was awesome. However, by the time we left, we were ready to be done with crab-eating for a while. :) It was a beautiful time on the ocean. The moon was full and bright, the palm trees made the trip seem tropical, and Paul found me some sand dollars on the beach!

We had a relaxing time full of fishing and eating and walking the beaches, and we look forward to going back again some time in the Spring.

South Carolina is still making us pretty happy when it comes to scenery and activities. The only thing that could make our lives happier would be having visitors! We would seriously LOVE to have people visit us! Come thrive in this heavenly paradise with us!

We still look forward to seeing family and friends at Christmas time. Until then, stay classy...

~Cris and Paul