Bee City, Cottageville, South Carolina

Today we continued our search for the neatest small zoos and petting farms in America by heading down to Cottageville, South Carolina.

First we stepped out of the Knight and were greeted by this cute little fellow.

Then we headed to Bee City, USA in the small town of Cottageville...a small town with a huge population.

The retirement project of E. A. Biering provides both kids and adults alike a neat, inexpensive way to while away half the day.

If you or your children like to feed animals hands-on, you will most definitely like Bee City.

No...that is not an exotic variety of bee Doug is feeding.

Mother and children look longingly at our monkey-o's, which look eerily similar to a popular cereal shaped like the letter "o".

Give me an "o"!

This monkey is trained to work hard for his monkey-o's. Every time someone places one in his bucket, he has to reel it in.

Marlon offers a tasty morsel to his new friend. We decided to take this one home as a pet.

We were thinking about eating in the Bee City Cafe when we saw this 3-piece chicken dinner special.

We passed on the special and found these little chicks running around the coop.

This emu wasn't interested in monkey-o's. It wanted to stick its head in our cup of food pellets, so we let it.

Bucky beaver wanted to eat some pellets too. We recommended a dentist for the poor guy's underbite.

This baby horse was not interested in pellets, but was looking for a little stability.

Next, we ran into this little band playing some swamp music.

Even the fish were dancing.

Look closely and you can see Baby Wallaby in its mother's pouch.

This serval is a wild cat of the African Savannah (not the Georgian Savannah).

What would Bee City be without...well, bees?!

What would Bee City be without...well, buildings?!

What would Bee City be without...well, a video?!
For more pictures of Bee City, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/may/bee-city-and-edisto/ pictures 1-88.

To be continued...

Big Water Resort, Summerton, South Carolina

Today we arrived at Big Water Resort in Summerton, South Carolina just north of the town of Santee on Lake Marion (Marion...not Marlon).

The resort had nice pull-through spots with plenty of room for the car and small enough trees to present no problems.

If you ever visit, try a game of miniature golf.

Take an hour and sweat off some calories in the workout room.

There's a nice outdoor pavilion for picnics or large group activities.

Members of the resort can rent a park model for their stay.

The laundry room is located in the same building as the bathrooms and showers. This area appears to be permanently open to the weather.

The swimming pool and clubhouse are on the shores of Lake Marion.

The new resort features a clubhouse with a nice wooden deck for relaxation.

The swimming pool area features a lazy river complete with other water toys.

Marlon's favorite thing about the resort was definitely the lazy river.

The big fish shaped pool will soon be joined by another pool, currently under construction.

Doug's favorite thing is getting doused by VERY cold water.

The resort has facilities to clean your fish if you are lucky to make a catch.

Big Water Resort is a very nice new addition to the Coast to Coast Camping network.

For a 35-second (!) video of the resort, click below.

For more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/may/big-water-rv-resort/ .

To be continued...

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

Today we visited Hilton Head Island to bicycle some of the Island's nearly 50 miles of public pathways and nature trails.

First we tried the beach...fun but hard work.

We found some wildlife on the beach. Lots of lots of jellyfish.

We started our bicycle ride on Hilton Head's Pathways at Chaplin Park.

The public trails often look like this...nice and shady.

They often have furry creatures hopping around on them too.

The trail we were on led us to this skate park where Marlon demonstrated some skateboarding maneuvers.

Doug could barely stand on this rail in shoes...let alone on a skateboard.

Our trail took us up the Cross Island Parkway, a toll bridge, right beside the traffic.

A view of Broad Creek as we stop on the bridge.

After about 18 miles, it's time for a drink.

We found some more wildlife along the pathway who agreed to pose long enough for a picture...

For a brief video of our bike ride on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, click below. For more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/may/hilton-head-island/ .

To be continued...

Savannah National Wildlife Refuge

Today we drove just a few minutes down the road to the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive which is part of the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge includes portions of 13 former rice plantations.
We found some wildlife here at the Wildlife Refuge. Imagine that!

Here is an alligator head.

Can you find the wildlife in this picture?

We found a cave man who dressed in a fashion popular in the 1980's.

We found some birds who appeared ready to attack like those in that old movie.

We found an alligator butt.

We were able to sneak up on this turtle and snap a few shots before he ran away.

We got to the refuge about an hour before the gate would close...shocking for us. So we did not get to ride our bicycles...also shocking for us. But we did have transportation in case our car was disabled.

Gotta get out fast now. The gate will automatically close any minute now.

The refuge had a lot of lily pad type things in the water.

The last wildlife we saw that day...

We decided to take them home as pets.

For more pictures, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/may/savannah-national-w/ .

To be continued...

Parris Island Pt. 2 and Beaufort, South Carolina

Next we headed down Parris Island's History and Nature Trails and found a few items of interest.

These are the remains of a Brewster Buccaneer Scout Bomber which crashed in 1943 near Page Field. Both crewmen survived the crash.

Marlon gives up...he can't read Spanish.

Little does he notice that the bottom half of the sign is in English and says it is a tribute to the Spaniards who made their mark here between 1566 and 1587.

We found this rattlesnake along the trail and decided to take it home as a pet.

In the mud on Parris Island you'll see and hear thousands of creepy little fiddler crabs. They eat delicious decaying plant and animal matter sifted from sand and mud.

The lighthouse keeper used to live here.

We came across this bird and decided to take it home as a pet.

Recruits were training on the rifle range...

but still not training on the obstacle course. This obstacle course is called Leatherneck Square.

This is a tribute to all past and present, nice and mean, Marine Corps drill instructors.

This familiar monument commemorates the 1945 flag raising at Iwo Jima.

This version, constructed of coated plaster, was used to raise money for the much larger bronze version erected in Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

A brief video of Parris Island...

Next we took a short drive to nearby Beaufort, South Carolina (that's "byew-furt", not to be confused with Beaufort "bo-furt", North Carolina).

There we found this church, the First African Baptist, which originated in 1863.

We found the house used as the setting for the 1983 baby boomer movie "The Big Chill" starring Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly and JoBeth Williams.

The same house was also used in the 1979 film "The Great Santini".

Finally, we located this house which was used in the filming of the 1991 Barbra Streisand-Nick Nolte feature "The Prince of Tides".

For more pictures of items in this entry, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/may/parris-island-and-b/ pictures 46-96.

To be continued...