Augusta

Along with our visit to Aiken, we also went to nearby Augusta, GA, home of the Masters Golf Tournament. (Tiger Woods, fellow Stanford alum, won the Masters in April with a dramatic chip-in on the 16th hole and a clutch birdie on the first playoff hole to edge Chris DiMarco for the championship.) As with many old cities, Augusta has been working on revitalizing their downtown area. We enjoyed taking a stroll along Augusta Riverwalk, and checking out the local shops and restaurants. The suburb of North Augusta, SC, is located across the Savannah River. We drove a ways out into the more rural area to have lunch at Mount Vintage Plantation.

Aiken

Many of our recent trips have been to places near the coast with beach access. For a change of pace, we thought we'd look inland a bit and explore some places that have never experienced a hurricane. So off we went to Aiken, SC, best known for polo and The Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame. The historic downtown area has many restaurants and shops, but the town is big enough to have some real shopping malls, too, if that's what you're looking for. I played nine holes at The Reserve Club at Woodside Plantation. Lisa rode along with me in the cart and took a few pictures. It was fun to play a nice course with lots of elevation.

Farm Heritage Day

Once again, we attended the Indigo Farms Farm Heritage Day, which features NASPIG pig racing. It's a lot of fun to watch the little piglets race around the track. They also had lots of vintage farm equipment on display. For history buffs, the main attraction was the reenactment of a civil war battle. The South happened to win this one. We celebrated the victory with an ice cream cone.