Another Personal Best

I shot a 92 in golf today, my personal best. My handicap is down to 26. I'm slowly making progress.

Night of a Thousand Candles

We attended one of our favorite Christmas events: The Nights of a Thousand Candles at Brookgreen Gardens. Pianist Rocky Fretz was the featured performer in the big tent where he played some jazzy versions of traditional Christmas songs. Other entertainment included Christmas carolers dressed in Dickensian costumes and a handbell choir from the First Presbyterian Church of Myrtle Beach. The paths through the sculpture gardens were lined with candles and several ponds had floating luminaries, creating an enchanting effect. It's a wonderful event. Dinner and refreshments are also available. Fridays and Saturdays from December 2 through December 17.

Bertie wins Longest Ears contest

Our dogs go to Seaside Animal Care in Calabash. Dr. Ernest Ward hosts an annual Open House with treats for the dogs and the owners. This year, Bertie won the Longest Ears contest. Fortunately, it was a category that did not require any talent. Our little boy is a champion.

Golf

On Monday, I got lucky and won a bottle of fine Australian Chardonnay for being closest to the pin among our group of twenty golfers. I also had a nice chip in from about 15 yards out. Yesterday, I shot my personal best 93 in a round that had five pars and remarkably no penalty strokes. It's the first time I've ever managed to get in 18 holes without knocking one in the water or out of bounds.

Travel Update

I've been remiss in failing to keep our readers updated on our travels. During the last couple of months, Lisa and I have taken several short trips to various places within a comfortable day's driving distance. I've added a few back-posted entries to cover those trips. If you're a daily reader, scroll down in case you missed something.

Joy Bisby

We note the passing of Lisa's mother's dear friend, Joy Bisby, in Sheffield, England. "Auntie" Joy was like a surrogate mother to Lisa. She will be missed. Our condolences to Joy's daughter, Gillian and her family.

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.

Hilton Head

We spent a couple of days on Hilton Head, staying at The Marriott. We were late in the season, but had good weather and enjoyed our last chance to swim in the ocean. We also visited the world-famous Tiki Hut, a beach bar popular with local volleyball players.

Update: Tropical Storm Tammy (Oct 2005) damaged the roof at the Tiki Hut. Until repairs can be completed, bar manager Derek Cassidy says "We're going to go topless."

DeBordieu

We had a nice overnight stay at The DeBordieu Colony on the South Carolina coast, near Georgetown. The ocean was still warm enough to swim in. They have lots of alligators in their ponds so you have to keep your eyes open when you're zooming around in a golf cart.

Savannah trip

We just got back from spending a couple of nights in Savannah. We enjoyed a nice afternoon at the beach on Tybee Island. There were a couple of dolphins swimming near the shore, but I didn't manage to get close enough for a free ride. After frolicking in the waves, we had ice cream cones on the pier. Just as we got back into our car, a huge downpour drenched the area. We drove around for the next 20 minutes in heavy rain, and were quite proud of our (unusually) good timing. We stayed at The DoubleTree Hotel in historic downtown Savannah. For dinner, we chose a local tapas restaurant called Jazz'd, which featured live Jazz. The food turned out to be pretty good, especially after a couple of martinis. The next night, we went to Churchill's Pub, mostly because I liked the name and we were pretty exhausted from touring around town. A pint or two of Guinness was just what the doctor ordered. On the way home from Savannah, we diverted up the coast to the Charleston area, and visited The Isle of Palms beach park. They have a very nice marina and beach there, and I'm sure we'll come back someday for a longer stay.

Visitors from England

Lisa's friends from England came to stay with us for a few days. Richard and Lisa are old friends from their Oxford days, and Lorraine was Richard's girlfriend. They're married now, with two children: Rebekah, 7, and Matthew, 5. We were glad that they were able to visit us during their big trip to the States. Disneyland may have been the highlight of the trip, but Calabash was no doubt a close second! We had some nice days at the beach, in between thunderstorms. Richard and I played a couple of rounds of golf. I was thoughtful enough to offer Richard some sunblock while we were waiting on the third tee. I guess his hands were still a bit slippery as he teed off — the club flew nearly as far as the ball. The kids really enjoyed minigolf, playing three rounds in as many days. We also saw the alligators and other animals at Alligator Adventure, and sighted dolphins during our cruise on Sea Thunder. It was quite the "family fun" holiday, as they say.

Mary and Bridget

Carolyn sent us some pictures of our goddaughters: Mary (left, age 7) and Bridget (almost 5). Click the pictures for larger versions from Flickr.

Closest to the pin

Today, I shot a personal best 95 at our local golf course. I also managed to win the closest to the pin contest among the Wednesday group of seven foursomes by landing my tee shot on Magnolia 7 about three feet from the hole. The prize was an award-winning homemade bottle of Merlot (thanks, Bob). Even more importantly, I sank the birdie putt. My first birdie!