We were afraid we’d miss our late blooming azaleas while we were in Charleston and Beaufort for almost a week, but they were still beautiful when we got home. Thank you, Lord!

On our final night in Beaufort we walked out on the Marsh Boardwalk to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful way to end a great trip. Here are a couple of pictures.

One final look back as we were leaving Driftwood Beach at Hunting Island State Park. Just beautiful – and sort of otherworldly.

After we finished with our lighthouse climb, there was a really nice little self-guided open air museum about the lighthouse. The footprint of where the keepers’ cottage had once stood was there. It really was interesting to learn as we went along that there were three lightkeepers – the head, and 2 assistants – and all of their families lived in apartments in the same house. The house didn’t look nearly as big once I heard that.

From there we headed down to the other end of the park, to explore the driftwood beach. That was pretty crazy. Wow.

Today Jeff & I spent the day at the state park a couple of islands over from Beaufort. Andrew used to come here every summer with some friends when he was maybe in high school, but we had never been. We had a few minutes to look around the visitor center before time for our reservations at the lighthouse. and I hate we didn’t have time to go back to look at more of the displays.

I wasn’t sure about climbing the lighthouse, but it’s the only one in the state of South Carolina that’s open to the public, so I hated not to. And I’m so glad I did. Beautiful views – even with the wind blowing like crazy. Jeff had to hold on to his hat!

After our family wedding weekend in Charleston, Jeff & I came down to Beaufort to spend a couple of days. We spent a beautiful morning yesterday walking around the town. Loved seeing all the boats gathered at the dock right by the waterfront park.

We stopped for lunch at a little place in town, Luther’s, where we could eat outside – joined by their resident cat. We all were enjoying the beautiful weather.

After Jeff & I had finished doing our touristy thing in Charleston we still had some time to fill before we were to be at Dennis & Cinnamon’s house, and we ran up on a walking trail, so were able to get in some steps. I took this picture as we were walking by the water. It may be a little blurry because I may have still been shaking. I had just startled a hawk that came shooting up out of the woods right beside me, and trust me, he startled me, too. Pretty cool, though – although no picture of that 🙂

Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel, and then had time to kill until we needed to be at Dennis & Cinnamon’s for supper. We headed over to explore the campus at The Citadel. It was a pretty cool place, but I’m not going to lie – Jeff & I had just been talking about The Lords of Discipline, and it sort of creeped me out a little bit.

From there we headed over to the Angel Oak, which I had always wanted to visit, but just never got a chance. Even as crowded as the park was, it really was impressive.

Actually this is only three of her granddaughters – the ones that were at the wedding, except for the bride, of course. I thought this picture turned out so good.