Now THIS is a tree!

 I should have known that the idea of keeping a blog diary of our travels with the goal of one entry every 2-3 days was going to get away from me, as it has.  Brace yourselves - this will be a long post.

We left Charleston on Sunday, Feb. 26, after spending Friday and Saturday exploring more of Charleston and spending some "down-time" just relaxing and walking the beach by Nancy and Lynn's rented condo.  On our way out of the area, Nancy and Lynn accompanied us to visit a very special tree owned by the City of Charleston, but situated some distance from the heart of the city.  "The Angel Oak" or "Angel Tree" is an ancient and massive live oak tree, with branches spreading in a wide arc around the main trunk, those branches touching the ground.  See more about it and more
 pictures here: http://www.angeloaktree.org/history.htm.  Standing under this magnificent tree, you feel as though you are truly in the embrace of the ages - it is stunning! Here are a couple of photos from our visit, including one of my hand holding one of the tiniest acorns I've ever seen - that is what this tree grew from!  The redwoods of California are certainly much taller, but this oak is magnificent!

Our intent had been to move on next to St. George Island State Park on the Gulf Coast of FL, but when we arrived they had no sites available, so we wound up at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park about an hour away.  This has turned into a happy "second choice" since the park is beautifully maintained, the campground quiet with fairly secluded campsites, and a 9 mile beach the likes of which I have never seen; growing up playing on the shores of Lake Michigan, I thought I knew beautiful beaches, but this one is in a class by itself!  I've heard of Florida's white sand beaches of course, but this is the first time I've walked on sand that looked and felt as if I'm walking barefoot in sugar!  While here, we have just relaxed, walked, eaten some excellent fresh seafood, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!  This morning we went for a two hour beach walk in a fairly dense fog, which lent the surroundings a bit of a surreal quality - absolutely stunning!  In one of the photos that follow, John looks like he is standing in snow - he is not - this was taken in a beautiful section of white-sand dune going to the beach.   Those of you who know my passion for picking up beach stones will understand my unbridled joy at the shelling available on this beach - even more fun than the stones and a fraction of the weight to carry back!  : )

Grasses writing in the sand

This little guy followed within feet of us for about 20 min.

A sheller's delight!

So far our little "Silver Spirit" has been the perfect size and configuration for this kind of trip, and we have found lots to encourage us to do this again in the near future, no reason to think that this is not totally workable.  While 23' of living space may seem tiny compared to the homes we are all used to, it works for us for this kind of travel, and works well! The other day a couple of other Airstream owners stopped by to chat, and we learned that they live full-time in their 19' Airstream and have done so for the last 5 years.  They used to live in a 16' Airstream Bambi, until that was wrecked in an accident, at which time they "moved up" to the 19 footer.  Clearly these lovely folks live without accumulating all the things that we have done, and while it works for them, I love the memories associated with many of the objects we have collected over the years that remind us of family history, of heritage, or just great times spent with loved ones, and am not yet willing to part with all that.  Also, I am puzzled as to where I would store all my beach finds and sewing "stash" if we were to downsize to the extent that these people did.  (tee-hee)