Christmas in the Lowcountry

2012-01-04T20:03:00.001-05:00

"Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers, that the mind can never break off from the journey."
-Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides

Annapolis-Avalon-Raleigh-Pawley's Island-Wilmington-Bluffton

My parents have spent the last 30 years migrating up and down the east coast and have settled--so they say--in Bluffton, SC. I usually just say they live in Hilton Head because no one ever knows where Bluffton is. Its in Beaufort County, on the mainland just across the ICWW from Hilton Head, 30 minutes SSW of Beaufort and 30 minutes NNE of Savannah.

I fell in love with the Lowcountry when I first visited them there in December 2007. It is completely different from where I grew up, but breathtakingly beautiful nonetheless. It is old-growth live oaks, tidal marshes, Spanish moss hanging low over the tree-lined drives to gated plantations, the rich organic smell of pluff mud, dolphins strand feeding, blue herons and snowy egrets, oysters, shrimp boats, rivers and islands and beaches and sea.

Sometimes I get very melancholy and homesick for Annapolis and have a hard time accepting that my parents no longer live in the two houses on the Severn River and on Saltworks Creek I grew up in. But Ive come to realize that wherever my family is will always be home to me. I am fortunate to be able to spend 10 days at Christmas with them there every year and I truly believe it is one of the most beautiful places in the world.

*These pictures are from the Palmetto Bluff website. The building pictured is the Inn at Palmetto Bluff in the background with the ruins of the Wilson mansion in the foreground. The Palmetto Bluff website has some breathtaking video and photography and is definitely worth checking out!

Opening lines

2012-01-03T17:51:00.002-05:00

"A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead."
-Graham Greene, The End of the Affair

This is the moment where I begin to tell the stories of my present, my past, and my future.

This is a reprint of my first blog post ever from January 2, 2008. I haven't blogged in several years, but I've missed it and now I'm back. I do have my old blog posts and comments archived, but am keeping them private for now.

I hope you'll want to read my story. Welcome back!

An Annapolitan in Raleigh

Christmas in the Lowcountry

Opening lines