Friday, February 6, 2009

The Most Beautiful Place On Earth

Yeah, I know, it's been a while. So sue us. The goings-on of our lives seem to be less interesting, so we just sort of quick blogging. I guess all of the new things that fascinated us when we first moved to Georgia quit fascinating us so much. Maybe we became less "foreign" in a "foreign land." Who knows.

But I recently had a trip to Charleston, SC for a conference. I wanted to upload some pics to show off. Maybe this will energize our blogging-ness . . . maybe it won't. Who knows.

On my way to Charleston, I realized I would be going by Augusta National. I knew I would be going to Augusta; but somewhere in east Georgia, I had the thought--I should go take some pics.

I have tried this before. Years ago, on a trip to Charlotte, Lauren and I went by the golf course to see what we could see. Basically all we could see was a sign. It was very disappointing. We went hours out of our way . . . to see a sign.

This time around, I knew what to expect. I actually got some better pics this time around--I found a couple of parking lots across the street from the only entrance. Basically, besides this entrance, if you were driving by, you would have no idea you were driving by a golf course . . . much less quite possibly the most famous, most beautiful golf course in the nation, if not the world.

Above is a pic from a nearby street.

This is the view down the famous, "Magnolia Lane." I always imagined this drive down to the clubhouse to be longer. On one drive by, I peered in and could see the driving range. That thing was unbelievably green for the end of January. I mean, it looked better than most golf courses do . . . any time of the year. B-e-a-utiful.

This is the same view, from a different angle--showing the only marker of the golf course (the aforementioned sign) and a little check-in gate. There is a person there, checking people in and out, I guess. I had the fleeting thought of--I wonder what they would do if I just drove in. I decided not to give that a try.
A street sign of Magnolia Lane. This is the island (Daniel Island) I stayed on in Charleston. Really nice. Really beautiful.

Unfortunately, this was about the only picture I got from Charleston. One night, I drove down into the historic part of town, right around sunset. Our memory card on the camera had just filled up from pics. I did not want to take the time to sift through which pictures to delete and miss the town as the sun went down. So, I just decided to forget the camera and enjoy it all--pictures never really capture the true beauty of things anyway.

That night, like I said, I went into Charleston. It is great. I got to see across the water to Fort Sumter (where the Civil War started), ate at a fabulous restaurant, and got to hang-out in that really cool part of town. The next morning, I woke up early and went down to the beach, just as the sun was coming up over the Atlantic Ocean. I wandered down to a little fort, which I found out was the site of the first American victory of the Revolunationary War and where all the slaves came into the south before the Revolutionary War. It was a really cool moment. Charleston . . . if you ever get the chance to go, you gots to.