All's Well If It Ends Well At Folly Beach, South Carolina

6:50

7:00

7:05

7:06

7:09

7:12

It's 6:30 and I am sitting on my bed, waiting to walk down to the beach to catch the sunrise at 7:04.  It's a chilly 52º outside so I will need a fleece and will warm up to only 65º later in the day.  Bert's Grocery, about five minutes from our cottage, and on the way to the beach, is open 24 hours a day and serves free coffee twenty four hours a day.  We stopped in last night and it's a cool place, nice people so we will frequent it for sure, getting sub sandwiches for our lunches.  Well, I am back from the beach, witnessed the sunrise on a perfectly clear sky, empty beach, and it was so different from the lake because there's no shoreline to climb above, just the ocean.

Yesterday's drive from Statesville to Charleston, then Folly Beach seemed long, as rides always do when you are anxious to get somewhere.  And we met the traffic jam which was mentioned on the radio but our GPS fortunately sent us around it so we did not have to sit long.  We were aiming to go to the Central Market in Charleston early afternoon, plugged in the address on both the GPS and Evie's Waze and it took us somewhere in the boondocks, nowhere near the city.  So that was a frustration, so I plugged in the address for a recommended restaurant, near the Navy Docks, and we found out it was in the center of town, parked our car and walked up the street and lo and behold, the Central Market was right in front of us.  So we walked in, thinking it would be a neat food market but it was filled with stalls of mostly junk that tourists might buy, a real disappointment.  C'est la vie.

Charleston's Custom House

Oyster House

We walked around downtown Charlestown, the snow birds, me with a flannel shirt and windbreaker while all the tourists we in shorts, tee shirts, and flip flops.  We really fit in.  When we got tired of walking, of seeing one restaurant or bar after another, little else along East Bay Street, we stopped at a roaring bar called Pearlz Oyster Bar, found a seat at the window, overlooking the street and had some lunch, homemade chips and dip, a shrimp and corn chowder, and a couple of beers.  It was loud, with filled with runners from the Cooper Bridge 10 K which draws up to 30,000 participants. No wonder every venue seemed crowded.  This seems to be the modus operandi around here because everywhere we went, it was like this.

Big Turtle Cottage

Big Turtle Enclosed Patio

We headed off to Folly Island around 3:15, a a twenty minute drive out to the island, down to the ocean front.  My GPS said take a left at Hudson, Evie's Waze said a right.  Left was right.  Our cottage is quite quaint, lovely from the outside, two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bath with two private patios and an additional shower outside.  Old fashion but much better than a sterile hotel room.  We quickly settled in and explored the town, about four blocks away.  It was really hopping because of the warm weather and being a weekend.  It's a typical beach town, kind of a leftover surfer dude look, with run down looking bars and restaurants and tee shirt tops.  We quickly tired of it, went down to the beach, lots of people enjoying themselves, a couple of volleyball games going on, and we walked for a half hour, heading back because it was getting windy.

Folly Beach Pier

We relaxed at our cottage with a beer and watched the first half of the basketball game, then went into town to watch the second half.  We could not find a spot in Rita's, where we hoped to eat, so ended up finding a place at the bar at Snapper Jacks's and were able to watch the game.  Evie finally got her dozen oysters, fresh and tasting of salt water and I had boiled shrimp.  We ended up talking with a couple of guys and a gal from Columbia, down for the weekend, again, friendly and outgoing.  And as we left a huge group of guys came in, mostly from New York state, ready to cheer on Syracuse. Unfortunately, we were just leaving but it would have been fun to watch the game with this group.

Dusk (by Evie)

Dusk From Folly Beach Pier (by Tom)

We decided to walk out on the amazing Folly Beach pier,  1094 feet long, 24 feet wide, with seats, swings, benches for fishing and tubs for cleaning fish, a great attraction.  It was an amazing dusk on the ocean, even though the sun had set.  We took lots of photographs, walked out to the end, nearly got blown over by the wind and headed back.  We decided to have a beer and get something else to eat, tried Rita's again, no go and ended up at a bar I had read about where the locals go, the Surf Bar, right up my alley.  It was packed and noisy but we found a table, had beers and ahi tuna tacos.  It was my kind of place and we will be back but last night it was so loud we could hardly hear the game.  People try to speak up over the roar and only contribute to it.

Surf Bar

We headed home and heard music at literally a guys backyard, called Chico Feo, with a cooler filled with beer, hung lights and benches and chairs with cushions.  We went into the yard, ordered a Corona, and listened to two guitars and a violin play all kinds of music.  They were fun to watch and listen to, especially the female violinist.

Our Music Venue

Back Yard Music Venue

A great way to almost end the night.  We ended the night at Bert's Grocery, which I mentioned in the first paragraph. We browsed for ten minutes, talked with the clerks and other shoppers, picked up a few things and went home and watched the second half of the North Carolina game before going to bed.

All's well that ends well.