Spring, so close, yet so far away....

So my friend Karyn over at Releases by Rufydoof blogged today about how much she loves the beach... which led me to thinking about past beach trips we've had and how much I enjoyed them. It also made me realize that we didn't make it to the beach at all in 2011!!!

This makes me very sad indeed! I really missed our weekend camping trip!! We do have one planned for mid-May of this year though! YAY! Not too far away and early enough to miss the worst of the heat and the ever-present mosquitos. We always camp at Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina. We love it there. Very quiet campgrounds and lovely beaches. I don't know really what the condition of the place is like though.. there was a LOT of erosion last year and looking at the satellite photo it doesn't look like it's getting any better.
We are going to visit the campgrounds at Edisto Beach this time around and see what we think.... it will be sad not to go to our 'old faithful' spot though.
So, to cheer myself up... and maybe some of you that are experiencing winter doldrums.. here are a few photos from past trips! :D

This is some sort of eagle that was on the beach, it appeared quite tired but uninjured. The wildlife officer was feeding it shrimp and keeping people away from it. There is a refuge a few miles up the coast and they believe that it was from there, there had been a wicked wind storm the previous night, so they felt maybe he got swept off course and was just tired out. He hung around for a while and then flew off again. He was HUGE. I was able to get pretty close, this picture is off my cell phone!

 This is Jesse helping Dave keep on the right roads on the way to the beach :)

 It was chilly when we last went! Jesse wanted to keep her jacket on most of the time. We did enjoy several strolls on the beach. You can see how far up the water comes now.. this used to be a long stretch of beach even at high tide.

 Mmmmmmmmmmmm shrimp wrapped in foil with lemon, butter and parsley cooked over an open fire. The BEST shrimp ever!

 The view from our campsite... it's so peaceful going to sleep listening to the waves........

 Spanky and Jesse enjoying a sunny spot and a snooze. This will probably be their last beach trip, they were very ill at ease and never really settled down like they usually do. Poor little old ladies!

Well I enjoyed my short trip down memory lane! Hope everyone else did too! I would love input on any other beach campgrounds in South Carolina! It's actually closer for us to go there then to go to our NC beaches.