Botany Bay on Edisto Island

Just a short post about our long weekend on Edisto Island this past weekend. My dad and his girlfriend had been staying on the island for almost a month (to escape winter) and we decided to make the 5 hour 15 minute drive down there for our 3-day weekend.

Edisto Island is where I proposed to Allyson a little over two years ago. We had never been to Edisto before that trip, but it will forever be an important place for us. If you don't care about fancy resorts and spas, and just want a quiet beach town with lots of opportunities for walking on the beach, this is your place. Even better, there is a great state park with a campground right on the beach.

About a 10 minute drive from where we were staying is Botany Bay Plantation, a heritage preserve and wildlife management area. This place was totally worth a visit. The Boneyard is a forest of trees right on the beach that have died, which makes for some amazing Dali-esque pictures. People are not allowed to take away anything they find on the beach, which means there are tons of shells that remain there for everyone to enjoy. The coolest part about this beach is that it is a location used by loggerhead sea turtles for nesting. We weren't there during the nesting season, but I just think that's so cool!

I've been reading a lot of Pat Conroy books recently, because I'm slightly obsessed with the landscape of the South's marshes and coast. It's so different from the rugged California coastline but there is something very special about this place.

 Edisto Beach

 Spanish Moss all over the trees

 The Boneyard

If you do make a trip to Edisto Island, don't forget to make a stop at the Old Firehouse in Hollywood. This place doesn't look like much, but the food is terrific!