We are just home from a wonderful vacation at the beach.  Well, it was partly at the beach – first we drove down, sightseeing on the way, then we stopped at the beach with our friends for a couple of days, and then we drove home.  Of course I took my camera, but… IT STOPPED WORKING because first my brother accidentally dumped it onto the sand because he didn’t know I had put it in a towel, and then it got splashed with water. 😦 😦  Thankfully I had already gotten a bunch of pictures, so I can still show you some. (Oh, and I ordered a new camera that is hopefully coming by tomorrow!)

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On the way down we stopped at Mount Airy, the inspiration for the set of The Andy Griffith Show (which our family loves.)  It wasn’t quite like we expected, and the places were kind of scattered around, but it was neat.

There was an Opie’s candy shop,

and of course the Mayberry Sherriff’s office and jail.  The jail didn’t look quite like it does in the movie when you went inside, but it looks like you’re actually in the movie when you look at the pictures.

We also got some delicious ice cream.  My sister and I shared this (huge!) banana split.

Next we dropped in at our cousin’s new house, where we found a big fat toad.  We also went to look at their farm, but I didn’t bring my camera there.

Toad – meet kitten, kitten – meet toad.

And finally, Amelia Island!  We saw some beautiful marshland there,

not to mention the many other beautiful spots, like this lake.

The trees in the Southeast are draped in Spanish moss and sometimes covered in ferns.

The beach house was a veritable reptile and amphibian collecting center!  We saw and/or caught green anoles, geckos, toads, tree frogs, and a garter snake.  (The snake, by the way, was in a closet in the house!)

Now for the beach.  (Where, beside the fact that my camera stopped working, I lost my goggles.  But it was really fun anyway!)

The beach there was not crowded at all, there were lots of shells, and the water was WARM, actually WARM!  That’s amazing to me because we have never been to a warm beach, we always go to the northern beaches if we go at all.

Some of the shells were coquinas.  We gathered about two cups of them one day, and made some delicious soup with them.

On our way home we didn’t do much sightseeing, but we did stop at Hilton Head.  And that’s it!

Have you ever been to Amelia Island?  What’s your favorite vacation spot?

***Allison***