Mrytle Beach, SC

South Carolina is an interesting place, full of history, culture and fun.
The word Carolina is derived from the Latin name Carolus, translated as "Charles". The state was named in honor of King Charles IX of France and then King Charles I and King Charles II of England.
North and South Carolina were one colony until 1729, in 1584 
Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to Sir Walter Raleigh to search and discover remote and heathen lands, hence Raleigh, NC. this area was also explored by Hernando De Soto in search of gold, he nearly wiped out the native american population due to the decease and illness that he brought with his ship. 
Now this place is a mecca for beach goers and sun lovers alike, Myrtle Beach has become one of the premiere resort destinations on the East Coast, with famous South Carolinian's including James Brown, Chubby Checker, Dizzy Galespie and Jesse Jackson.
It is also as we have witnessed the mecca of golf carts, since we arrived we have seen them by the dozen going up and down the streets, along with mopeds and dune buggies, getting somewhere around town proves to be a slow business. The beaches are beautiful, we have had the best time enjoying the sun & sand, the seafood is fresh and the ocean breeze is refreshing.

we went to Boardwalk at the Beach,

which is a myriad of ride attractions, restaurants and shops. we went to dinner there and saw the greatest fireworks show ever. there was also an area where you could feed the local catfish and to say that they were beggars is an understatement.

 

We also attended a show called the Pirates Voyage, which is a show with dinner featuring pirate sword fights, aerial acts and acrobatics. it was pretty entertaining and we had a good time. All in all our trip here has been a good one.  
From the Reeds, may the fish be plenty and yarrrr plank be ever long....

Raleigh, NC

Well we have really enjoyed our trip to Raleigh, the people here are so nice, very how may I help you and thank you so much for coming kind of folks, the area of Raleigh is beautiful! there trees covering every inch of ground, even on the sides of highways, all the rural areas have at least 5 to 6 trees in their yard, its magnificent how they have incorporated nature into the everyday.
One of the first places I went here is to the NC Natural Science Museum,

which was one of the most amazing places I've ever been, the admission is free and its a two building, 4 stories of natural science, you could spend the entire day there and still not see it all, they have everything from a hands on room where you can look at touch and pick up specimens from the stuffed to the jar preserved and dried, put it under a microscope or on a smart table and learn firsthand everything about it. They also have live animal rooms where you can see firsthand the nature around you,

I picked up and held radioactive pieces of earth (don't worry we took precautions) , held fine gemstones from rubies to every other gem and studied the different kinds of facets and saw a quartz that was so big it was on a palate and was so heavy that it was crushing the palate. The story Chris told me about how he had to get it to the museum was pretty comical. He also let me see part of the Paleontology area where I saw amazing specimens that weren't for public view. I will admit that my tour was much better than just a free admission gets you because I was blessed enough to meet one of the curators, who's name was Chris,

he was over the Gemology section of the museum and when we got to chatting about rocks, lol, he offered to give me a behind the scenes tour of the place, so not only did I get to see and learn about firsthand all the origin and history of all of his exhibits but I got a tour of the guts of the place where they work and to hold some of the pieces, I held an emerald that as much as my dog, I was a little nervous holding this but it was awesome,

There was so many other wonderful museums shops and places to go here, not to mention our wonderful trip to South Hill,VA to the Loves house and to meeting with them, we got to meet more wonderful people, see Joseph Fordam who was speaking there that day and have a great lunch with everyone. Our dog Pebbles was smiling from ear to ear the rest of the day, she really loved getting to play with the kids, 

 I can only hope that all our travels are as welcoming and loving as this has been, as Cory's husband said "it's all downhill from here" lol.

Dennis also got to go to work at the RedHat headquarters for the week, where he put faces to names of people that he works with and really enjoyed having lunch with them. We are leaving soon and I have to admit I'm really going to miss it here.

Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg,TN

We this was the last week we got to have our friend Hannah with us on our trip, we definitely made the most of it, we went on the Smokey Mountains Railroad in Bryson City, NC it had some of the most beautiful mountain views I've ever seen.

We went through Nantahala National Forest, which we found out is Cherokee for "Mid Day Sun"
because in this area the Mountains cover the place so well that sun only shines in the mid day.

We also went through part of the Appalachian trail that we had done from the previous time here, we also saw some of the level 5 rapids that were along the way, with lots of kayaker's and rafters making their way down.

Later in the week we went to another type of escape game but it was not as good as the one in Nashville, the outside of it looked pretty neat however.


















We then rode the Skylift and the Ober and saw more of the mountain views. We went shopping, ate some amazing food but all in all the company and friendship shared was the best part of the trip.
Our week is wrapping up and I just can't help but think how truly blessed we are to have this opportunity to see gods country and be able to visit old friends along the way and meet new ones as we go.