Shoes, Wine, Soap, Tides, and Seahorses

Tuesday, I set out to find some new "work shoes". As anyone who works long days on their feet knows, comfy shoes are an absolute MUST!!!! I'd squished all the comfy out of my current ones. :) I found an outlet mall about an hour south of here, so I headed out. On the way there, I saw a sign advertising a local vineyard/winery that offered tours and a sign for a lighthouse I hadn't seen yet. So I thought, I've come this far, might as well see what else is around here. After lunch, I went and toured the winery. It's family owned and operated. I'd never toured a winery before, so it was pretty interesting.

After the tour, I explored a couple small towns in that area. One of them had a homemade soap store. I went in to see if there was anything I might "need". :) Well, I got to visit with the owner of the store, and that was TOTALLY worth the stop for the entertainment I received!! He's the one that "creates" all the soaps and other wellness products on the shelves, and boy did he have a LOT of self-proclaimed expertise in wellness/healing. I ended up buying a few bars of soap because I felt I should pay something for all the laughs I would enjoy every time I thought back about our encounter! As anyone who's gone in public with me knows, most people I meet have NO problem telling me more about themselves than I asked or EVER wanted to know. This man did not disappoint! :)

Since I didn't think I could stay in that store much longer, I got back on the highway and started toward the lighthouse. Unfortunately, the next sign I saw said it was 2 1/2 more hours down the road. Not wanting to make this a full day trip, I decided to catch one of the other highways that led back to Greenville so I could see new territory and not have to double back. Well, between phone calls and zoning out for a bit, I missed my exits. So, as a friend of mine put it, I had some "unplanned sightseeing" (which sounds better than saying I got lost, again!). :) The next thing I knew, I was 20 miles from the beach. At that point, I couldn't NOT go! I went and sat on the beach to watch the evening tide come in. Probably the MOST peaceful way to spend an hour that I can think of.

Near that beach, I saw a sign advertising an aquarium.

Yesterday morning, after watching a Bob Ross episode (the owner of the original white man fro) and a Vegitales episode (King George & the Great Pie War), I decided to go back out there and visit the aquarium since it was closed by the time I got there on Tuesday. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I got there in time for the 3PM feeding frenzy in the big fish tank. It was fun to watch the fish go crazy while the big sea turtle (who eats at a different time) just kinda floated around. Sea turtles are SO much fun to watch! I couldn't get a good picture of him, but I did get a good one of one of the seahorses. I've never seen such an active seahorse! He was swimming around almost the whole time I was standing near his tank, which made for some blurry pictures. :)