Saturday, March 3, 2012

Unbelievable experience

You would not believe what we saw yesterday! If we hadn't seen it ourselves, we would not believe it either...
We had gone to Brookgreen Garden http://www.brookgreen.org/ in Murrels Inlet, SC to see the wonderful gardens and fantastic art sculptures. As I was sitting in the shade on a bench near a fountain and Lynn was walking in the sun, a hawk went flying by Lynn with something in its talons. I had just taken off my glasses to wipe the sweat from my brow so I didn't see what it had in its claws very clearly. So Lynn said "what does it have?" and I couldn't see because it had landed on the opposite side of the fountain. So Lynn sat on a bench closer to where it was and he could then see that it had a squirrel. The hawk was wrestling with it for a couple seconds, and then it flew into the fountain and submerged the squirrel to drown it!!! The hawk was up to its shoulders in the water and held that squirrel under there for 3 or 4 minutes. Lynn had just wondered how it would get out of the water when it just hopped right up out on the side of the fountain with the squirrel still clutched in its talons. We were watching to see what it would do next when one of the gardeners came through on a four wheel vehicle. We tried to flag her down before she scared it off, but the hawk flew away into the bushes with the squirrel.
We told her what happened, and she had never heard of such a thing either. We were flabbergasted. That incident in itself was well worth the admission to the garden.
The gardens were not much in bloom yet, although a few things have started (redbud for one -- beautiful!) but the art sculptures themselves are quite impressive. We had a great day. But the hawk was definitely the highlight. I would never have thought that a hawk would know that you could drown something, nor would I think that it could get into and out of water like that. I guess we can always learn something new every day. What a great experience it was!
We had a great winter in Gulf Shores this year and had visitors for quite a bit of the last part of the winter. Chuck & Vikki and Ed & Gail came down from Jan 30 - Feb 10 and we took them around to see lots of the area's attractions, and all the great restaurants as well (Lynn and I both have our work cut out for us to lose some weight when we get back home!)
Some of the places we took them were: Naval Air Museum http://navalaviationmuseum.org/ (Chuck & Vikki -- Ed was sick) where we watched an IMax movie and Chuck piloted a plane in a simulator; The Foley Railroad Museum http://foleyrailroadmuseum.com/, but unfortunately the O model display was not open on that day; the Baldwin County Heritage Museum http://www.baldwincountyheritagemuseum.com/; the Gulf Shores Museum http://www.museumsusa.org/museums/info/1154279 where we watched a video on Hurricane Ivan; and Tacky Jack's http://tackyjacks.com/ to watch the Super Bowl.
We had called to rent a pontoon boat so we could spend the day on the Intercoastal Waterway, and
we got there and and brought all the equipment to load on the boat when they couldn't get it to stay running. We asked if they could get us another one, but they said their forklift wasn't working right either! So we had to repack all our stuff in the vehicles, and we went to fish off the pier at Wolf Bay but got no bites, and then went to the bridge in Perdido Key and Vikki was the only one that got a bite, but no fish. Oh well, it was fun anyway.
One of the days when I had to do laundry, Gail & Vikki went to Tanger Outlet Mall and the guys went to play at The Track where they raced the go-carts, and they also went to play Mini Golf. I am sure they all had more fun than I did, but chores must be done, company or not!
Then Russ & Joanne came to visit us from Feb 16 - Feb 23. We had a great time with them as well. (Again, we had to take them to all the good restaurants...) We took them to the Gulf Shores Museum and watched a video on the moving of the Zoo before Hurricane Ivan hit; the Naval Air Museum (yes, you can go to that more than once and enjoy it!) and watched an IMax video; then we did several Mardi Gras parades: Orange Beach (2 different ones), Gulf Shores, Point Clear, and The Wharf. They had never been to a Mardi Gras parade and they ended up with quite a haul of beads and Moon Pies. It was fun! We also got some more (like we needed them!) They went to the Zoo one day on their own, too.
We are now in Little River, SC visiting our friends Arnie & Sharon. Last night we had dinner with them and other friends, Monty & Marylee and Johnny & Ruthie at a Mongolian Grill. Again, ate too much. But there is a pool and an exercise room where we are staying, so will have to get busy and start exercising!
Guess that's all for now!