We are settling down

After looking for a home around the Charlotte area for several months, and coming up empty-handed, we finally found a place to build a home: in South Carolina, about 8 miles from the North Carolina border and 20 miles from downtown Charlotte.  Our address is Fort Mill, but we are actually south of Fort Mill in a retirement community by Del Webb called Sun City Carolina Lakes (I'm on Social Security now, so it's OK).  It is on 1,512 acres; there are about 2,000 homes now and about 3,000 when complete.  The section we are in is on the golf course. When we were traveling, we stayed in places in Arizona and Spruce Pine that were on golf courses.  We decided that being on on golf course is kind of nice, so that's what we did.  Our lot overlooks the 18th hole.   
We are having a small home built (1,594 sq. ft.) on a small lot (no, a very small lot - 50' X 120').  We decided that after 33 years, we don't need to be doing all that yard work anymore.  We can still do some, but most of the maintenance will done for us.  Our closing date is July 8th, which will be here before we know it.
We have already met some of our neighbors and they are all very nice. They are all damn Yankees, too, but since I am one also, I won't hold it against them !

Looking west.  You can't see it from here, but they tee off about 250 yards away.

The 18th hole with a lot of bunkers.

Looking straight out from the back of our lot.

Our lot from the street.  Yes, as I mentioned, it is very small.

You can see the outline of the house.

Almost ready to pour concrete (front).

Back.

Ready to start building (front).

Back.

Going vertical - that's the term they use when the walls start going up.

They even worked in the rain.

Looks like a house.

Back.  The left portion of the patio will be screened in.

Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

We had our friends Rosie and Betty come visit us for a few days.  One of the places we took them was the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden.  We had heard of it since we got to Charlotte, but never got the opportunity to visit it.  So, it was a good outing for the 4 of us.
The Gardens are about 17 miles NW of where we are in Charlotte and about a mile and a half from South Carolina.  It is a recent botanical garden.  It is about 400 acres and created by Daniel Stowe (a retired textile executive) in 1991. As you will see by the photos, they have done a lot in just 20 years and there is much more coming in the future.

The visitor center. The 2 tall trees in the left & right foreground are cypress trees.

Caroline, Betty & Rosie walking through the east pergola.

They have several nice areas for picnics

A sculpture called 'Laura.' The arched trellis looks 3 dimensional, but is actually flat.

The White Garden.  All the flowering plants are white !!

A White Iris.

I didn't see a name card for this.  The flowers are about 2" in diameter.

The Willow Maze.  It is made up of 600 dappled willows.  That's Rosie, Betty & Caroline finding their way through the maze.

Gladious Communis.  Maybe about 2' tall.

Slender Deutzia.  About  3' - 4' wide.

There were 2 sculptures in the Crepe Myrtle Grove entitled 'Child of Peace.'

The 2nd one.

Looking towards the Canal Garden. 

This is the start of the Canal Garden; it is 300' long. There are 10 fish sculptures within the 300.'  See the next photo.

Looking from the other end.

The fountain at the other end. That's Betty, Caroline & Rosie enjoying the views.

Siberian Iris.This was gorgeous in person.  The photo does not even come close to show its deep purple flowers.  They were about 2' tall.

Sculpture entitled 'Hot Pink Silver Shadow.'

The 'Take a Chance' Fountain. At any time, the streams of water will stop, soaking anyone underneath. It was a favorite with the kids.

Part of the Serpentine Gardens.

A Big Leaf Magnolia.  It was about 25' tall.

An evergreen 'forest.'  The 2 tall trees just left of center are Golden American Arborvitae.

Chinese Fringetree.

Betty & Caroline along a road of Encore Azaleas.

'Total Recall' Reblooming Tall Bearded Iris. About 18" tall with very large flowers for an iris.

Orchid Conservatory. Carolina's only glass house: it is 8,000 square feet with the middle section being 5 stories tall.

A wall of orchids.

Another cousin of the GEICO gecko ? It was about 8" long and in the conservatory.

A small pond along the road.

Nor sure what kind of bird this is.  I thought it might be an anhinga, but it is too small.

2 days in Charleston, SC

A few weeks ago, we read that the USAF Thunderbirds were going to perform at Charleston AFB on Saturday April 9th.  We packed our bags and left the day before for an overnight stay in Charleston.
Our first stop on Friday was at a retirement community to look at some of their model homes.  Check for a post in a couple of weeks for more on that subject.
The rest of the day was spent along the waterfront at the south tip of Charleston. On the way to our motel, we saw a sign for the H.L. Hunley; we checked that out Saturday morning.
The H.L. Hunley is a Confederate sub that sank in Charleston Harbor on February 17, 1864, was discovered in April 1995 and was raised to the surface in August 8, 2000.  It has rested in a 90,000 gallon fresh water tank since that time.  If not, the sub would have disintegrated by now.
At noon we arrived at Charleston AFB.  The Thunderbirds did not perform until 3PM, but there was plenty to see and eat (of, course, all the stuff that's good for you !!). They expected 100,000 to attend. As you will see in some of the photos below, there was probably that many.  Plus, it took us just over an hour to get off the base after the show was over.  If you have never seen this type of performance, you.should.  If not the Thunderbirds, than the Navy's Blue Angels.  Their web sites give all performance dates.

Sneak preview. As we were checking into our motel, the Thunderbird's were practicing.

Charleston City Market.  It goes for an entire block.  However, while we were there, about half of the building was closed for renovations.

The back end of the Market.

A fountain just before the water front park.

The new Cooper River Bridge.  With a span of 1,546, it is one of the most impressive cable-stay bridges in North America.  It is supposed to be spectacular at night.

Word War II aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.  They have a special program for Boy & Girl Scouts to spend a long weekend on the ship and sleep in the same bunks as the sailors.  I did that with my son when he was in the scouts years ago.

Just left of center along the horizon is Ft. Sumter, about 4 miles away.  

We did not see Tom Hanks, oops, I mean Forrest Gump, here.

We ended the day at dinner at the Noisy Oyster.

The H.L. Hunley in the contraption they used to raise it from the harbor floor.  It is still in it, the tank I mentioned above.  You can view the sub in the museum, but photos were not allowed. 

A fairly intact shoe from one of the crew members.

A cut-a-way to help illustrate how small the sub was. This is 4' in diameter.  The real sub was more oval: 4' tall and 42" wide.

What the crew might have looked like.

It took 8 men to operate the sub.  They used a hand crank to turn the propeller.

Ready for the Thunderbirds.

The Air Force's newest transport, the C-17.  It was quite warm in the sun.  If you will notice, many folks sat under the wings and fuselage to keep cool. 

The Thunderbirds six F-16's lined up and ready to go. Look at all the people.

Waitng in line to see the cockpit of an F-15.

Lined up in true military fashion.

Boeing Dream Lifter.  I have never seen this before.  It is a very modified 747.  Boeing uses it to transports parts between its facilities. It's hugh !

Mock attack on Pearl Harbor.  There were 6 operating Japanese Zeros used in this 'attack,'complete with mock explosions.

C-130 transport.  Caroline's brother flew on these during his tours in Vietnam.

F-16's.  The jet used by the Thunderbirds.  I thought the pilots were specially trained for this and that is all they did. They do train for this, but all are combat pilots and have flown combat missions.

And they're off !

Flying up side down.

The Thunderbird's trademark: Diamond Formation.

The Delta Formation.It is really hard to get good photos.  Even though the F-16 can reach 1,500 MPH (Mach 2), they always fly at subsonic speeds. It is still fast enough that many of the photos are either blurred, the jets are at the edge of a photo or occasionally, you get only sky. And, many of the maneuvers you just can't capture with the camera (I was going to say'on film', but that phrase doesn't work anymore !!).