643 - Morris Lighthouse
Today I woke up in South Carolina.
See, I knew this day was coming- but I had no idea where I’d wake up. A month or so ago Alara told me to take off this weekend for a mysterious reason. A reason that may or may not have been related to my birthday.
It began when she pulled up after my Saturday night shift and said “Ready? We’re going to the airport.”
“Whaaaaa? Where are we going??” I asked, knowing it was a futile effort. She just smiled with those cheeky, golden eyes of hers and kept driving.
And that’s how it stayed for the next couple hours. It wasn’t until we walked up to the gate that I knew where we were going for the weekend. And even then, she faked me out with the wrong gate several times. We eventually landed on good ole’ South Carolina.
I say good ole’, but I’ve actually never been there. It’s the last state in the lower 48 that I need to check off my list. And once we boarded the plane, Alara broke down the itinerary for the weekend.
First off, we’d hit the tree boneyard near Morris Island Lighthouse for sunrise, then hit downtown Charleston for breakfast, followed by the infamous Angel Oak, and then go for a boat ride in the Cypress Gardens for sunset. I’m going to marry this girl.
It was an absolutely stacked day- because that night we also had to fly back to DC for work the next day. How were we gonna survive? I had no idea. But we had a cozy bed booked at the Starlight Motor Inn to prepare.
The next morning came as fast as a racehorse. The alarm blared and we were off to Morris Island like there was no tomorrow. Because there wasn’t.
It was a cool breezy morning, the perfect temperature for a small beach hike. Fresh off the path I noticed a graffiti plaza overlooked by a trio of palms:
A solid warm up pic to get me in the mood for what was next: an entire beach full of dead trees, with a lighthouse as the backdrop:
God. Damn. This whole beach was a framing heaven. Dozens and dozens of trees to pick from, all vaguely resembling the shape of the lighthouse.
And fun fact: that lighthouse was actually built way back in 1876. The thing has survived over 150 years of hurricanes and earthquakes, and is still kickin’ to this day.
The property is currently owned by a non-profit called Save the Light, which is dedicated to preserving the lighthouse through reinforcements and the building of seawalls. If you wanna donate a couple bucks, you can do so here. Or ya know, you can just enjoy the view.
What a start to the weekend. Shoutout Alara for making this all happen. LOVE YAAAAAA ❤️🔥
