Happy Easter - Sunday - April 24, 2011

Nancy and I got up early to ride our bicycles this beautiful Easter morning. Both the wind and the temperature were ideal for a bike ride. Since we haven’t been riding much lately (long cold and windy winter) we weren’t going to push it too hard, so we did a smooth 17 mile cruise. It was a PERFECT cycling morning.

Getting Ready to Roll

Riding through Prince Creek development

No Easter Bunny, but how about the Easter Swans!!

Also some Easter Flowers!!

We had Sunday brunch with Nancy’s Mom at The Lakes at Litchfield dining room for Easter.  As usual, the food was fantastic and the atmosphere is so pleasant!!

Eat Dessert First!!

We wanted to spend some time with Mom today. As an extra treat, we took her to Brookgreen Gardens this afternoon. It turned out to be a great day with beautiful weather.

Brookgreen Gardens has beautiful gardens, the world’s largest display of outdoor sculptures and a walking path through a small zoo.

Bill's Favorite Sculpture...  he must be doing the crossword puzzle!!

Nancy's Favorite Sculpture from the Children's Garden!

One of many garden paths!!

Foxglove and Fountains

Brookgreen Gardens is only about 5 miles from our home and sits on a 900 acre former rice plantation site. We learned yesterday that this former rice plantation produced more than 50% of all the rice in the US back in the early 1800’s. Who knew? The sculptures and gardens are first class and the motto “ever changing, simply amazing” fits the gardens to a tee.

We took a short stroll through the natural zoo on site.  All the animals are here because they were injured or raised in captivity and could not survive in the wild. We saw Bald Eagles, Owls, Red Foxes, Alligators, River Otters, Red Tailed Hawks and domestic farm animals.

 

Eagle Sculpture

Bald Eagles

Great Horned Owl

As an added bonus a seasonal exhibit “Whispering Wings Butterfly Experience” was on display. Whispering wings featured a beautiful garden atmosphere with over 20 species of butterflies and a total of 500 or so butterflies.

We had to purchase separate tickets for this exhibit. Every half hour, 25 people are allowed in for 30 minutes. It works well and makes the experience more enjoyable without crowds. Nancy had a field day with her camera as she took tons of pictures of the flowers, trees, the zoo animals and the butterflies. She even snapped a couple of pictures of the butterflies landing on the bill of my visor.

(Click on any picture to enlarge it)

  



It was a beautiful day and I know Nancy’s mom enjoyed herself. She is doing well and we are thankful for her good health. Nancy and I feel very fortunate that our children and grandchildren are all healthy and happy this Easter. We couldn’t be with them today, but, if we were, you can bet we would have a BIG Easter egg hunt. That has been a tradition in the Mills house for as long as I can remember. That’s one of the fondest memories our children have of my parents – the “ALL DAY” Easter egg hunts - Maybe next year. In the mean time, we hope all our family and friends had a “Happy Easter!”