Happy New Year! Is The Furniture Here Yet?

Greetings and Happy New Year!









The Grand Strand is a crescent of sandy beach stretching from the southern tip of North Carolina down along the South Carolina coast. Its ‘capital’ is Myrtle Beach, home to over one hundred and thirty golf courses… and our friends’, Hanna and Rick Nye, winter getaway:



This was one of the lynchpins of the Element Tour of the East/Southeast. There was to be New Year’s merriment at the Tournament Players Club at Myrtle Beach and general frivolity at all times.

The Nyes and the Duggans go way back. Rick and Chris have known each other for forty years due to Lowell Technological Institute and Kappa Sigma Fraternity. Rick claims that we were only friends for the first ten years and that Gini is the main reason we continue the relationship.

Hanna was also a math major at LTI and that Lowell experience stays with you your whole life. She is most proud of their daughters, Emily and Sara, and the great life they have created as a team.

The TPC course, of which Rick is a member, is rated 5 stars by Golf Digest alongside Pinehurst #2 and Kiawah Island. Despite the unusually cold weather and saturated conditions, the boys had a fantastic time chasing those little white balls:





Rick was fresh from a morning lesson and was pleased with the day’s results. However the ninth hole will soon appear as a major novel starring both Rick and Chris.

Another great experience was an incredible surprise since neither Gini or Chris were aware of Brookgreen Gardens. and Atalaya. Atalaya was the winter home of the Huntingtons of Huntington Beach fame and nineteenth century landlords to Central Park. Anne Hyatt Huntington was a gifted sculptor and used the residence to board animals (bears, monkeys, horses and a macaw). Also the nearness to the beach was a factor. Rick and Chris immediately became Knights of the Grand Strand:


















Brookgreen Gardens is a segment of the Huntingtons' purchase of 2500 acres along the Grand Strand dedicated to sculpture. Dozens of artists are well represented along with Anne's works.

Despite the chill wind we were grateful for the winter sun to illuminate the artworks.

A very life-like leopard:



“Reaching”:



Greek mythological figures were well represented.

The theme and role model for our stay, Dionysus:



Pegasus – so large that three blocks of stone had to be used:



Diana overseeing her garden. Do not mess with Diana – just ask Actaeon.



Ah, fauns, sylvan creatures and Muses:



Chris was especially pleased when he found Ecstasy:



Rick, though, had spoken highly of his appreciation of ‘the Big Girls’, professionally known as the St. James Triad:



One heck of a sundial:



And the piece de resistance, our seeker of the Impossible Dream who symbolizes the theme of this blog (Don Quixote by Anne Hyatt Huntington, herself):




Thank goodness for friends like Sancho…




and the Nyes.

Nightlife in the Myrtle Beach area is plentiful and playful:



Our last evening was spent with Hanna’s parents. Mom made her appearance while hoisting out the makings for margaritas (not bad for 75). Both she and Dad then held us spellbound with tales of being ‘removed’ from Poland. The trail made its way through Siberia, Iran, Lebanon, England, Brooklyn, New Jersey and finally Myrtle Beach. Their current life is filled with tennis and their wish is to end it all while delivering an overhand smash (‘That’s inside the line, of course’, says Rick).

Sadly we said goodbye to Rick and Hanna as we head for an evening stay in Savannah. Thank you guys for your friendship, generosity and love. AEKDB.