Driving through South Carolina....

We went to Columbia, South Carolina...... saw the governor's mansion and the gardens and historical homes around it......... had lunch at "The Lizard's Thicket" (crazy name, but they had a delicious big salad).   We drove through St. Matthew's, a town devoted to the protection of purple martins.... everywhere you looked, there were purple martin birdhouses.

So many old and beautiful homes in those towns..... we stopped to get iced tea and lemonade along the way, parking in the shade and just looking at the old homes.  Huge wrap-around porches which reminded us of our own house..... made me wonder how the cats were doing while we were gone.  All of the driving we did, and I didn't see any stray cats at all, which made me very happy.  If anything will make me homesick, it's seeing a stray cat or two walking along a deserted street.

(Speaking of stray cats..... we weren't home for one full day and one of our friends stopped by with a black/white kitten that she had found.  Of course the kitten was just precious, and it's coloring reminded us of Gracie.  My husband started to call the kitten "Gracie-Kitty" and I told him not to name that kitten if we had no intention of keeping it.  I called our friends up the road to see if either of them wanted this kitten........ they didn't....... and our friend G left our house with that kitten in her arms.  She will keep it till it's bigger...... then find a home for it.   As much as I would have loved having a tiny "Gracie-Kitty" in this house, I stuck to my promise of 'no more cats, no more cats, no more cats.')

We found Greek restaurants along the way....... we always look for those wherever we travel.  One was in Orange Park (Fla) and was just delicious...... owned by a nice family (the best kind of restaurant) and their prices were really off-the-charts inexpensive for that delicious food.  We talked to the owner's wife and she said they couldn't raise their prices because no one in that area would pay anything higher.  

Another Greek restaurant in Summerville (SC) had no moussaka or pastittio on their menu.  How can you have a Greek restaurant without those two stand-bys? We ate there anyway........ but wouldn't ever go back if we lived in that area.

There was an old-fashioned looking ice cream café in Summerville...... and what did they serve?  BlueBell, of all things, which is made right here in the Texas Hill Country.......... we had to laugh at that because we don't go out of our way to get BlueBell here........ our favorite is Hank's Ice Cream, made in small batches by one family in Houston......... the most delicious ice cream ever, without a doubt. (Apologies to BlueBell.)

Speaking of ice cream....... my husband found a "Shakes" ice cream in Orange Park, Fla.   We had a "Shakes" in Clear Lake, and one in College Station..... both of those franchises closed up.  The custard-style ice cream reminds us of Carvel Ice Cream, sold at franchises in New York.  I don't know why there aren't more Shakes around....... it's much better than Dairy Queen (we're not fans of that brand), and Carvel is nowhere to be found in the Hill Country (probably can't compete with BlueBell ice cream).

We were up in Austin recently, and my husband found a "Shakes" up there.... one of the cleanest and prettiest ice cream shops we've seen in a good long while.  As much as we like Shakes, I wouldn't be driving way up to Austin just to have that ice cream on a hot summer day.  After living in our small-town, big-country bubble right here, the traffic and the noise (and the nervous energy) up in Austin is just not for us. (I guess they really mean it when they say "Keep Austin Weird.)