Life on Paws and Wheels

I visited the Birthplace of Sports Illustrated at Pine Lakes Country Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina , an unexpected piece of American sports and publishing history hidden at the oldest golf course in Myrtle Beach. Long before Sports Illustrated became one of the most recognizable names in sports journalism, dozens of employees from Time Inc. gathered here in the spring of 1954 to help prepare the new magazine for its national debut. The location seems appropriate in hindsight. Pine Lakes played an important role in establishing Myrtle Beach as a golf destination decades before the Grand Strand became filled with courses. Opened in 1927 as the Ocean Forest Country Club , it was the first golf course in Myrtle Beach and eventually earned the nickname “The Granddaddy.” Its history became intertwined with Sports Illustrated when 67 Time Inc. executives, writers, and other staff members traveled south from New York for a weeklong conference in April 1954. Today, a commemorative plaqu...

Simba and I visited and hiked the Lake Waccamaw Nature Loop at Lake Waccamaw State Park in North Carolina , exploring a peaceful landscape of pine forest, wetlands, wooden boardwalks, and trails surrounding one of the most unusual lakes in the southeastern United States. At first glance, Lake Waccamaw looks like a beautiful but otherwise ordinary coastal lake. Once you learn what's happening beneath the water and throughout the surrounding ecosystem, however, it becomes clear that this is a very unusual place. Lake Waccamaw is the largest of North Carolina's Carolina bay lakes , occupying one of the mysterious oval-shaped depressions scattered across the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Its unusual water chemistry supports an extraordinary collection of plants and animals, including species found nowhere else on Earth. The surrounding region is also home to carnivorous plants, American alligators, countless birds, reptiles, and more than 50 species of fish. For Simba and me, the hike wa...

Simba and I visited and hiked through Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina , a historic former rice plantation along the Ashley River where centuries of human history are intertwined with some of the most beautiful natural scenery in the Lowcountry. Massive live oaks draped in Spanish moss tower over winding paths, picturesque bridges cross ponds and waterways, and miles of trails lead through gardens, forests, wetlands, and wildlife habitat. Magnolia is undeniably beautiful, but its history is much more complicated than its peaceful appearance might suggest. The property began as a plantation, and for generations its wealth depended on the labor of enslaved African Americans who cultivated rice, worked in the household, maintained the grounds, and helped create the landscape that eventually became famous as Magnolia's gardens. Understanding those lives is essential to understanding the property rather than viewing Magnolia simply as a beautiful collection ...