All good things...

Well, Saturday is here again and that means it's time to say goodbye to the beach and return to Richmond!  Mariah was up at 7, even after our late night, and I was up at 8, to pack up the rest of our gear and get going.  Patty rode home with Jena and they left around 8 so that they could arrive home early. We finished up, locked up, and, along with Zac and Ellie, said goodbye to our lovely beach house at around 10 o'clock.

Zac and Ellie had much further to go than us, having to drive back up to Herndon, Va, so they went ahead and started their trek back home.  We decided to do a little last minute shopping, so we hit up some nearby gift shops on highway 17 and down on the Surfside Beach Pier.

After our shopping was done, Mariah was kind enough to indulge me and we had one more lunch at Fuddruckers before we hit the road.  Yum. :)

We finally got going around 1 o'clock in the afternoon, taking a slightly different route than we used coming down, as I was hoping to avoid some of the heavy traffic that slowed us down so much before.  The rain seemed to follow us the whole way back, clearing up for a little while and then becoming heavy at other times.

We took our first rest stop about halfway through North Carolina and then stopped again right at the Virginia/North Carolina border.  There was some really bad traffic on Interstate 95 in southern NC, but once we were finally in the clear, it was pretty smooth sailing the rest of the way.

The kids did a really awesome job, for such a long drive.  They played with their new souvenir toys for a long time; they each picked a shark head grabber toy like this:

Remember those things? They spent a long time making the sharks talk to each other and picking up things in the car with them.  Then one of the kids would close their eyes while the other would hide their shark amongst all of our stuff and then the first one would try to guess where it was hidden. Once that had run its course, they spent some time playing some new games on their Mobi-go's, which they were very excited about, and then watched Bolt on the iPad, which was a big hit.

 

We stopped and picked up some dinner at a McDonald's in Hopewell and made it home around 8 pm. Our total miles traveled (down, around the beach, and back) was 856 miles.

After we had gotten home, my mom was thoughtful enough to bring us a gallon of milk so that the kids would have some to drink for breakfast the next morning, and the kids had some time to play with 'Nani' while Mariah and I unloaded everything from the van.

Then it was off to bed for the kids while Mariah and I did a bit more unpacking and cleaning up before our bedtime.

All told, I think this was one of our best vacations yet, and everyone had a really fantastic time.  I'd like to give my thanks to everyone who has been following this blog, I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!  If you liked what you saw here and want to be notified the next time the blog is updated, you can follow my blog using the tools in the top right corner of this page.  More information on how to follow me can also be found here.

Until our next adventure...

Myrtle Beach Vacation, 2013: Day 7

Our last full day at Surfside Beach is here, I'm sad to say.  We were lucky to have a break in the rain this morning though.  Mariah and Zac went out early and brought back some hot and fresh Krispy Kreme donuts, but I exercised extreme willpower and went for a run first, before rewarding myself with such a tasty breakfast.  It was in the low 70's and overcast, and the tide was out, so I decided to run on the beach for my final excursion, which was great.

After I finished my run, I changed into my bathing suit and Mariah got the kids ready for a quick walk down to the beach.  The kids didn't want to play in the ocean today, and weren't interested in making sand castles either, but we did convince them that taking a walk on the beach and looking for shells would be fun.  They each got a bucket for shells, and I got my new shell scooper/sifter from Sanibel and we headed out.

On the way down to the beach, we ran into Blair, who used to work at Westminster Canterbury with Mariah, and her daughter Lila.  It turns out they had been staying in a house just across the street from us all week and we didn't have a clue!  Lila used to be in Emma's daycare classes, so the two were happy to see each other again.  We went on down to the beach and spent some time walking in the little tide pools, where the kids were excited at every tiny shell they found.

Soon enough, a light rain started and we headed back up to the house.  The kids wanted to swim in the pool, so we hopped on in and were surprised by how warm it was!  Zac and Ellie joined us and we all had a grand time swimming in the rain.

Ben and Emma came up with some crazy game where one side of the pool was the human side, and the other side was the Lego side, and you were transformed into a Lego mini-figure if you went over there.  Emma, on the human side, had a "shiny diamond" (a green squirt bottle) which had apparently been used to break the Earth in half or something.  To rescue the Earth, Ben had to either get the shiny diamond or use some small orange missiles, that he called the Lego Potion and the Human Potion.  The potions could change everyone in the world to either a Lego person or a human, depending which one was being used.  What wild imaginations they have!

In any case, we had a blast chasing each other all over the pool, grabbing the "shiny diamond" back from each other.  As the rain intensified, I grabbed one of the pool floats and made a little shelter that the kids loved hiding out under.

The rain finally started coming down very hard and was getting cold, so we reluctantly left the pool and made a run for the porch where we dried off and then went back in the house.  I was very cold, and decided that this would be a good time to take advantage of the jacuzzi tub we had in our bedroom (not the bathroom, in the actual bedroom), so I took a nice, hot bath to warm back up.  It was so relaxing I almost fell asleep at one point.

While I soaked in the tub, Mariah and kids had lunch downstairs, and then started working on another puzzle.  I finished up and came downstairs and had a sandwich for lunch.

After we had relaxed for a while, I noticed that the rain had finally stopped.  I checked the weather radar on my phone and saw that there was a break in the rain for a little while, so we quickly got Ben and Emma ready and rushed out to play some miniature golf.  The kids picked a Putt-Putt place called Adventure Falls that was real close to our beach house. The kids were excited by the castles and giant animals on the course, especially since one of the castles was pink.

Ben had already played mini-golf once or twice before on school field trips, but this was Emma's first time.  Ben was eager to help her learn the rules and show her how to play, and Emma was quick to pick up the idea, even if she had some trouble holding the club.  She ended up with her own unique style that worked for her though.

We had an awesome time playing our way through the course, and I was really proud of how well both the kids did.  They had several holes where they actually scored only two or three strokes, and even when they did have to hit it ten or twelve times, they never got frustrated.  We had some mishaps here and there; Ben whacked his ball into a little stream of water at one point and we almost lost it, and Emma fell off the sidewalk and hurt her knee, but we recovered from both.

As we got to the 15th hole or so, the rain started back up so we rushed through the last few holes.  We made a run for the van just as the rain started coming down in earnest.  I told the kids that it was a family tradition to get some ice cream after playing Putt-Putt, and we were lucky enough to find an ice cream shop only a few doors down from the mini-golf place.  The ice cream was delicious (when is it not?) and after our sweet tooth had been satisfied, we headed home.

Back home, we had some more time to chill out. The kids watched some cartoons, with Emma curled up on Zac's lap on the couch.

Patty offered to watch Ben and Emma for the night so that Mariah and I could have a "date night" and we were happy to take advantage of her generosity.  The rain had stopped again, so Mariah and I decided to head to Broadway at the Beach again, as they have a ton of restaurants to choose from. It was a lovely night, so we walked around for a long time checking out the different restaurants.

 I was in the mood for seafood again, so we decided on Landry's Seafood, which seemed to fit the bill.  We ate out on the deck, starting out with the Crab, Spinach, and Artichoke Dip.  For our entrees, I had the Stuffed Shrimp and Mariah got the Shrimp Fresca, which were both amazing. Despite being stuffed already, I ordered a Brownie Sundae for dessert.  It was as delicious as it looks here!

After dinner we walked around a little more on our way back to the car.  We got back to the beach house after 10:30 pm, and started packing up for the drive home.  I packed up the beach and pool toys, while Mariah cleaned up and packed what she could in the house without disturbing the sleeping kids.  Once we had done all that we could for the night, we took one last midnight dip in the pool!  The water was warmer than the air temperature at that point, but was still chilly, so we didn't stay in for very long.  

We finally ended the last long vacation day at about 1 am, a fitting end to a jam-packed, crazy awesome trip!

It's not over yet.

It's been another long, busy day, and it's not over yet. I'm currently packing up the car so we can leave tomorrow, so I won't have time for a long post tonight. I've made some notes though and hope to finish it up tomorrow night after we are home. 

Date night

Having a nice quiet seafood dinner with my lady. Thanks for watching the kids Patty!

Myrtle Beach Vacation, 2013: Day 6

Wow, that turned out to be an unexpectedly long day!

It was a rainy day here in Surfside Beach, so you would think that would mean a long, slow day, lounging around the house watching bad daytime TV, and things certainly started out that way.  We woke up around 9 again today and Mariah made some cinnamon rolls and orange danish rolls to get things going. Yum!  The kids opted for chocolate pop-tarts (Ben) and Fruit Loops (Emma) though, while watching the Tinkerbell movie on DVD.

As we finished up breakfast, it was time for Ryan and Megan to say goodbye as they left for Nagshead to spend the rest of their vacation with their mom.  We took the opportunity to get one last family picture with everyone.

Zac headed out with Ryan and Megan, and then Patty got Ben and Emma started with a classic rainy-day beach house staple, a puzzle.  Mariah and I joined in and soon all of us were working away on the puzzle, which was only 550 pieces, but actually turned out to be pretty hard due to the hand drawn picture and amount of detail in the puzzle.  The kids lost interest after a while (big surprise), but Mariah and I are old school puzzlers and stuck it out until the end.

After the puzzle was completed it was time for lunch already, so we heated up some frozen pizzas for everyone.

By this time the heavy rain had tapered off into a light drizzle, so I suggested we head out and do some shopping, and possibly hit the aquarium if the crowds weren't too bad.  We loaded up the kids in the car and headed out, deciding to try the shops at Broadway at the Beach.

We got stuck in traffic for a while (Why in the world would I think that Hwy 17 bypass would be faster 17 business? Madness!), but the kids didn't mind as they were engrossed in playing their Mobi-go games or listening to music on the mp3 players.  Watching little Emma listen to her Disney songs and sing along always makes me smile.

Emma made sure that Mimi, her bunny, was buckled
in safe with her while she listened to her music.

We eventually made it to our destination though, and it was predictably packed to the gills with other bored vacationers, also denied a day on the beach and looking for a way to pass the time.  We made our way around and had a lot of fun looking through the various shops and seeing all of the neat things scattered around.

There was no question that Ben's favorite thing to see, even thought we only walked past it and didn't go inside, was the "Upside down house," or the WonderWorks building.

He was just so blown away by this giant building that appears to have fallen out of the sky and landed upside down, that he could NOT stop talking about it.  His little mouth was just running a mile a minute with all sorts of thoughts and questions about it.  "How did it get there?  Look at those big cracks in the sides!  Did it fall on top of that other building?  How do people get inside when the door is up so high? Oh, look!  People are going in through that hole in the roof over there, because the roof is now on the ground!" and on, and on.  It just put such a big grin on my face to see him so excited and his imagination just on fire and running wild.

After a few more twists and turns, I saw a shop that I knew we just had to go inside of, IT'SUGAR! As you may have guessed from the not-to-subtle name, this is a gigantic candy store, and Ben and Emma were in seventh heaven.  Mariah and I decided to divide and conquer and each took a munchkin and let them pick candy to fill up a bag with whatever type of candy and sweets they wanted.

They each ended up with about half a pound of treats, and I got a couple of boxes of Spree candy for myself, which I always have a hard time finding in Richmond, while Mariah stocked up on some chocolate covered: cookie dough, cake mix, nuts, and pretzels, all mixed up in the same bag.  Since they are all chocolate covered, you don't know exactly what you are going to get (well, except for the pretzels), but you know it's going to be delicious.

Once we were stocked up on sweets, we finally made our way over to the Ripley's Aquarium.  We've been here multiple times before, but the kids still have a blast every time, and there are always a few new things to see too.

Ben and Emma were in full-on information overload, bouncing from exhibit to exhibit, pointing at fish, sharks, and eels, and anything else that caught their eyes.  The climbed walls, slid down slides, got to pet horseshoe crabs and a shark, and generally had a grand old time.

At every turn though, Emma asked the same question, "When are we going to see the mermaids?!"  She knows that they have a Mermaid show at the Aquarium, where actresses dress up in mermaid costumes and swim in one of the large fish tanks, while the audience can watch from under the water.  Well, by the time we made it over to where they have the show it was 15 minutes before the last show of the night, and they had already roped off the area as it was completely full, standing room only!  Emma was crushed and started to cry, she wanted to see those mermaids so badly.  Luckily Mariah and I remembered from previous years that after the show is over, the mermaids swim up to a shallow area of the tank and will do a meet-and-greet with the public, so we quickly told Emma that we couldn't see the show, but that she could still meet and talk to a mermaid.

With Emma's excitement stoked again, we headed to the upper level, and found an area where you could get your picture taken with one of the mermaids who wasn't a part of that particular show. Score!  Emma was giddy as she got to sit right next to the mermaid, ask her some questions, and even touch her tail.

Next, we headed over to the shallow pool where you can touch the stingrays, and where the mermaids come after the show and talk to the kids while they are still in the water.  I was so proud of the Ben and Emma as they waited so patiently for around 30 minutes before the mermaids finished the show and came over to where we were, and then had to wait another 20 minutes or so while the mermaids talked with other kids, many of whom arrived way after we did, because they started at the opposite end of the tank from where we were waiting.

It was worth the wait though, as Ben and Emma go to talk to both of the performers and peppered them with questions that the ladies were so nice to answer, "Can mermaids talk to fish? What do you eat? How long can you hold your breath?"

In case you were wondering, the answers were: "Yes, the dolphins teach us how." "We eat seaweed and algae, we like our greens!" and "About 2 minutes, but a sea turtle can hold it's breath for 6 hours!"

Once we had finished visiting with the mermaids we headed back to the car and then it was back to the beach house.  By the time we were back it was 9:30 PM and we still hadn't had any dinner!  The kids hadn't eaten anything since our late lunch around one o'clock, but somehow hadn't complained the whole time.

We had a quick dinner of leftover tacos (what better to eat at 10 o'clock at night right before bed?) and then it was off to bed.  I read one of Emma's favorite books tonight, Morris goes to School.  She's had us read that one to her so many times, she can recite every page back to us, even though she can't read many words at all yet.

So it's been another late night of blogging for me!  I'll have to work hard to try to turn in an early entry tomorrow if I want to be rested for our long drive back home on Saturday.  Until then!

Myrtle Beach Vacation, 2013: Day 5

Well, it had to happen sometime; our first rainy day, although I guess it really threatened to rain more than it actually did.

We slept in again this morning, Mariah was up first and then Ben was up around 9.  Emma and I snoozed a little longer, maybe until 9:30.  Mariah made bacon and eggs for breakfast, and made me a delicious omelet.  Emma had breakfast out on the deck with Aunt Jena while she worked on one of her puzzles, and Ben ate inside and played some computer games after he was done.

After everyone had their fill, I once again gathered up our gear and headed down to the beach to set up shop. Patty was out there waiting for us, and had grabbed a great spot again.  Even though it was very overcast and cooler today, I brought and set up the canopy anyway, as we started feeling a few scattered raindrops and wanted to keep our towels and things dry.  Zac came down with Ryan, Megan, and Michael next, and they all jumped right in the ocean and got right to riding the waves.

Mariah, Ben, and Emma arrived shortly after and played in the waves for a while with Patty.  They never get enough of running around screaming at, and being chased by, the waves.

We had talked yesterday about building an epic sand castle, so Ben and I picked a spot above what we thought was the high tide line and started building.  Mariah and Emma helped by digging a moat and building a sea wall to protect the castle.  It was a race against time, as the tide was coming up further than I anticipated, and Mariah and Emma were fighting a losing battle against the sea.  Ryan pitched in to help in the battle against Poseiden, and we did manage to finish the castle in time for a few good pictures before the waves overcame our defenses and ravaged our castle.

At this point it started to rain a bit, and we heard some thunder off in the distance as well, so we packed everything back up and headed back to the house.  The kids played with their puzzles for a long time, and then headed up to our room to watch cartoons and play games on the iPad again.

We decided to have seafood for dinner, but instead of going to an expensive restaurant we cooked it at the house.  Mariah and Patty went out for supplies, while I chilled with the kids and worked on this blog a bit. Eventually I felt we'd had our fill of "screen time" and so I turned off all of the electronics and ushered the little ones back downstairs to play some games.  While Mariah was cooking snow crab legs, shrimp, corn on the cob, and hot dogs (for the kids), Ben, Emma, and I played a few games of Uno Attack.  Emma still needs a little bit of help with the rules, and keeping track of whose turn it is, but Ben has gotten the rules down really well at this point and takes great joy in sticking someone with a draw-two or skip card.

Before we knew it, dinner was ready and everyone gathered around and dug in.  I think this was probably the best dinner of the trip so far, which is really saying something as everything else has been so good so far.  We were feeding quite a crowd, so Mariah and Patty bought 14 pounds of crab legs and a few pounds of shrimp, and it all went fast.  The crab legs were delicious, truly some of the best I've ever had, and the shrimp were excellent as well.  One by one, we all slowed down, but in the end it was Zac, Mariah, and Jena that brought the team home and finished off the crab legs in a glorious mess of cracked shells and melted butter.  I can't remember the last time I laughed as hard as I did when Jena cracked and ate her very last bite, gave a mighty high-five to Mariah sitting next to her, and then collapsed back into her chair.

This is probably only half of what was cooked!

 

But we weren't done yet.  Mariah had already put a massive apple dump cake in the oven and we had vanilla ice cream waiting in our not-so-freezing freezer.  Soon (but never soon enough for me!) the dump cake was done and removed from the oven in all of it's golden, bubbling glory.  I was first into the fray and it was worth the wait. I guarantee you won't find a desert half as good at any seafood restaurant!

The kids played for a while longer and then we put in a DVD of the Little Mermaid once things started getting rowdy.  After the movie was over it was time for a bedtime story and some sleep for the children.

More rain in the forecast for the rest of the week, so I'm not sure how much more beach or pool time we'll be getting in.  We will have to keep an eye on the radar and see, but today was definitely a welcome break from our action packed start we had the last few days.