Myrtle Beach Vacation, 2013: Day 1

Our first day of vacation is coming to an end and what a day it has been!  Mariah and I woke up around 7 am this morning and finished packing up the van.  Luckily we had both taken Friday off and were able to do most of the packing then, so the work this morning went quickly.  We were planning on leaving at 8:30, but I think we rolled out of the driveway at close to 9.

I really don't know how we managed to pack everything in the van with one of the back seats up, but it all fit somehow.  We actually had even more stuff than pictured here!

We picked up Patty and then got some McDonald's for breakfast and were officially on the road at 9:20.

The drive was a long one.We hit lots of traffic on 95, which I expected, but I didn't think it would be quite as bad as it really was; we must have come to a standstill at least a dozen different times.  We made our first stop at the North Carolina border, and then picked up Arby's for lunch in Dunn.  The kids were real troopers and did a very good job for being stuck in the car for so long.  They watched two movies on the iPad at the start of the trip (Rio and the Princess and the Frog), and then listened to music on their mp3 players, singing the whole time.  Both kids even took a short nap after lunch.

Traffic cleared up a bit once we left 95 and got on 74, but as soon as we started getting near small towns like Chadbourn and Tabor City, things would slow to a crawl for 2 miles or more as traffic got backed up at stoplights.

Once we finally got to the Myrtle Beach area were were led astray again by GPS.  Both Apple and Google Maps pointed us to an address in Myrtle Beach proper instead of Surfside Beach, where the house actually is.  I questioned the directions given by Apple Maps and was sure it was the wrong location, but when we checked Google Maps and got the exact same thing I thought, "They can't both be wrong, right?" Wrong.  The joke's on me I guess.   

Then once we got to Surfside, I got confused between N Ocean Blvd and S Ocean Blvd, and we wasted another 10 minutes looking around the wrong 14th St!  I swear to all the urban planners that have ever existed, why the @*$#% would any place ever have more than one street with the same name?!  Why are there FOUR different 14th Streets (4 of 'em!)?  Did you run out of numbers? How can that happen?!

Anyway, despite our setbacks we reached our house at around 5;30 pm.  The house is great and the kids had a blast running around and exploring all the rooms.

There were definitely some oddities with the house though.  First, the front door was not locked at all; Ben actually just turned the knob and walked right in when he got up to the door.  Next we found that the coffee maker was turned on with an empty pot on!

After a quick dinner of cold cuts, and the arrival of Aunt Jena, Sam, and Noah, we all changed into our bathing suits and headed down to check out the beach.  Our house is right on a corner across the street from the beach and right in front of a public beach access, so it is a real short walk to get there.

The kids were so excited to see the ocean and get their feet wet!  The water was very nice and warm and they immediately started running and playing in the waves.  Gone are the days where Ben would watch the water cautiously and decline to stick a toe in, and Emma, as always, was ready to dive right in and get soaked and sandy.

After playing in the ocean for a while, we dragged the kids back to the house and let them try out the pool for a few minutes.  The pool water was also quite warm and felt great after such a long day.  The kids tried out their new swim vests and had a blast paddling around.  Ben was paddling like a champ and Emma wanted nothing more than to swim back and forth across the pool over and over again.

After 20 or 30 minutes we got them out, dried off, and changed into pajamas.  The kids had a snack and watched a cartoon.  We finally put them to bed around 9:30, but neither one went to sleep until after 10:30, which was understandable given their excitement and the strangeness of sleeping in a new place. Zac, Ellie, Ryan, and Megan showed up sometime around 10 after a very long drive down from northern VA.

Well, I see that I've been working on this for far too long, as it's after midnight now, so I guess I'd better sign off.  It was a great first day and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week being even better.