I said I'd update on my Myrtle Beach trip and that was now one month ago.
I can't believe it!
Well, we left here on July 3rd at 9:30am. We had a great 10 hours in the car and arrived in Springfield VA at 7pm. We found this great restaurant down the street, Mike's.
The food was incredible and they had Yuengling which is Ryan's favorite beer (but not sold north of NY)!
Maddie slept great until about 4am on the sleep sofa, and then ended up in our King Bed.
We left on July 4th after a continential breakfast and a stop at dunks and after 8 hours arrived at Uncle Dana's house in Myrtle Beach at about 6pm. We went with Uncle Dana to a Chinese Buffet that had so much food and was wonderful!
He took us on a quick drive so we could see his beach (Myrtle Beach State Park) and the local shopping areas as well as his great neighborhood.
(this is us walking the beach that first day!)
That night, after unpacking and settling into our rooms at UD's house; we had glasses of wine and heard fireworks. So we ran outside and saw fireworks right from the front yard! Maddie's first firework experience!! She loved them.
Monday morning Uncle Dana golfed (he golfs EVERY morning at 6am) and we packed up and headed to the beach. So lovely!! We packed lunches and Uncle Dana met us there after his golf game.
In the afternoon we let Maddie nap and then went grocery shopping. We decided that we'd do two or three nights out to dinner and most lunches we'd make and go to the beach. This was the plan... didn't exactly happen that way!
That night we made spaghetti and meatballs and Uncle Dana enjoyed with us. I just love that he drinks a glass of wine before bed!! (I love a
bottle glass of wine before bed too!)
Tuesday, we went to Broadway on the Beach which is a great shopping area where there are bridges in between with huge fish that you can feed and they're enormous! We had lunch there at the Liberty Brew House which is one of our favorites! Then we went to the Myrtle Beach Pelican's Game (they're a AAA Atlanta Braves Affiliate Baseball team) and UD came with us. Maddie was super excited because he bought her Ice Cream!
Wednesday we were back to the Beach and we made Pulled Pork for dinner. It came out great!
Thursday we went to the Ripleys Believe it or Not Aquarium. The only thing I didn't believe was how crowded it was there and how hot it was outside. The aquarium was nice, but so busy that we didn't get to see the show.
Down the street from UD's house is a park area with a pond and ducks. It has a running/walking path around the pond that was perfect for my 3 mile runs. (yes, I ran four times during that week!) We fed the ducks and played on the playground and just loved this little park!!
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| These little exercise stations were positioned all around the pond |
Friday we were back at the beach and I think we went out to dinner that night too, but I can't remember where!
Then it was time to leave Uncle Dana :(
We really had such a great time with him. Each night, after we put Maddie to bed, the three of us would sit in the living room (with our beer and wine) watching TV and just chatting. Uncle Dana told us stories of when he was young and before he was a christian. Then he shared stories of his early marriage years with Aunt Marsha. We learned so much and were so happy to share Maddie with him and have her know and love him like we do.
Saturday we set off to North Myrtle Beach - Little River where the condo was. We enjoyed the pool at the condo and had dinner out the first night and did another grocery shopping trip.
Sunday, the in-laws arrived at the condo. This condo- was - great!! Ryan's dad works with someone who in February sent out an email that said, "hey all, I have a condo in Myrtle Beach and if you want to stay there, it's just $85 a week"... so we jumped at the chance!! Figuring is was a dinky barebones condo, we didn't even care! But this was no dinky barebones condo! It was great! It had a breakfast bar, washer/dryer, dishwasher, pool, (two pools actually) and two large bedrooms and two full sized bathrooms with a screened in porch. Heaven!!
Maddie didn't know that her Grandpa and Mena were coming, so when they showed up she was elated!!
We did a few things with the in-laws but were still able to have time alone. In fact, they watched Maddie one night while Ryan and I went and had a date night.
Our favorite thing about South Carolina: HAPPY HOUR!! Beers are $2.50 and appetizers are half off!! Needless to say, date night turned into drunk night! But oh so fun!!
(this was us... haven't sat at a bar together in over 3 years!!)
We spent a lot of time at the beach and went back to Broadway at the Beach to go on the splash pad and Merry Go Round (Maddie's first experience on the Merry-go-round and she loved it!!)
My parents have friends that live in NC, the Burneys. They used to live in Attleboro and go to our church. We made plans to go to dinner with them on Wednesday night and I'm so glad we did. They're so sweet and they brought their grandson, Tripp who is about the same age as Maddie. They were so cute together. Somehow we didn't get a group pic, but we did get a few of the kids and one family one!
On Saturday, we headed home. After 10 hours, we hit Springfield VA and went to Mike's again for dinner... YUM!
Then after a Dunks run, we traveled another 10 hours and arrived in MA at about 7 pm.
Maddie was hysterical when we got home. It was like she had completely forgotten all about her toys at home... She kept running from room to room shouting, "Oh, my Kitchen is in here" "Oh, my baby is in here" "Mumma, my crayons!!"
Overall, it was an incredible two weeks. We will never ever forget the quality time we spent with Uncle Dana, the great conversations we had with him and the hospitality he showed towards us.
Our time with the in-laws was great too! They were very generous and gave us some great time together.
stay tuned for our camping trip...
