Back to reality

Monday and back to work.  It seems like just yesterday we were heading out at 2am for the long drive to Myrtle Beach. 

Vacation started pretty poorly for me.  Last Thursday, we decided to leave a day earlier than we originally planned to hopefully avoid all the traffic we run into heading into MB on Saturday.  The condo rental managers cause the major traffic jam by only renting Saturday to Saturday.  Needless to say there's a mass exodus as well as a mad rush to arrive all at the same time.  We packed up Thursday night after I mowed the grass in the middle of a rainstorm and I ended up heading to bed around 10pm.  As we were leaving the house, I noticed we, as well as a few of our neighbors were subject to a teenage prank and had our mailboxes smashed.  I don't get the fascination of smashing someone's $150 mailbox (yes $150 due to neighborhood rules on the mailbox).  I've been cow tipping, toilet papering and I've even lit a bag of dog poo on fire on someone's porch and laughed hysterically as they stomped the fire out but I've never even thought about smashing someone's mailbox. 

The 2 am start totally backfired.  Both the kids decided it was party time and never fell back to sleep.  The peaceful planned beginning of the trip was anything but peaceful.  We ended up at a rather old hotel (read not very nice at all) at about 4:30pm.  Thankfully we only had to stay at the hotel for one night and that we were all too tired to really care. 

The rest of the trip was pretty typical Myrtle Beach.  We spent mornings and early afternoons on the beach or in the pool and evenings wandering about.  The condo was once again nice.  A bit abused buy renters but overall very nice.  It backed up to a golf course and had two pools for us to take advantage of.  Renting a condo in Myrtle Beach is by far a better idea than a hotel.  The hotels tend to be a bit on the nasty side unless you want to spend a few hundred a night.  Our 2 bedroom condo with living room, two full baths, a fully equipped kitchen and a pool about 300 feet from the front door as a mere $120 a night.  So much more comfortable and we ate in the condo about half the time or more.

We ended up miniature golfing, hitting a small amusement park, shopping, eating and just chillin.  The kids did manage to weasel a couple of souvenirs out of us as well as a few hermit crabs.  I love the MB area.  The weather is always HOT, it's pretty affordable compared to other beach destinations on the East coast and there's plenty to do with the family. The only complaint I have is that the area is not big on decent food unless you like all you can eat fried seafood buffets which we did not partake this trip.  The best meal we had out was at a place called Cooters and the tastiest item I had was something they call turds!  Turds are a fresh jalapeno, stuffed with cream cheese and a cocktail wienie wrapped with bacon and deep fried.  It was really good but I wouldn't recommend turds to be a typical item in your diet. 

The drive home was long.  We drove through rain most of the time and we were hung up in stop and go traffic for about 2-1/2 hours.  I'm convinced I could make the trip by myself in 11 hours or so but the trip home ended up lasting about 16 with the traffic, potty stops, and lunch and dinner stops.  Shawn was very good on the way home since we gave him a new video game to play but Katelyn was her typical diva self.  One side note though, the little diva is finally potty trained.  Seems like one day the light bulb turned on and she's never looked back.  No more diapers for me!!!!!

Sunday was of course spent doing yard work, fixing the mailbox, cleaning house and just catching up. 

I will try to post a link to a site later tonight with all 148 pictures we took on vacation for any of you interested in sifting through them. 

This just in.....Lisa is now looking for places for next year's vacation destination.  Crazy, crazy woman!