Beaches

Last weekend we took an impromptu trip to Myrtle Beach. We can do this because a) my parents have a house there and b) it is only a 3 1/2 hour drive to get from door to door. Very doable and a quick trip. We waited until Ashley got out of school and off we went.

Our first stop on the trip was a detour to downtown Wilmington, which isn't really a detour as it is about 5 minutes out of our way. When we were there a few months ago, we ate at Front Street Brewery one night for dinner, and we have been wanting and wanting to go back. Cheap food, good beer, and a cool restaurant make a great combination. Seriously, I had a fried shrimp dinner for $6.99, plus appetizers were half off, so we ordered chips and salsa for $1.99. The food? Amazing. Ray has ordered ribs both times, and as someone who loves ribs, he says these are the best he has ever had. The kids menu is good too and it is noisy enough of a restaurant that the girls don't have to be as quiet as you do in some restaurants.

Back on the road and to my parents house. Saturday we got up, ate breakfast and headed to the beach. The only public beach access we know of that has decent bathrooms is at Myrtle Beach State Park, so we always go there. We might take our chances next time as the line to get into the park was crazy. We stayed for almost 4 hours, and would have stayed longer, but we were out of drinks and no water and lots of sun isn't good. Back to my parents house, I took the girls to the pool in the neighborhood while Ray rested (he had run 5 miles that morning, my lazy-butt had not).

We always have to hit Broadway at the Beach while there for rides and some shopping. I had $40 in gift cards/coupons for Build-A-Bear, so the girls both got a bear and we only had to spend $.97.

At this point, it's almost 8:00pm, and neither one of them had napped, so home and bed. We were actually amazed at how well behaved the girls were with the amount of activity in the day and no nap. Especially for Audrey.

Sunday started off kind of bad - Ashley was stung by a bee at the playground. She was fine, but now if she even remotely hears a buzzing sound, watch out. She is petrified. We did a little bit of tax-free shopping at the outlets and then went for a round of mini-golf where Ashley hit the craziest hole in one I have ever seen. The ball went off course, hit some rocks, bounced back, hit a wall, and then rolled into the hole!

We headed back towards Raleigh around 2:30 to get home to the evil dog (see yesterday's post) and get the van cleaned up before the week from hell. Not really from hell, but this week starts cheerleading for Ashley, two day trips for me for work, open house for Ashley's school, and we have family coming into town this weekend. Send bottles of wine now.