Myrtle Beach - Part 1

We are back from our trip to Myrtle Beach, where we celebrated our birthdays (Ron's 40th, eek!), our anniversary (13th) and Father's Day... We had an awesome time, got our fill of sea, sand, and seafood... (well, we can always use more of all that!)

The kids loved it. Ariana stood up from sitting without holding onto anything for the first time out on the beach in the sand, and just stood there for a good 15 seconds before she plopped back down. She loved the pools, we would all four of us go in at the same time and "float" the kids... she squeeled from happiness. She only tried to eat one seashell, which I fished out of her mouth. They both did very well through the drive and while there, sometimes dining out late into the night, like the first night when we celebrated Ron's birthday at the Sea Captain's House after we drove in and by the time we finished that dinner, it was 11 p.m. Amazingly, my baby was still up, eating all the table food she could get out of me and not fussy at all.

Our oceanfront suite was great, Caleb loved his room with the bunkbed and he absolutely adored (as we all did) the balcony overlooking the ocean and pools, spending as much time out there as possible, starting from breakfast to our afternoon drinks and snacks, to doing schoolwork every chance he got, and watching the ocean waves at night (and not being too crazy about the fireworks that many people seem to love setting off on the beach at night - he thinks they're too loud).

The resort had about 10 pools, both indoor and outdoor, kiddie pools and lazy rivers... they were soooo fun. When we got tired of that, we went down to the ocean. The ocean was as warm as bathwater, perfect for toddlers and their mothers who are used to warm Virginia lakes... I really fell in love with the ocean in this place. Even the salt didn't bother me this time, it just made me crave crab legs! Of which we had plenty, as well as other seafood and a really awesome Brazilian Steakhouse, where they kept bringing out all types of grilled meats to our table and had such things on the buffet as quail eggs... we dined well.

There is so much to do at Myrtle Beach other than the beach and we did some of them... visited Broadway at the Beach, which is a huge outdoor shopping/entertainment/dining area with an Aquarium... We also checked out Family Kingdom, an amusement park next to the beach...

I played during the day with the family and worked nights, late into the night by the sound of the ocean surf... I could have stayed at this place for two weeks... we thought about extending our trip, but my work got really crazy towards the end and I had to come home to finish it all... maybe next time we will go longer. Caleb is already asking to go back. He said "let's go back to the hotel next to the beach."

And now, the first installment of pictures...