We stayed at Louise's condo at Sand Dunes Resort on 74th ave in Myrtle Beach. Louise works with him at Tindol; she and her husband went to Florida for a week, so she let us use their condo for the weekend, free of charge.
We left early Saturday - early for us anyway - and drove the whole way to the beach. We got there about 1 in the afternoon and got all our stuff up to the condo, got settled, then headed out to Barefoot Landing. Our first destination was a winery we'd heard about that makes fruit wines, like blackberry and strawberry. We tasted a bunch, bought a few bottles for gifts and for ourselves, bought a blackberry wine slushy, and headed out to check out the shops. We found a few more gifts and me some pretty shell earrings, then picked up our wine and moved to the other side of the landing.
We had lunch at T Bonz where I had the best steak of my life .. or at least one of them .. and watched the boats coming in to the waterway ahead of what looked to be a bad storm. We could hear the thunder and see the streaks of lightning as we left and decided to look at a few more shops. Heading up to one, there was this squirrel. big fella. Cute as can be, sitting on a stone bench. When I talked to him he crept a little closer, and just looked at me, even held out his paw once. I told him I didn't have anything for him, and followed Jason into the store. When I came out we walked down the sidewalk and there was the squirrel again, sitting up, waiting. Looking right at me. I talked to him and again he came closer. We walked on, because I didn't have anything for him.
We went into a candy store while we were there, and found a bunch of sugar-free gummy stuff, which made Jason very happy. He was able to splurge but not splurge. They had a ton, too, all sorts, including gummy fish, and licorice!
We went to a couple more shops and then headed back to the car, and I commented that I wondered where the squirrel was. And as i rounded to my side of the car, there he was. Sitting by my door. He skittered under the truck next to my car but looked out at me. Jason had to see, and eventually the squirrel moved across the road .. I chased him a bit just be sure he wasn't in the road, and we left. I had made a squirrel friend, though! I wish I'd thought to take a picture. He was precious.
We then hit the Tanger Outlet Mall there in Myrtle beach, where we looked at some neat stuff, and I ended up buying a cute skirt - white with colorful embroidered flowers - and a top that's like crushed velvet and jersey in blue and brow (it looks a lot better than I'm describing it I promise), but we didn't find anything for Jason. They just don't have the right stores for him to find clothes, sadly.
After that we stopped at the grocery store right there on 17 .. which was chaos, but we survived it. We got enough food for the weekend, and after hunting for watermelon and ketchup (which we ended up not needing) we got through the self-checkout somehow and out to the parking lot. While we were loading the car we saw a bunch of fire engines and such racing past, but didn't think anything of it.
Next time, we'll think twice about it.
When we got to our condo, there were fire engines and ambulances everywhere, The parking garage was blocked off, and no one was allowed in the building. We had no idea what was going on .. which was not happy-making in the least, so we left everything in the car in hopes that it would make it until they let us in - we had ice cream and stuff in the car! We walked the beach a bit, though it was a little hard since we didn't have the right shoes for walking the beach, and finally they started letting people in all but the affected floors. Apparently, there was a kitchen fire, so the 10th and 11th floors needed some cleanup. We were on the 9th. Yay!
We spent the rest of the night kinda just relaxing. We cooked a pizza for dinner, and watched TV and I knitted, and we finally crashed in bed around midnight or so.
Sunday we got up and went to breakfast at this place Tonya P told him about, and it didn't disappoint. It was a really good breakfast - the french toast was much better than the pancakes - and well worth the value. Plus, the painted windows were beautiful, and the birds in the upstairs loft were entertainment. After that we stopped at one of those beach-y shops for beach shoes and sunglasses. I got a pair of cheap water shoes and a pair of cheap sandals, which would later be an issue though they're impossibly cute and go nicely with my new skirt. The sunglasses I got are totally J-Lo sunglasses, big and gaudy .. and I have to admit it, kinda cute.
After that we went to Broadway at the Beach - another shopping center filled with the cheesy shops you always find at places like that. It's also where Planet Hollywood, the Hard Rock Cafe, and Magicquest can be found. Woohoo! I decided to wear those new white sandals since I was wearing my new white skirt, and for a while they were fine. We walked the boardwalk and fed the fish .. giant monster fish that follow you along the boardwalk with their creepy mouths open .. and got tickets to the IMax 3D show about the coastal oceans of South Africa. I realized I needed to change shoes because I was hurting a bit, and after doing that we saw a Rack Room, so we popped in and I found a few pairs I liked there. We didn't have time to shop though, so we opted to go back.
The IMax show was neat .. a bit preachy with its message, but good enough for what we paid .. and we went back to the shoe store. I ended up coming out of there with some white Skechers wedge sandals, two pairs of Skechers shoes in black and brown (in the same style), and a pair of flip-flops for the beach. Way more than I intended on buying, but as Jason points out, I don't really buy shoes very often. After that we hit the candy store, and got some chocolate pieces to try. I finally got to try a buckeye .. yum! We left there with a little more chocolate than we probably needed to have, and headed back to the condo again.
Dinner Sunday night was hot dogs and french fries, after we ran back out for the hot dog buns were forgot to get the first time out, and we found another grocery store in a little better location. Then we went for a walk along the beach as the sun was going down. It was so nice. The water is so warm .. especially after a long day heating up, and we walked a long ways, then turned around and headed back, so as not to repeat the events of the trip for Stephanie and Joe's wedding when we had to call Jason's parents to come get us we'd walked so far.
Another night of TV and knitting and ice cream - Saturday night we had blackberry chocolate chip, Sunday it was blueberry pie - and we crashed again around midnight. I got quite a bit of knitting done, mostly dishcloths because the plan was to leave a thank you gift for Louise, with some dishcloths and goodies. I also started the shawl Larissa bought me the kit for, and got a fair ways into that, plus started work on some birthday knitting.
Monday morning Jason got up before me and let me sleep while he got up, got showered, and sat out on the balcony reading. I got up a little while later, put sunscreen on so we could go walk the beach again. The water was colder this time - it was only about 10am - but still very nice. I caught sight of some pelicans at one point, and as I turned to see them we then saw a pod of dolphins out in the ocean a little ways. That was a treat! Jason also dug up a crab for me; I'd never seen them all buried in the sand before, so that was neat.
After realizing we'd walked a while with the sun on one side of our faces we turned around, and started back. About halfway back I saw a man pointing at something for his two young sons, and I looked to the water between them and us, figuring he'd seen some of the little fish I'd been seeing in the surf almost the whole walk. What I saw instead was a fin, about 3" high. I first thought it was a fish, but then I saw the tail fin and realized it was a small shark. A shark! Before I could worry really, a wave pulled it away and it tumbled a bit, fighting I imagine to get into deeper water. That, I will say, was one of the highlights of the trip. I've never been that close to anything like that except in an aquarium, and even there, I think they're further than we realize. This shark probably could have bitten our feet had he been so inclined. I'm glad he wasn't.
Jason commented that we'd not seen a lot of sea birds. Just then were got a fun little show. one black-headed seabird of some type had some bread, and was tearing it up. Three more came by, trying to get some, and the black-headed one wasn't sharing. But I told him he needed to be nice and share .. and he did! It was so funny. About the time I said that he started letting the other get some of the pieces he was tearing off the chunk he'd found. It was so cute.
We'd gotten most of the cleaning up done, and went to Tanger again to pick up a couple things for Louise's basket .. we ended up in Harry and David and got a few things there before heading back. Then we made the beds, swept and vacuumed, rigged up a water bottle for the tomato plant on the balcony, and finally got on the road again about 5pm. We got home by about 10pm, which was pretty good timing considering we stopped -twice- for food .. once we intended to get something but Jason opted not to order there. I tend to trust my husband's instincts on that, and wasn't starving, so I didn't care.
It was also very nice to come home to a more-or-less clean house. We didn't leave it a disaster before we left, so we were able to come in and relax. I just have a few things to do to clean up from us bringing everything in from the trip, and we'll be back to normal. Which is good, because my classes start on Thursday, and this is gonna be a whirlwind 6 weeks of class.
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