We've got the family together and we are taking a day trip down to Myrtle Beach. Just cruising slow along the back roads taking in the laid back country life. The houses are beautiful older country homes with large wrap around porches, giant yards and mature trees full of Spanish moss. I'd love to stop on the side of the road and bring some back up to the house, but I don't know if it would grow in North Carolina. So, I will content myself with taking these mini vacations and enjoy the way the Spanish moss seems to not only thrive but provide a shady cover when the trees have lost many of their leaves for the winter.
This is Ravyn's first time to the ocean and I am more than excited to see how she reacts. After parking, we strap her into her new princess umbrella stroller and away we go, down to the board walk, past the shops some of them open but many closed for the season. Remember, it's only January 12th, so don't expect too much. I see the Gay Dolphin is open, mental note, make sure to take Tanya in there after beach time and show her the Faerie figurines.
The beach is as beautiful as ever, I am more than happy to be here. I had a rocky beginning to the trip, but won't go into detail. Just know, by the time we finally made it and I was able to walk in the sand and wade in the surf, I had reached an emotional crisis. Thankfully Manannán mac Lir welcomed me and wrapped his healing over me.
Ravyn was a bit intimidated at first. Daddy took her by the hand and led her down to the sea, she ran from the gentle waves, then turned around and went right back to the waters edge.
I was so excited to see her overcome her fear as quickly as she did. She even got some sea water in her mouth, and made funny faces til Mommy brought her something to drink to get the salt out of her mouth.
After that Abi stepped up and showed her it could be fun to play in the bubbles coming from the sea. At first she still wasn't too sure, but after I went in with her made a game of picking her up when a *big* wave came, she started giggling and saying more, more Abi! LOL!! She's growing so fast and changing every day.
She left her mark on the beach and made us all teary eyed over her cute little foot prints.
She tried to pick one up and got all upset when she erased it. OMG I forgot to tell you... she's an expert at dropping the F Bomb! We were in the grocery on Sunday and outta the blue here comes plain as day f%$#. People were looking at us like we were crazy, so I started saying truck, Papa's at work in his truck. Ravyn was having NO part of that, but she did stop and let us get the groceries paid for and back in the truck before she began again, LOL!! Yes, I know it's not really funny, but if you knew our family, you would see even at 18 months, she fits right in...
She tried eating the sand where her foot print had been, as you can imagine, THAT didn't go over well at all. It took all of us to get her little mouth cleaned out. By the time we were finished she was crying and screaming, but her Bubby brought the sippy cup and all was well once again in Miss Ravyn's world, LOL!!
After the beach we drove over to Broadway on the Beach and went to Ripley's Aquarium and again had such a great time! Ravyn loved the fishes and she even touched a Ray and a Horseshoe crab. I particularly liked the little tank with the different species of seahorses. I was so engrossed in watching them float around, everyone else kinda moved on and left me there at that tank. I think all in all we spent about 2 hours at the aquarium taking our time seeing the exhibits and just enjoying the time together as family.
We wrapped up our trip at Hard Rock Cafe where we enjoyed some awesome yummies. Our server there was so cool, he said he has been with the company for quite a few years. Let me tell you, if every eating establishment had just one person like this guy, there would many happy customers all across the country.
Back in the truck, GPS set to home and off we go. Of course it's dark and I can't see much, but we did take the route that drove us right by Kenny Chesney's North Carolina home. I'm going back in the daylight to take some pictures. It's a beautiful sight at night with all the lights, I can only imagine what it looks like by the light of day.
So, there you have a wrap up of our little road trip this past Saturday. Have I told you recently how much I LOVE having our own transportation with the bonus if it being large enough to seat all of us with NO problems? I see many more day trips on the horizon... LOL!!!
