North Myrtle Beach 2017

"I don't care what the west coast says 'cause I love those Myrtle Beach, love those Myrtle Beach days..." -The Fantastic Shakers

In July we took our annual summer trip to North Myrtle.  It was the 8th beach trip of our marriage, our 5th with Joseph (unless you could 2012 when he was still inside of me ;-) ) and our 2nd with Lizzie.  A good time was had by all (well, for them most part...some pictures of Elisabeth may lead you to believe otherwise.)


Our trip down was mostly uneventful.  Most people who grew up going to the Grand Strand know that there are very few places in between the Triad and Myrtle to eat outside of good ol' Rockingham, NC.  And Rockingham seems to be closing more restaurants every year.  So it was the Rockingham McDonalds for a good ol' gourmet breakfast.  Definitely not fancy, but Lizzie didn't seem to mind, so long as she got her eggs!

Most of you who know our family know that Lizzie didn't do especially well with car rides the first year of her life.  And by "not well" I mean screaming, at the top of her lungs, for hours on end, every single car ride.  Seriously, y'all, my decibel meter app on my phone once clocked her at 115 decibels during peak scream.  So, needless to say, during that time we carried hearing protection with us.  Here you can see Joseph on the beginning of our journey without hearing protection (the silence of which lasted just until we got out of our neighborhood in Greensboro and then the screaming began), and midway there sleeping with shooting earmuffs on.  Good times, good times.

Once at the beach, we managed to cram lots of fun into 5 days.  There was, of course, ample time on the beach itself, the main part of any summer beach trip...

View of Daddy from our room.  Thankful that every morning he went down and set up our stuff before I brought the kiddos down!

This is the second year that I've worn Lizzie in the Wrapsody WrapDuo water wrap at the beach.  It.  Is.  Amazing.  Going in the water while keeping her safe and keeping my hands free = a win.

A nap on the beach for this worn out princess

Of course we had to do a little outlet shopping while there, and I captured this beautiful sunset from the Tanger Outlets our first night there...

There was lots of time for riding rides, both at the OD Pavilion near our hotel...

And at Broadway at the Beach (which, every trip, I'm pretty sure is actually the hottest place on earth...pictures do not do justice to the sweat pouring off of everyone in the 3pm Grand Strand sun here)...

There was lots of good food involved, including but not limited to Carolina Roadhouse...

We had almost an hour wait at the Roadhouse and this hungry, sleepy boy, who had been napping in the car on the way from our hotel, wasn't exactly chipper or happy

Key West Crazy in Little River, absolutely one of our all-time favorite places to eat...

We even enjoyed the breakfast at our hotel restaurant several mornings...

The evening before we left to come back home we told Joseph we'd take one last walk on the beach.  Not planning to swim that night, he wore his seersucker shorts and a tee-shirt.  But "dipping toes in the water" led to "wading."  And "wading" led to swimming.  So...yeah.

The trip home was, as you can imagine, complicated further by the fact that Little Miss Screamer started cutting a new tooth the day we left the beach.  You know how I prefer my natural remedies on things?  I don't typically do teething gel, baby Advil, or things like that?  Well, to put in perspective how bad this situation was, I checked out at the Rockingham NC Walgreens with extra strength baby Oraljel, baby Motrin, and a "razz-berry" teeter.  The cashier looked at me, shook her head, and said "You're either on the way to or from Myrtle Beach, and from the looks of what you're buying you're not having a fun trip."  Yeah, you think?  Anyway, teething gel, some meds, and a teether in hand we stopped at the Rockingham Pizza Inn for lunch where we were finally able to calm her down...

Teether in hand.  Glassy eyes from all the screaming that happened in the car prior to this.

All in all, it was a fun trip.  Joseph is already asking how long before we go back next summer, and I suspect Lizzie may enjoy our 2018 trip a bit more, too!

Classic.