Our Sad Little Beach Trip

Sorry about the depressing title, but our trip to Myrtle Beach really was the worst vacation ever. Aside from our circumstances, which, granted, didn't help matters, the whole experience was a disaster. It all started when our resort, which looked very nice and family friendly on the internet, made a mistake and put us in a smoking room. We hardly noticed it the first night and were in no condition to make a fuss. But as the weekend drew closer, apparently, chain-smoking alcoholics moved in all around us. We called the front desk, and were first assured that we were on a non-smoking floor. When I called back and asked that security come and check out the smell, I was told that we were, in fact, on a smoking floor and the only other non-smoking room they had was in an even dumpier building than ours. Plus, we'd have to forfeit our ocean view for a nice parking lot gaze and from the looks of it, we might have even gotten front row seats to several drug deals. Not to mention, there was a cigarette butt cannister on the balcony of the supposedly new non-smoking room! We declined the offer, and decided to try to make the best of our room with a large bottle of Febreeze. Despite our best efforts, the smell got worse as the week progressed, and our final night there, I fell asleep in the kitchen because I couldn't breathe in our bedroom. Then, around 3:30 a.m. the next morning, we awoke to the sound of the ice machine right outside our door, and a presumably drunk woman loudly proclaiming the adult acts she was and wasn't willing to participate in with her...er... party. That was the final straw; we checked out later that morning, a day early, and spent the remainder of our vacation in Augusta, waiting on our Monday doctor's appointment. It was so refreshing to be in a clean room with polite staff. Although we met a few nice people at the beach, most people were extremely rude, and we simply could not get away from second hand smoke and tobacco cups.

However, we did manage to squeeze a little fun out of our trip:


This is Cline and Christa on the Lazy River. She didn't seem to enjoy the sand as much, and the waves were pretty rough, but she loved this ride. This was a great afternoon for us - it was wonderful to spend some time focusing on Christa and just having fun with her, since the previous weeks had been sooooo crazy. She kept crawling from Cline's float to my float, and when we put her in her own float, she kept trying to drink the water!

They had a great 1 ft. wading pool for the little ones. I'm so disappointed the beach was so dirty, because there were tons of great family activities all around. I want to find a vacation spot that has such great amenities but with nice clean resorts that you can rent for something less than $500 per night. Cline pointed out that there is such a place, and it's called Disney World, and that is why people travel from all over the world to visit there.

This is Christa and I in the Pirate ship. She really liked it, but we were using the slow camera so we couldn't catch the smiles.

Here were are after dinner at Broadway by the Beach - a fabulous entertainment center with amusement parks, water activities, and tons of shops and restaurants. The food was great - we didn't have a bad meal the whole time we were there. But neither of us had much of an appetite that whole week, so we didn't get to fully enjoy that part.

Finally, a couple of attempted beach shots on our way out of town.

Needless to say, I don't think we'll be going back to this beach anytime soon. One more funny thing happened after we returned to Augusta. I was pretty sick the whole trip from the pregnancy (and still am - uggggghhhh - I am so ready for that to go away). Since we were in close quarters in the hotel rooms for the week, Christa was pretty much forced to listen and/or watch while Mommy had her special time with the porcelain throne. By the end of the trip, she crawled over to the toilet with me, pulled herself up, and tried to cough and spit into the bowl. I guess she thought it looked like fun. Cline and I laughed hysterically - she was so sweet the whole trip and got lots and lots of extra hugs and kisses.