Myrtle Beach

We desperately needed to get out of town a few weeks ago…. I felt trapped in my house. Plus, I have this mental timer in my head that goes off when we need a vacation every so many weeks. It was going off!

We decided to check out Myrtle Beach and see what all the hype was about. 
I could see the appeal, for a teenager. To be honest I wasn’t impressed. 
But I’ll leave the complaints to myself.

I’m dubbing Myrtle Beach “Lazy River-Mini Golf Town”. I know, creative (and catchy).
But it seems an appropriate name, at least better than the one it already has! I didn’t see a single Crepe Myrtle tree… but I did see 29 mini golf courses, and the beach was lined with each hotel featuring ‘lazy rivers’.

It almost seems a crime that we didn’t take our family mini golfing.
But we did spend ample time in a lazy river.

Ample as in hours!
Our hotel had 4 pools, hot tubs, 2 lazy rivers (of course), and waterslides. The kids loved it and actually had to be bribed to go to the beach.
When Kennedy wasn’t in the lazy river she was strolling around and around the pool side.

I promised the beach would be more fun than the waterslides. Here they sat, proving me wrong.
Jefferson tried to boogie-board, but the water was too cold.


Well, these 2 are having fun!


Grant chasing seagulls

Kennedy running away

That night we caved into the tourism and bought tickets to Medieval Times.
I don’t think we’ve had as much fun since our Disneyland trip. It was amazing!
 

I felt like we had actually time warped into the past.
Everyone (well except Kennedy and I), waiting for the show to begin.   

It was a jousting competition, and we were cheering for the Red/Yellow horse and rider.
My boys got really into it!
Here are the riders coming into the arena.
 

There was a storyline with actors and an actual plot, but I wasn’t paying attention. I was honestly more fun watching my kids’ reactions to the show…. yelling, cheering, booing, gasping, eyes glued in suspense.
Grant had a hard time watching parts. He spent quite a bit of time with his hands over his eyes, peeking through his fingers. 
 

okay, now it’s safe to look…

Jousting. The boys gleamed a lot of information from the competition and have been practicing their jousting skills at home.
It’s an actual hobby, with real competitions. Who knows, maybe it’s in their future.

The sword fighting was hands-down the best part. There were sparks flying from the metal.
I know these are choreographed fights, but I was certain someone would die.
In fact, our Red/Yellow knight did die (as part of the show), which upset my kids. They just chose someone else to cheer for instead.

And what’s better than a sword fight?
A sword fight on a horse….

Oh my, I almost forgot the best part. We weren’t given any sort of silverware, so we had to eat with our hands.
okay, moving on

The next day we went to Myrtle Beach State Park. It was beautiful!
Shawn and the kids on a walking trail

It started raining that afternoon, but it didn’t stop us from having fun.
I’m mildly obsessed with National Parks and State Parks. I have to see/do every single activity available, and I force my kids to read every sign post (they love me for it).  There was an opportunity to earn a patch if we completed 2 scavenger hunts. 
The kids actually WANTED to complete them with me. 
See, they’re smiling…

It’s really difficult to write on wet paper, but we managed to earn our patches.

Just look at this wet cutie!


We had a nice mini-vacation. It was a wonderful break from reality and we got to see new parts of the country. I can cross Myrtle Beach off my list of places to visit. I don’t think we’ll go back, really, unless we are in the mood for some really high adventure miniature golfing.