Where to start?!!! This last week was amazing! My parents go to Myrtle Beach every year and they always invite us, but we've never been able to go. This year I was bound and determined to get there. Thank goodness for our tax return...we used part of it to buy our plane tickets, and I'm so glad we did! We even had to buy one for Ellie this time, boo :( Anyway, it was totally worth it. Our flights there and back were quite rough with Ellie this time, but I'll just forget that happened! We made it there and back and that's all the matters. We had an overnight flight to get there, so we arrived in the morning and hit the beach! We didn't waste any time. It was still early in the season (but so much cheaper) so the water was quite chilly, but we braved it a few times. Ellie was perfectly content just getting her feet wet, so was I. It was just so nice to relax and soak up some sun! This is my type of vacation. The condo we stayed in was right on the beach. There were tons of hot tubs, 3 lazy rivers, some water slides, and there was a really neat kids pool that Ellie loved. They were a nice option to get out of the sun for awhile or when it was raining.
We took a walk down to the pier one day and it was beautiful. It was fun watching all the people trying to fish too. We saw lots of jellyfish and even saw a small shark!
We visited Broadway on the Beach and enjoyed walking around and checking out all the shops. We took pictures, fed the carp (which was disgusting! They are such ugly fish and there were so many of them it was ridiculous.), and Ellie got to have her first carousel ride. She had so much fun and was so mad when we had to leave. A typical two year old reaction.
One night we got to dine at the best restaurant ever, RIOZ Brazilian Steakhouse. My brother, Bryan, set it up for us to celebrate Mom's and my birthdays. Oh. My. Gosh. That meat was to die for. My stomach couldn't have been more happy. It was so nice of him to set it up and get us a reservation. I definitely want to go back there again someday!
All week we were there we kept seeing helicopters flying over the beach and we thought that would be really fun. Then we kept seeing advertisements for $20 helicopter rides. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it was. We totally got "touristed," which is the word I made up to perfectly describe what happened to us. Ha. So, it was our last day there and we finally decided to do it. We went to the helicopter place and walk in and see this huge map on the wall with routes mapped out and prices on them. Yeah...the $20 ride was a 2 mile radius around their area, no ocean view! Of course!!! It was annoying, but we were already there so we decided to do it anyway. $80 later, we were on the helicopter...for about 5 minutes, only about 30 seconds of that was over the ocean! Wow. That was the shortest ride ever. As I said, "touristed." Oh, but the best part was that throughout the whole ride the pilot kept making comments about "tipping your pilot." Ummm...no. I just got totally ripped off, and I didn't have any cash. So I don't really feel too bad about it. I guess I can now say I have ridden in a helicopter :) We were in and out of there in about 30 minutes! I got in the car and just had to laugh. This is one of those life experiences where you can be mad, but I chose to just laugh about it, because it was pretty funny! To top it all off, I hadn't had a McDonald's Coke all week and wanted one so bad, so we found a McDonald's close by and headed there. Yeah, their large drinks were $2 instead of $1 like almost all other McDonald's! TOURISTED again! What a day! At least we got a good story out of it and some cool pictures :)
Our last night there Mom and Dad took us to play mini-golf. It was so much fun! Ellie absolutely loved her tiny putter! She actually did well a few times hitting the ball...and then one time she just picked it up and dropped it in. That's my girl! The course was really fun and the evening weather was gorgeous. It was the perfect last day. We were so sad to leave. Grandma and Grandpa were just sad that Ellie left ;) This was a much needed trip for our family and I'm so grateful we were able so spend this time with my parents. I love the beach so much and I'm glad Ellie got to experience the real thing for the first time. We were all in heaven. We can't wait until we can go again!
