Myrtle Beach Fun

Ok - we are officially back from vacation. Our return was greeting with a sick doggie and now Connor has an ear infection, but we had a great time.

We went to Myrtle Beach, SC. It was the first time any of us had been there and we had a blast. We stayed at the Dunes Village Resort (www.dunesvillage.com), and it was such a nice hotel.

This is a picture of the indoor waterpark. There were two of them, and Connor was in love!

Some highlights;

1. Mike and Connor got spray-on tattoos. Connor got a green frog and Mike got the Harley  Davidson logo. It was bike week while we were there. He thought the tattoo would macho him up a bit and would help him earn enough street credit to help the bikers overlook his mini-van.

2. We got to the beach fairly late on our drive down day. Connor wanted to go to the beach anyway even though the sun was setting. He dashed into the water like some long lost sea creature. Olivia acted like everything might be covered in hot lava. By the end of the trip - she was having a blast playing in the sand and romping in the waterpark.

3. After much convincing form Mike - I took Olivia down one of the waterslides. I had her facing me to decrease the splash, and she seemed to like it.

4. Connor loved the water slides. Two were deemed scary, and two were acceptable, but he still liked to ride on Mom or Dad's laps.

5. We went to an aquarium, and alligator park (very cool - 100s of alligators), two amusement parks, and a bunch of arcades. Connor is a cheap arcade date - you don't necessarily have to actually put a quarter in for him to have fun.

6. We went to a bar for lunch one day where you could throw peanuts on the floor. At home, we have had to tell Connor twice now that you can't throw stuff on the floor at home.

7. We went to Margaritaville for lunch. Connor got a "Cheeseburger in Paradise" and declared it icky. Jimmy Buffet would be horrified.

8. They had a feeding time thing at the alligator park where they threw meat to a pond of alligators. The highlight of the show was two turkeys. they were not alive - but did have heads and feet - ick. One of the alligators made off with an entire turkey. We saw him later gliding along with it gripped in his mouth. It's probably like an alligator fantasy day. I can see it, five years from now, he's sunning himself on the bank, and re-telling the story of the day that he caught the whole turkey and got to eat it all by himself. Then they other alligators are like, "Larry, be quiet, you've told that story like 100 times."

9. The had the NICEST porta potties. Who knew that I'd ever get to use that phrase? They had porta potties for hotel guests to use if they were on the beach. They were air conditioned, had wall paper, hardwood floors, and crown molding. Very fancy.

10. The kids were great on the drive down, about 9 hours. On the way back - Olivia was a little cranky, but overall, not too bad.

A great adventure!