When you are on vacation, you basically become a tourist who does touristy things. The “locals” can usually pick you out of the crowd b/c you’re the goof with the lost look on your face but have your camera in hand. You’ll try to document through pictures as much of your trip as you can because you’ll want to relive the experiences again in the future. (Besides, how else are you going to bore your friends except through slideshows of your vacations that they weren’t on and weren’t invited to?) 
I might have gone overboard a bit with this touristy photos concept recently when we went on our trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. You can check out the good pictures from our trip at our FLICKR site but just to let you know, I took over 700 pictures in 5 days with my new camera I bought! If it moved, I caught it with my camera. I’ll try to use a little more discretion next trip but I was having so much fun it didn’t matter. Besides, little Makenna and her wonderful mommy made beautiful subjects. :)
Time seems to have flown by since we took our vacation to Myrtle Beach last month. I still feel like I haven’t gotten back into the “groove” yet because we had SO MUCH FUN! We stayed in a home inside of Ocean Lakes Family Campground that one of Kimi’s relatives owned. 
It was just big enough for all of us, so it worked out perfectly. Kimi, Makenna, and I all flew down on Sunday May 20th and then Sherry and Grandma Betty flew down on that Wednesday. This was a trip of firsts for little Makenna. It was her first flight (which she slept the WHOLE time, even the ones on the way home!), it was her first time at the beach, it was her first trip out of state (besides Texas), it was her first vacation… she even cut a new tooth while we were there! 
Early in our vacation, being only a half mile away, we hit the beach almost immediately! The place where we were staying at had a golf cart that we could use to travel around inside of the campground areas. We put that golf cart to some serious use, let me tell ya. With gasoline at over $3/gallon, we used the electric golf cart to get dinner, go swimming, go walking at the beach, and roam around the place. If we could have kicked the top speed above 10 mph, I might have even taken it to the shopping malls around town! The word “campground” doesn’t really do justice to how beautiful the place is. There are 2 to 3 story homes on stilts built up all over the place facing multiple little ponds that had lighted fountains in the center. 
At night, with the lighting of the houses reflecting across the ponds, and with the ocean waves pounding their melodic sounds over and over again, the place was just intoxicating. Kimi literally said that this was our new vacation spot every year! Haha! We even accidentally drove through a neighborhood just outside of the campgrounds and they too had ponds and parks nestled between some beautiful homes (for sale!!!). I don’t think we’ll be moving anytime soon but Kimi’s put this place on the list “just in case”. :)
The week we were there was Biker Week. Two full weeks worth. That was really the only downside to our trip. We were constantly on the look out for bikers because they were everywhere! You’d pull up to a stoplight and hear that familiar vroooom and look around only to see 50 burly men and women on motorcycles surrounding our minivan on all sides. (Yes, I did say minivan…long story). That was just the incentive we needed to travel around the state to get out of there. Among several of the places we visited, the most memorable were Ripley’s Aquarium, Hard Rock Café, Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, Tanger Outlet (Kimi’s favorite), and many tourist traps along the way. Our best part of the trip though was the 2 hour drive south to Charleston.
As you may know already, Charleston was one of the founding cities in the United States. This place is OOOLD. But in a good way. We stopped right outside of Charlestown and visited a plantation home. I wasn’t impressed but then again, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. The petting zoo they had on site was the best part for me if that tells you anything. Haha. We then made our way to downtown and hooked up with a horse drawn carriage ride through the oldest parts of the city for an up close and personal tour. 
Honestly, our tour guide did an incredible job. He was very knowledgeable about the history of the homes and streets, like in Battery Park where they hung 30 pirates for a week to scare off the other pirates. How cool is that tidbit? The homes, some as old as 200+ years, have been kept up really well and are very colorful. We all had a good time there. I probably wouldn’t want to go back to Charlestown because it’s very crowded and busy, but it was worth fighting through in order to come away with a little more respect and understanding of our country’s history. 
We finished up our trip with some more beach time before heading back home. The last full day we were there was the best beach day we’d had. We visited a pier about a mile away from where we were staying. The signs that warned fisherman not to put out shark bait was a little disconcerting but the place was way cool. We stayed for a bit before heading back to our place for more beach time. The waves were HUGE! I body boarded for about 2 hours straight in 10 to 12 foot waves. Soooo much fun. 
Miss Makenna didn’t like the water b/c it was cold and too big for her but she loved playing in the surf. She learned that the sand and shells don’t taste too good but they make for some nice squishy finger fun. :) I would build a sand castle and she would knock it down and giggle. It’s sad to think it might be a while before we can go back to the beach again but maybe next time she’ll go swimming with daddy. We’ll see…
So that was our trip to Myrtle Beach and Charleston. Did I bore you to death? Just kidding. I’ve already begun working on my next post so you should expect it fairly soon. Lots more to update you all on. ;)
God bless you all!
Jason
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