Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

February 16-23, 2019

We were only two hours from Charleston so today was a nice short drive. We know driving in the Northeast is going to be a lot different than what we’ve had to do in the past with the RV so we are going to ease into it. We also needed to split up our drive from Charleston to the Outer Banks of North Carolina so we picked Myrtle Beach. Chris and I have been here, he has visited several times with his boys golf trip but the girls have never been. There’s not much open in the winter but that just forced us to relax a bit.

Myrtle Beach State Park

We parked the RV in Myrtle Beach State Park this week. The drive into the park is through a lovely grove of trees which opens up to the Atlantic Ocean.

This might have been the toughest looking spot to maneuver into because of the two trees flanking either side of the front of the spot. But Chris backed in with no problem. He is seriously amazing, he can read those angles and turns so well. We couldn’t get unpacked fast enough so we could hop on our bikes and go exploring. The weather was gorgeous so we were able to stay out until the sunset. We had leftovers and chilled.

Sunday was cold and rainy so we stayed in and just relaxed, not something we do often. I have a hard time doing that but Chris kept reminding me that the next 7 months are going to be jam packed with site seeing and learning that we needed to veg out. I caught up on blogging and was able to post a blog entry our GA trip while he and the girls played xbox.

Rockefellers

We did get out and go to dinner at Rockefeller’s. It’s a hole in the wall in North Myrtle Beach that Chris has visited when he’s been here on his annual guys golf trip. The seafood was good and the portions were large. We left full and happy.

Beach

We rode our bikes around the state park several of the days we were here. Chris met us at the beach one day after work and had to bring me a sweatshirt, of course the girls were still in shorts and t-shirts.

Library

The rain was spotty this week so we weren’t able to do our school work at the beach like we had hoped. Instead, we used a study room at the local library everyday. The Chapin Memorial Library staff is very friendly. Not that we needed any more books, we couldn’t resist the ‘fill-a-bag for a dollar’ deal! The girls read in every spare minute, of everyday, so they go through books so quickly and at those prices I can find a place to store them. If they didn’t read so much we could fit a large Christmas tree in the bin we have underneath that is full of books. None of us can get into digital readers, we prefer the real thing.

We finished our book study on the The Giver and watched the movie, this week.

Savannah’s playground

We did a little shopping and stopped by the The Market Common area of Myrtle Beach. It has a lovely walking track around a lake, shops, restaurants and an amazing playground.

In 2016, Savannah’s Playground was built, making it the southeast’s first enabling playground. According to Nora Battle at visitmytlebeach.com, this playground is one-of-a-kind and beloved by visitors and locals alike. The $3 million, multi-acre park features all ADA-approved playground equipment designed so that children of all abilities have the opportunity to play and interact socially with one another. There is a music park, interactive playground, early childhood playground, school-age playground, picnic area, challenge ropes, ziplining and more, and all of it is free and open to the public.

Free and open to any one, the playground is named after Savannah Thompson, a Myrtle Beach native with Williams Syndrome who is actively involved in the Grand Strand community and serves as a bright reminder of the power of a positive attitude. While only the first phase of the park has been completed, you wouldn’t know it as there is so much to do. A water play area and paddle boats are part of the final plan.

The girls loved swinging from the zipline while I walked the track for exercise.

We visited this park once in the rain and the next day when it was sunny and 70 before hitting the beach again. The girls bought new boogie boards for the season and decided to try them out. Mackenzie had one go of it and got out just before she turned into an icicle. Abby stayed in -the cold never bothered her anyway.