Vacation

What is it about a family vacation that makes you want to take another vacation to get rest from the first one? We just got back from Myrtle Beach. We spent five days there. Of the five days, four of them were rainy. I know, don't go to the beach in March. But hey...it's the only time we can afford to go to the beach.

As we were walking to Starbucks one day, it hit me. I drove 300 and some miles, paid a lot of money to get to this place. This place, Myrtle Beach, is just Pigeon Forge on the beach. I have all this at home! There was even a Dixie Stampede there! Dolly is everywhere! I don't think we will be heading back anytime soon.

Aside from the rain, we managed to have some fun. We drove to a little town called Mullins. In Mullins we toured the tobacco museum. (No, we did not get to sample anything. Jake was disappointed.) It was a neat little place. We were the only people there (big surprise). So the southern gentleman took us for a tour. He was so funny! He cracked jokes on Georgia the whole time. Made racist comments that I'm sure he thought weren't racist, and has a low opinion of people who smoke. (Umm...why are you in charge of this place again?) He did tell us something interesting about the barns. When we were in SC we kept seeing barns that had a covered porch style roof with no porch underneath. When I asked him about them, he said that "we take care of our women". What he meant was it provided shade all the way around. So when the sun moved, the women could move. Hmm...thanks, I think.

I am a lover of history. My favorite time is well..pretty much all of it. I really like the Civil War era so this was cool to get to see items dating back to pre-Civil War time. I had always read about the south and the cotton and the tobacco. I knew it was their "way of life". But to hear this man tell about it, it was not their "way of life" it was their life. Everything centered around those tiny little seeds sprouting, growing and producing. If they didn't, those people were dead. When it came time to harvest, EVERYONE was involved. Children as young as Abbie were expected to put in 12 to 14 hour shifts helping. Wow! Can we say work ethics being instilled? Once the harvest was over, everyone celebrated. It sounded like a hard way to live, but something about that spoke to me. How cool to see the fruits of your labor, to work side, by side with your neighbor. I didn't like the whole 12 to 14 hour part, but...

The man also said people would butcher a cow and pass the meat along to their neighbors. Then a couple of weeks later, when they would butcher a cow, they would send meat back. This was how they had fresh meat all year long. You worked with your neighbor. I don't even know all my neighbor's names. Wow, the sense of community and responsibility to each other must have been so strong. Makes you think.

We did manage to hit the beach to look for seashells. Jake and Abbie both found shark's teeth. (Where there are teeth, there is a mouth to go with it. Reason numero uno for not getting in the water) We found a lot of olive sea shells. I think we brought back enough to give one to each child in Emma and Abbie's class. Cheap gifts.

The last day we were there, the sun finally made an appearance. So we headed down to the beach. There were so many people laying out (including myself) and the temp was maybe 65 or 66. I never thought I'd be doing that. But we were desperate for some vitamin D! Needless to say, we all managed to get sunburned to the point of pain. What's a vacation to the beach without a little sunburned right?

Then we hit the putt-putt course. Jake managed to beat me by 2 strokes! I was winning at one point. Man, to beat him at putt-putt would've been awesome! He usually kills me. The best part was, he hit a hole-in-one on the seventh hole. He steps back and looks at me like, "well girl, you're done. Beat that." I took a deep breath, said a small prayer, and hit the ball. Yes, my friends, I too hit a hole-in-one! The look on Jake's face was priceless. Personally, I don't think I could do it again if I tried! :)





I think I need another week off to re coop from our vacation.