Lazy, Hazy Days At the Beach

After much discussion, we decided to take our first family vacation, just the four of us. We've always had so much fun on past vacations with family and friends, but decided that this year we'd try something new. I have to admit that I was concerned about spending a week together, but it turns out that our boys do enjoy spending time together and CAN treat one another kindly. We had an amazing week together. We spent most days at the beach, pools and lazy river. Dinner was usually decided on a whim and we returned to the resort for either a walk on the beach or swim, but ALWAYS ended our day with a rousing family game of Dutch Blitz.

The boys--North Myrtle Beach, SC--June 2010

A hazy view of our resort complex and ...

views from our oceanfront balcony.

The weather during our stay was picture perfect; perhaps a little hot, but that's why the ocean was at our toes.

The boys and I enjoyed building sand castles. I even managed to build a bridge for a moat around Noah's castle (hmmm...where's that picture?)

Digging in the sand and preparing for raft riding fun.

We took a break from the beach our last day and visited the new boardwalk in Myrtle Beach. We walked out to the end of Pier 14 and enjoyed the ocean spray and listening to the roar of the waves. The pictures below are taken from Pier 14 showing the hotel resorts dotting the Myrtle Beach coast. North Myrtle Beach is farther up the coast--you can just begin to see the buildings between Noah and Alexander in the 2nd picture below.

Not only was the beach busy with people walking, jogging, digging and just plain relaxing, the skies above were busy too with parasailers and an endless stream of planes boasting one bargain or another :).

I was sitting on the beach one day, very relaxed in my cozy beach chair, and looked up the beach to see the view below. The bright colors of the umbrellas lined up almost perfectly captured my attention, so I quickly grabbed my "little" camera and snapped away.

Noah, boogie board in hand, preparing to ride the waves. There were some GREAT waves this year! Of course, having one crash on top of you, heading crashing into the sand, tumbling below the water like seaweed as you inhale salt water--not so fun. Thankfully that only happened to Mom, once--the rest of the time we floated on the inner tubes and rode the waves up and down.

After the boys felt they had had "enough" of the beach and waves, they rushed to the lazy river and would float for at least an hour, if not more, around and around the "river". Trey and I relaxed in the "river" too.

We discovered, before leaving, that friends from Columbus were vacationing in Myrtle Beach the same week as us. So, we made arrangements to get together for dinner one evening. Our first choice, "Margaritaville", had a 4.5 hour wait for dinner, so we opted to try our luck at Planet Hollywood.

On our last night, I braved taking my "fancy" camera to the beach and took this shot--one of the last photos from our North Myrtle Beach vacation. Earlier in the day, we treated the boys to T-shirts and shark tooth necklaces.

Putt-Putting Along

One of Alexander's vacation requests was to play putt-putt. We decided to venture to "Lost Treaure Golf". Thankfully it wasn't necessary to yell "fore" this year!

















After paying, we stood in line for the train, pictured below, to take us to the top of the hill. There were lots of people out that evening, but we never had to wait long to play our next hole.

I'm not sure any of us have a professional stance, but we never lost a golf ball, close, but we quickly retrieved the run-away ball.

We enjoyed our evening putt-putting along!

Huntington Beach State Park and Atalaya

Last Wednesday, we took a break from the beach and headed South to Huntington Beach State Park. The winter home of the Huntington's, Atalaya, rests comfortably along the coast. The house, or "winter castle", was fun to tour, but the "castle" well, it wasn't like the castle we envisioned. After walking the site, we took a hike along the banks of the tribuatries leading to the Atlantic. It was hot, really hot! But, everyone completed the hike and almost cheered when we recognized our car again :). Good thing Mom thought to pack water and snacks--much needed!

You can read more about Atalaya by visiting this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atalaya_Castle

I'm happy that we took time out of our vacation to visit this location. We learned more about the Huntington's than we thought possible. And, I still think it's amazing that Mr. Huntington drafted the plans for his winter home in his head, not on paper. But, the neatest aspect of the construction was that Mr. Huntington insisted on hiring local laborers when he could have easily provided his own team. I just enjoyed reading about this couple who I had never heard of prior to our trip to SC...

Are We There Yet?

It was a LONG drive home after a wonderful beach vacation. Upon crossing the VA line an endless sea of "slow moving traffic" greeted us. We lost about an hour, perhaps more, while we inched toward the I77 and I81 split. Whoever designed that exit did a POOR job! Thankfully we had a beautiful driving day which certainly made things a little more pleasant. After almost 13 hours of traveling a 10.5 hour drive--we finally arrived home.

Point Pleasant, WV 6.19.10

After the Martin Family Reunion, several of us visited Point Pleasant, WV--just across the Ohio River from where we attended the reunion.

Looking across the Ohio River at the banks of Ohio.

Cheryl showing Noah the details in the artist's rendering of the Battle of Point Pleasant. The canvas for the artist's work is the flood wall that protects the village of Point Pleasant should the Ohio River ever exceed its banks. The artist hires a man to paint the background and then he returns with pencil in hand and draws his next sequence. Once the pencil sketches are complete he paints the sequence with intense detail--amazing.

Alexander and Noah by Cornstalk and General Lewis (I believe) with the Battle painted on the flood wall behind.

Mom and her three boys just before Father's Day 2010