myrtle beach 2014, days 4 and 5: ripley’s aquarium and broadway at the beach

Posted on June 24, 2014 by tara

(May 15th and 16th)

It rained all day on Thursday, which actually worked out pretty well, because it gave us a “rest day”, which I think we all needed. The weather forecast had predicted a high chance of rain, so I had already purchased aquarium tickets to use that morning.

Ripley’s Aquarium was on a lot of “must-see” lists, so I’m glad we went… but I think it was definitely a one-time adventure. Kaya really liked it, but I found it just a little over-crowded and over-priced.

The shark tunnel was definitely the best part!

She probably would’ve stayed and watched the fish all day if we let her! She especially loved the stingrays.

On Friday, our last day, we made sure to get in some quality time at the beach. I knew it was our last chance to really play there, so I definitely tried to make the most of it. It was so bittersweet when the morning was over. Kaya still didn’t want to play in the waves after being knocked over on the second day, but she still had her share of water fun- in buckets! She kept asking us to refill ALL of them, and then she’d splash, clean seashells, and scoop the water out of them. After nap time, we headed to Broadway at the Beach. We were frugal and didn’t spend any money to do anything there, which was fine because we were content to just walk around. We did see some giant catfish though! And of course there had to be some incredibly crazy photo from this trip…

We chose to have our last dinner out at the River City Cafe, which supposedly has the “best” burgers. The food was good, but I think we anticipated it to be a lot better than it actually was. It was just around the corner from our condo, so it was great that we could walk there.We took another walk to a souvenir shop to get a couple of t-shirts before we left the next morning. I definitely can’t wait to go back (hopefully in the near future)!

If you missed our other Myrtle Beach vacation posts, you can find them here:

myrtle beach 2014, day 3: mini golf

Posted on June 17, 2014 by tara

(May 14th)

Kaya slept in until 9 am, which is obviously a great way to start any day of vacation! We went down to the shoreline, played in the waves and sand, and combed the beach for seashells. I actually attempted to get in a picture (for once!), but Kaya just wasn’t interested.

Kaya went down for a nap, and we went out on the balcony to enjoy some ice cream while listening to the waves rush in and out. I can’t even tell you how many cartons of ice cream we went through on this trip…Myrtle Beach has several themed mini golf places, and this Jungle Safari one was about a half-mile walk from our condo. When Kaya woke up, we headed there for some fun!
We had our own little caddy! We gave her her own ball, but somehow, she ended up carrying my ball and Michael’s club too, so we just had to share. She was a trooper and climbed up and down so many stairs. It was definitely a good workout for a toddler!I usually like mini golf, but I really loved this course and would definitely go again or check out some of the other differently-themed places next time!
I knew Kaya would love the “animals”, and sure enough, the giraffes were her favorite. This one got several hugs (and she might’ve come super close to sticking that ball in a hole in the side of his head…)

At dinnertime, Michael picked up some “Ultimate California Pizza” (yes, in South Carolina, apparently) for us to eat poolside. Mmmm. We actually ended up having enough for two dinners, which we definitely didn’t mind, since it was so good!We ended our day with a dance party in the living room… and ~~maybe~~ more ice cream after Kaya went to bed!

myrtle beach 2014, day 2: discovering the beach and a dolphin(less) tour

Posted on June 6, 2014 by tara

(May 13th)

On our first full day of vacation, we decided to explore the beach. We suited up, covered ourselves in half a ton of sunscreen, and made our way down there (along with a plethora of beach pails and shovels)!

Kaya was pretty uncertain of the sand at first (but I still got her to wave at me)!

Before we left for our trip, I painted her toenails for the first time ever. Every time she’d remember about them, she’d get so excited, point at them and smile. Before long, she was ready to explore. There were some relatively large tidal pools on the beach that day, and once Kaya discovered them, she was determined to run through them almost all morning. (This is a happy face!) This series of pictures might be my favorite. She finally came down to the ocean to play, but when a wave of cool water came in, she wasn’t too happy. Another wave actually toppled her over (don’t worry, we were right there to pull her up), and after that, she didn’t want to play in the waves anymore. We made sand castles… which really means that we were building castles just for Kaya to demolish. After about an hour and half on the beach, we headed inside for lunch and a nap. We were hoping that Kaya would get some good rest before our scheduled Dolphin Tour that afternoon, but she only slept for about thirty minutes or so.When I planned our trip, going on a Dolphin Tour was at the top of my activities list. I was so excited to take a long boat ride and hopefully see some dolphins!

Sadly, at this time of year, you have about a 50% chance of actually sighting any dolphins. The boat crew said they had seen quite a lot earlier that morning, but we were out of luck in the afternoon. They let down the fishing nets in an attempt to lure the dolphins near us, but still, nothing.

We did see a pair of stingrays, though!Despite the missing dolphins, we still had a lot of fun on the boat. Our ride was about 2.5 hours long, and Kaya was a trooper through the whole thing. She had a blast just peeking out of the cabin and “surprising” me.
Waving from the second level!We headed back to the condo and cooked tacos for dinner, which turned out to be the perfect plan after a long day outside (I don’t think Kaya could have stayed happy through a meal out)! There’s nothing like ending the day with daddy cuddles and cartoons 🙂

If you missed day one of our trip, you can find it here:

myrtle beach 2014, day 1: traveling, our condo, and greek food

Posted on June 4, 2014 by tara

(May 12th)

I threw around hints about going to the beach for weeks. I looked at a million different places we could stay, and even “trained” Kaya to nod her head when I asked her if she wanted to go to Myrtle Beach.

But I never even booked the reservation. For multiple nights in a row, I’d get it all loaded up on the computer, and just stare at the “submit” button. I was just a little nervous to commit to anything, especially being 32-33 weeks pregnant at the time of our anticipated trip.

Lucky for me, Michael is a little less afraid of commitment and made that final click. We were officially going to the beach!

A month and a half later, we loaded up the car, dropped off Jax at the vet, and began the 5.5-hour-long drive.

It seemed like we had been counting down to this day for forever.

With a 19-month old and an 8-months-pregnant lady in the car, we definitely expected to stop along the way. To our surprise, we didn’t have to! We had our lunches packed, sang the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” about a million times, and looked at some new books to stay entertained. She did take a 30-minute nap, but that was all.
We rented a privately-owned condo for the week. We were so impressed with how spotless it was!Kaya actually ended up taking one of the beds for herself (the pack-and-play isn’t a favorite anymore, apparently), so it worked out really well that there were two.
There was a living room (with a sleeper sofa), and our own balcony. One of the main reasons I chose this place was the fact that it had a full kitchen. It was great to have a place to prepare and store breakfasts and lunches. We even cooked tacos one night! We could see the ocean from our balcony, just off to the left! It was probably a two-minute walk to the beach, and we didn’t even have to cross the street 🙂The view off the balcony to the right:
We headed down to the boardwalk with hopes of finding Greek food for dinner. Our vacation coincided with “Bike Week”, and Kaya wasn’t too sure about all the loud motorcycles at first (which is why she looks so uncertain in this picture). We did find some amazing gyros- probably the best I’ve ever had in the States (and that’s saying something, because I’m picky about my Greek food)! They were made with real lamb- so authentic! Kaya probably ate half of mine on her own!