Spontaneity

Sometimes your husband gets home from work unexpectedly early on a Saturday when he is in cycle and you decide to be spontaneous. You hop in the car and drive two hours or so while he snores softly in the passenger seat and head to Myrtle Beach, SC for a small change of scenery. Sometimes a random Saturday becomes a fun day full of firsts that you never expect!

We made our way south and got to Broadway at the Beach in the early afternoon. We were starving so after walking around for a minute we decided to go to Joe's Crab Shack, a place we'd seen in commercials for years but never actually went. I got a steam pot of deliciousness that came with a bib declaring I was the Queen Crab and Ryan was totally jealous of my bib.

One thing on my bucket list (and yes I do have a physical printed out list) is to ride in a helicopter. Ryan rode on one before when he was deployed, and he will quickly say that one was not really an enjoyable experience, but I have never been on one. Myrtle Beach has this company that advertises $20 quick rides and we decided to give it a go. We walked there from Broadway at the Beach (all Ryan's idea, I totally wanted to drive the mile or so since it was pretty hot) and eventually made it to the site. Helicopters were taking off and landing right over the fence from us and I got pretty excited. Once inside we decided to spend a little more to do the next price up tour so we could fly over the beach and have a slightly longer ride. Totally worth it!

First we took a golf cart over to the area where we would board the helicopter. We received instructions on who would board when, where to sit, and or brief list of what not to do (stay away from the back of the helicopter basically and do not take pictures until you are inside). It finally started to hit me that we were going to be flying in this tiny thing and I started to get a little nervous... but not nervous enough to back out!

Once we boarded and got strapped in we slipped on our headsets and met our pilot Scott. Before I knew it, we were off!! And it was amazing. I hardly believed we were really flying! We soared over Broadway at the beach and across the the beach. I could see the Sky Wheel, the wooden roller coaster, all the schools in Myrtle Beach, the Walmart, and the baseball stadium. Scott pointed out all the landmarks and kept the conversation flowing and we had a blast. I was so excited the entire time I probably looked a little manic!

The ride was definitely quick, but worth it in my book. Ryan keeps saying he is going to buy a helicopter and learn to fly it so he never has to sit in traffic again. I laughed it off a bit until I saw him googling helicopter prices later on that evening!

We walked around the shops a bit more before finding a dueling pianos bar. Since we are big fans of the dueling pianos we have seen in Jacksonville we decided to go in while there was still no cover and enjoy the air conditioning! The setup at our local dueling pianos is small but we always have fun.... this was huge! They had two teams that tagged in and out plus at one point they had a drummer and three piano players. The drinks were good, the music was excellent and the guys were really funny.

All too soon we realized it was getting late and we probably should go since we had a two hour drive home. The drive back ended up being a little much since we were both tired, but we made it home safe and sound and crashed into bed. Sunday we were pretty lazy as a result but for a spontaneous Saturday adventure it was totally worth it. 

Pre-Deployment Leave

Four years (and 11 days ago) I posted my very first entry on this blog. Hard to believe I am writing almost an identical entry four years and two weeks or so in the future.

As you may remember from my last entry Ryan took Rylie down to South Carolina to see his family for the first half of his leave while I worked. While he was there my parents drove down to pick Rylie up and they kept her so we could go to Myrtle Beach for the second half of Ryan's leave. We basically had a repeat of our vacation from two years ago with a few minor differences... but we even stayed in the same hotel!

The week was spent sunning on the beach, avoiding afternoon thunderstorms, staying up late (usually drinking), meeting awesome people, and eating really good food! Our hotel had an outdoor beach bar the was open until 11 every night with live music, an indoor club that was open until 2am, and a bar down the street that was open later on certain nights. My poor liver went into shock!

We ate at some amazing restaurants, RIOZ and the Flying Fish are two I highly recommend. Now they are pricey, but worth it for a big night out. RIOZ is a churascurria, a Brazilian restaurant that basically carries big slabs of meat around to your table and slices them as you request them. Plus they had a huge salad bar (I got to try quail eggs!), side dishes and a heavenly dessert cart. The Flying Fish had delicious seafood and was worth the hour wait we had.

There was one night we opted to bar hop and then we met some people from our hotel that invited us to hang out once the bar closed. We played drinking games and talked until it turned gray outside. Ryan and I headed back to our room but then as I laid my weary old head down to finally sleep Ryan decided he wanted to go on the beach and watch the sunrise. Now, once my husband gets an idea in his head it is pretty hard to break him of it... when he is drunk it is impossible. Hence the reason I found myself watching a sunrise on the beach in my pajama shirt and sweatpants with my husband in my sweatshirt with all the morning joggers and shell collectors. We obviously were the only ones who had not yet gone to sleep! It was beautiful though and I am glad he forced me down there.

We also went back to the Boardwalk to play arcade games and spent time at Broadway at the Beach. Our newest favorite find was the mirror maze. It was so fun! For a decent price you can go through as many times as you want until closing. I am not lying when I say we did it at least a dozen times. We also had these trippy beer goggle-esque glasses that they gave us which made it even more difficult. We went through with the glasses, without them, forwards, backwards, starting from separate ends and racing... it was a blast. The employees liked us so they walked us through the "quick" way and showed us the mirrors that are actually doors (for emergencies and the break room, important!). We caught some fireworks and had a blast.

Even though we've done the Myrtle Beach thing before I didn't mind doing it again since Ryan really wanted to go. Our next trip anywhere should be international and post deployment, so I am really looking forward to that for many reasons. Thanks for sticking around with my lack of posting... just trying to spend as much time with my husband as I can!

Vacation - Last Part!

Ok I have been such a slacker in the blogging department! Sorry! Work has been crazy busy this past week or two and Ryan has been working so hard. I went to yoga last night again (note to self: taking a month off is not the best idea) and I am so sore! My joints feel all unhinged and I know I will be in pain tomorrow. Anyway, the end of the vacation now...

The next night we hit up Medieval Times. I love that place, always have. We used to go to the one in Jersey a lot so when I saw the plane fly by the beach with the Medieval Times banner I told Ryan we had to go. We got there early and we were asking about a military discount even though we did have our tickets. The woman said unfortunately there wasn't one but she was nice and we were chatting a bit. For an extra $10 we could upgrade to sit in the second or third row and get a DVD plus little flags to wave, so we went with it. It was $20 bucks each for the next upgrade for the first row but we weren't willing to shell out that much.

I got myself a strawberry daquiri and Ryan got a rum and coke as we wandered amidst the fifth graders on a field trip (lucky us). When we went in we were suprised that we were actually put in the first row! We think the ticket lady pulled a string for us, very sweet.



We were supporting the red knight. He did ok in the challenges but in the end ended up being the first one out. Lame. We didn't even get to see him joust! The black and white knight one, but he had the forty fifth graders in his section. Coincidence? I think not :P






Oh, I did find one picture from the night we saw ONE. Here it is. We got all dressed up but Ryan was already back to "In the room" mode so hence the lack of shirt. In all fairness the AC was a bit weak so I don't blame him!



Then we decided to take Saturday to just relax. We went to Calabash (I forgot my camera so sadly no pictures) which is a giant seafood buffet (YUM Crablegs!) and then back to the Boardwalk for more skee ball. We cleaned up in the arcade, we got a Myrtle Beach ceramic thing to hang in our bathroom, two shot glasses, a harmonica, a sticky hand, bubbles and a stuffed bear wearing a fun plaza tshirt. Saturday night we spent the night at Ocean Annie's, the bar right outside our hotel. I got to take some nice pictures and we enjoyed a last night out together before having to go home.





















One the way home I made Ryan stop at South of the Border. He absolutely hates that place but I love it, so he had no choice :P We had a nice, cheap lunch and then got back on the road. Traffic was brutal and it took us an extra two hours to get home... plus an unplanned stop at Arbys to compensate the extra time.

I love these billboards. I have tons of pictures of them but I will spare you all and just post one!


*Sigh* Only in the south. Ryan looked at it and said, "What? Isn't that how you spell it?" *facepalm* Vinegar/Viniger... close. It is the thought that counts!

Rockin' the toothpicks! Mine broke right after this one was taken :(

I did get a tiny bit bored in traffic but Ryan tolerated my picture taking for the most part. Note the stylish Raybans he found! Or his Mom found and gave him... something like that.





Ok, vacation done! We've only been back two weeks... oops. And let's consider this a not so wordless Wednesday post since there are too many pictures. Sorry all!