Family vacation is truly my favorite week of the year! We have been going to Myrtle Beach the last week in June since I was a toddler, and the week is always filled with laughs, quality family time and of course lots and lots of sand. A few weeks ago I went on my family’s annual trip and returned feeling happy and refreshed. I flew out of CVG, and my trip to South Carolina went off without a hitch. I actually fell asleep as soon as the plane got up in the air and didn’t wake up until the flight attendants made the announcement that we were preparing for landing. One thing to note is that flying with toddlers looks like the most miserable experience in the world, I was very happy to be taking this flight solo.
There is really nothing like stepping out of an airport and seeing palm trees…that is if you’re like me and live in the Midwest. I’m incredibly lucky that my dad came to pick me up from the airport. We drove to the resort but just had to stop and get a fried chicken sandwich on the way back. And THAT is how you start off a vacation.
The week was spent 90% on the beach and I couldn’t believe how much I looked forward to my morning beach runs every morning. This was the first vacation I didn’t sleep in until 10am and I can’t believe how much I enjoyed getting up early and adding a few extra hours to my day.
I shared a room with my two younger sisters, and I got up silently each morning, careful not to wake them up and just throw on a sports bra, tennis shoes and take the elevator down to the beach. After a sweaty two mile-ish jog down the beach, I stopped and grabbed a coffee from a hotel lobby that served Starbucks and sip on it with my feet in the ocean – it really doesn’t get any better than that.
The rest of the mornings I’d spend in our little Tommy Bahama beach chairs reading and chatting with my mom and Aunts with our feet dug in the sand getting sucked deeper into the ground with every wave.
I managed to avoid getting too sunburned thanks to my mom’s seemingly never-ending supply of SPF 50+. A lot of my family enjoyed spending time at the pool at our resort, but they’d filter down to the beach every so often and sit with me before we’d get overheated and have to take a dip in the ocean. One thing I seem to forget every year is just how salty the ocean is. Of course it got all in my eyes and stung my lips and scratched against my knees, but my cousins and I barely even noticed it because we were having too much fun boogie-boarding and laughing between the swells.
Another thing I seem to forget each year is just how good Myrtle Beach is for people-watchers like me. It sounds creepy, but it’s really just entertaining and honestly kind of relaxing. Looking around at all the different families and groups of people, seeing what kind of beach bags they bought and what kind of snacks they packed and especially seeing little kids fight over sandcastle-making equipment. It’s like nature’s TV.
We ate in our condo most nights – my mom always comes prepared with her Walmart click-it list and had the fridge and cupboards stuffed with food and ingredients for family dinners. We had all the classics; hotdogs, spaghetti, tacos. I normally took my plate out on the balcony to eat because the view was just insane. You could survive on the most stale box of granola bars for a week and never even notice if you had that view.
We of course had to go out to dinner a few nights and the food was also of course amazing. I’ve never eaten so much fried fish, shrimp, coleslaw, hushpuppies, you name a southern comfort food and I had it on that vacation week. One night we even stopped at Krispy Kreme donuts for a little sweet treat after dinner…my pants were tight on the flight home. #worthit
I did have a new and unique experience this trip that I don’t think anyone in my family had before. One night a pretty gnarly storm blew in, and I mean it was GNARLY. You could hear the wind shaking the windows and the sky kept lighting up through the glass. Maybe not so safe of an idea, but my family and I packed onto the balcony and watched it blow in. I have never seen so much lighting or heard louder thunder. But there was no rain or hail or anything which was odd, but it did make watching the show a lot drier and more comfortable.
I flew home on Saturday, my skin red, eyebrows bleached, pants too tight, but completely refreshed and happy as a clam. My flight was delayed which means I just had to pass the time in the airport’s Mexican restaurant with a frozen margarita. One final surprise of the trip was that when I got to my seat on the plane and got out my book to read, the girl next to me was reading the EXACT SAME BOOK! We chatted a while about how much we were enjoying it so far and it just felt like such a wholesome way to end an amazing trip.
Can’t wait to go back next year!