Myrtle Beach and Solar Eclipse

We finally went to the zoo on the correct Cavs night.  It was fun!  Sydney got her face painted like a tiger. It was cute.  Austin enjoyed the train.  Austin got some dippin dots. Sydney enjoyed mint chocolate chip ice cream.  They got to feed the giraffes.  It was a great night!

With the solar eclipse being August 21^st near Myrtle Beach we decided to vacation there before the eclipse.   Our house is a disaster so I thought I would go early so the kids had plenty of time to play with their cousins and enjoy the beach and pool.  I drove down with the kids on Tuesday.  It took me 12 hours.  It was just what I expected.  The kids did great! 

Once we got there, they went straight into the pool.  They loved the pool.  It was the best for them. On Wednesday, we swam in the pool then Melissa and I took all the kids down to the beach.  They played in the sand and waves.  It was fun.  Then Wednesday night we went to Barefoot Landing and the kids did a Mirror Maze that was a disaster.  Sydney hit her face pretty hard into a mirror.  Then it went dark and everyone was scared. It was ridiculously expensive and not fun!  The kids rode some rides and jumped on the trampoline.  That was great for them. 

On Thursday, I went to Melissa’s house to watch the kids in the morning.  We played there.  The kids enjoyed the roller coaster inside.  Then we went back to Nana’s to swim for a bit.  Storms came in.  We didn’t know what to do with the kids.  We went to the upside down house but it was too crowded.  We went to Dave and Buster’s.  It was so much fun for the kids!  Graham stayed home with Nana but the rest of us had a great evening.  Austin, Sydney, and Camden loved playing all the video games.  We had dinner there and kids got to pick out a prize at the end.  Sydney got a unicorn and Austin got a football.  They were very happy. 

On Friday, Brian flew in.  Melissa got him at the airport.  We went to the Escape Room which was so fun.  I was terrible at it but Melissa and Brian did great!  Then we went for drinks afterwards and then to dinner at the Club.  

On Saturday, we went to the beach and pool for the day.  It was good until Melissa got stung by a jellyfish.  Then we did not want to be in the water.  We ended up in the pool by the beach.  Sydney was much happier with that too.   We even got milkshakes and lunch there.   Austin and Sydney really love the pools there. 

That night we went to Go Kart place.  It was expensive and Austin started with a big race track that he could not even see over the steering wheel because it’s just 48 inches.  It was a disaster.  He got hurt because he ran right into the wall.  It scared him and probably hurt some too.   We should not have let him ride it himself.   After he calmed down the kids rode littler rides.  We played putt putt and that was fun for them.  They also did the rock climbing wall and jumping trampoline.  They learned to flip on the trampoline for the first time.  They were both very excited. 

On Sunday, we went over to Melissa’s and the kids played out their outside blow up waterslide.  Then we took Melissa’s golf cart on a long ride to go get ice cream.  Ice cream is always a big hit.  Once we got back to Melissa, we went back to Brian’s mom house and the kids went swimming.  We went to Barefoot to finish off some of the tickets.  It was fun. 

On Monday, we left at 6am to get to Columbia for the solar eclipse.  We were going to drive south but the weather did not work out so we went west to Columbia.  Brian and Melissa found a shopping mall near I77 and we planned to stay there for the day.  We went to IHOP to eat first.  Kids had fun with that.  Then we went to the mall.  It had a Sears going out of business so we got a few things.  Sydney got a pretty Minnie Dress and Austin got a mouth guard for football.  There was an indoor playground so kids played there.  They made Solar Eclipse protection with paper plates for their glasses.  All and all it worked out.  We went too early but we did not know how traffic would be. 

After the eclipse we drove all the way home.  It took us about 10-11 hours.  Traffic was bad until Charlotte then it was fine.  I drove until about 10pm then Brian finished it.  We wanted to get home because Brian needed to finish the electrical and installation.  We want our house done but there was so much that he needed to do.   It was nice to be home.  I wish our house was farther along but it’s slowly making progress!