Today was a solid day at the beach from start to finish. I built this day into the itinerary with the intention of (a) breaking up the long drive from DC to Florida, and (b) seeing a bit of the Atlantic coast. My original plan was to stop at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, but when I crunched the numbers, it turned out that South Carolina was closer to the midway point. I chose our hotel out of a Frommer's, Myrtle Beach because one has heard of it (I think it was one of those places Bugs Bunny used to mention when he'd pop out of the ground after tunnelling aimlessly around underground and then, after looking around, say, "Eh, this don't look like Myrtle (or Pismo, or whatever) beach!"
So this morning we slept in. The boys were up late watching the Cartoon Network (or as Oscar refers to it, "the sacred channel." Breakfast was cereal and yogurt in our room. Our mini-fridge runs VERY cold so our milk was slushy and my yogurt was a fro-yo. Not a problem; temps down here have been in the 95 range the past two days, so we take the refreshment where we can get it. My biggest concern today has been the avoidance of sunburn. The sun down here is fierce, and my cheap Target beach umbrella was shredded to flinders within five minutes of being erected yesterday. We managed to avoid lobsterdom through the liberal and frequent re-application of sunblock and, for me, the draping of numerous towels while sitting in the sun. I spent a LOVELY day alternating between warm sun and cool ocean, reading "The Passage" in between frolics with my boys, whose bodyboards were perhaps the best $20 ever spent.
Big events of the day: having to temporarily exit the water because of a school of fish (which, the lifeguards claimed, meant that "bigger fish" would be nearby. SHARK! SHARK!); finding the first usage error in "The Passage" on page 399, just as I was starting to appreciate how meticulously proofread it was ("gate" instead of "gait"); and finally, a crazy crazy thunderstorm that kicked up at about 4:30 and sent us fleeing for our hotel room with the wind dramatically whipping the palm trees. This just ten minutes after Oscar pointed out the encroaching storm clouds and I passed them off as "haze." It was in fact a short, vigorous thunderbuster, which Osk spent wrapped in his quilt with his ear-protectors on. He did not even want to leave the hotel to get dinner, so we ordered a pizza in. Imagine my shock when, later in the evening, both boys elected to go out bodysurfing again. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I got some nice pictures which I'll post tomorrow.
I don't have much snarky or clever to say on the subject of Myrtle Beach aside from the general loveliness of our stay. There is certainly a profusion of the tacky and ridiculous around here - a Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, mini golf with volcanoes spewing dry ice, enough piercing and tattoo parlors to seriously comparison-shop - but we steered clear of all of that in favor of the beach itself. Dynamic but not dangerous surf, warm water, populous but not crowded - an all-around grand vacation spot. We never felt like we were competing with the masses for limited resources, and did not see a single incident of unfriendly or boorish behavior. Right on, Myrtle Beach.
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