Wednesday was very similar to Monday in that our morning was spent at the indoor and outdoor pools at the resort where my in-laws were staying, after lunch in our unit we spent time at the beach and outdoor pool at our resort, and after dinner in our unit (leftovers) five of us went miniature golfing. The boys picked the place to play that night. They picked a dinosaur themed one. We also took a lot of pictures on Wednesday after dinner. I knew Thursday wouldn't be a good day due to our scheduled trip to Charleston, and I didn't want to wait until Friday to take them in case there was a thunderstorm and our picture session was rained out. In hindsight, I picked the wrong day because although this section of North Myrtle Beach is called "Windy Hill," Wednesday was the windiest day of our week here. I took a shower and blow dried my hair right before dinner that night, but that was pointless because the wind wreaked havoc on my hair. I had a few other poses in mind that didn't happen for various reasons, and sometimes I forgot to take off my glasses. When my glasses aren't tinted I don't mind wearing them when my picture is taken, but when they've turned grey, I'm trying to remember to take them off. I also need to work with Oliver on what to do with his hands when his picture is being taken. All that said, some of the photos that were taken that night I really, really love. I have taken a lot of pictures on the trip and only shared a small portion of them thus far.
Thursday morning we picked Nadia up at 8:30 and drove to Charleston. The weather was less than ideal due to lots of rain that day, but at least it was a lot warmer than when we were in New Jersey last month and it poured during our field trips and the high was only 45 degrees. We took the ferry to Fort Sumter, the kids completed their Junior Ranger Badges, and then we drove to Patriots Point which includes the USS Yorktown (aircraft carrier) plus the Laffey (destroyer) and a submarine. There is a large aquarium right next to the Fort Sumter Visitor Center, and the kids were really disappointed that we didn't visit it. Nadia is not a fan of zoos, but even she likes aquariums. However it took us 6.5 hours to visit Fort Sumter plus Patriots Point (and we only scratched the surface at Patriots Point) so I really think it would have been a very long day had we also added an aquarium into our agenda that day. And since it's a 2 hour 20 minute drive from North Myrtle Beach to Charleston, we didn't want to make two trips. To help pass the time on the drive, we got the newest How to Train Your Dragon movie on DVD from a Redbox and also finished listening to the second Penderwicks book. I think the submarine was the kids favorite part of the day. Poor Paul is bummed that none of the kids are anywhere close to being as interested in military history as he was when he was a child. I enjoy history, but I have to say walking through ships and such isn't my most favorite thing to do. Monticello and Mount Vernon are more up my alley.
Today was our last beach day. We again swam in the pools at the other resort before lunch and spent the afternoon at the beach and pools at our resort. Because the kids were fairly cooperative during our photo session on Wednesday, I told them we'd visit Sugar Life. A store that advertises itself as an ice cream and candy bar. We stopped there on our way back to our resort before lunch. The kids picked candy over ice cream. It was by no means an economical way to buy candy, but they had fun picking a piece of this and a piece of that and putting an assortment into each of their bags. Paul's parents had eaten at Golden Corral while we were in Charleston, and since they had a good experience and the kids love buffets, we all went there for dinner this evening. I have been following my diet closely since the end of January, but I definitely deviated from it this evening at dinner. I will say I ate a lot less than I would have at a buffet prior to the diet, but I'm certain I ate more today than I have in any one day over the past 4+ months. After dinner Nadia and Ian went for another swim in our outdoor pools. Paul sat on a chair at the pool. Oliver watched tv and went to bed before they got out of the pool. I spent 2 hours packing, cleaning, and making lunches for tomorrow. I used the dryer on our floor (only $1) to dry all of our wet bathing suits and towels from today. If we had a washer/dryer in our unit I'd have done another load of laundry, but I'll just do it on Monday at our house.
We amassed quite a collection of shells while we were here. I'm thinking of using some of them to decorate some picture frames that I'll use to display some of the photos from this trip. A woman found an amazing large conch shell and gave it to Ian! Hopefully our shells will make it back home in tact.
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