So it's the morning of day 3 in Myrtle Beach and it's been rainy most of the time. We've totally been okay with it, and it's given us an excuse to check out other things we might not have had as much time for if we were beach-bound every day. Here's a recap of the last few days:
*Monday: we were up super early (6:30/7am just because that's been our thing for some weird reason lately). We watched TV and hung out until everyone was awake, then went for a walk around the development. It was more of a lazy/slow-moving day, so later in the afternoon, Scott, Mom R, and I went to check out Broadway at the Beach and had lunch at the Liberty Steakhouse & Brewery. They brew their own beers there, Scott loves to try craft beers, and he got a sampler. They had fried pickles (which I totally LOVE), so of course that was on our table too, along with a nice southern pulled sandwich.
Scott and his beer sampler.
Fried pickle deliciousness!!
Cool mosaic statue; way to represent NY and Lady Liberty ;) (Funny how we live an hour from the real Statue of Liberty and we still have never been!)
After lunch, we walked around to browse in some of the shops (SOO much to do here! If you've ever been to Disney or Universal, it's like Downtown Disney/City Walk on steroids!). There's so many shops, restaurants, and attractions here, you could go every day and see something new (which we just might do bc it's only 10 mins away).
We stopped in at a candy store that had almost every kind you could ever imagine; candy-themed Chapstick, clothing, accessories, GIANT candy, and more. Crazyness!! You could be on a sugar high just walking through!
We didn't buy these, they were just too cool to not pick up!
This whole display is Chapstick in crazy flavors!!! $3 a piece was nuts, but we found an 8-pack for $8.99- score!!
The stores here are really cool- lots of souvenir gift shops with lots of fun, unique things, fun beach signs, Myrtle Beach gifts, etc. Just pure fun to walk around and relax. Here are some fun things I snapped pics of while there...
My motto sometimes ;)
We headed back to the house for a bit and then I had made plans to meet up with some friends from home (Marisol & Gina) who happened to be down here at the same time! Marisol is one of my fav instructors from home and Gina and I met through going to Zumba and yoga classes. Marisol had looked up local Zumba classes and found a really cute dance studio near where they were staying, so Mom R and I went to meet up with them at a class. It was only $6 ($8-10 at home, so that's cool) and the class was GREAT! The instructor was very easy to follow and had very similar moves/music style as the girls at home. So we all stood in the back and had a blast! The instructor was 6 months pregnant too, but was so cute and it was fun.
Instructor, Marisol, Gina, and me <3
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*Tuesday: we went back to Broadway at the Beach to go to Wonderworks when it opened. Wonderworks is an interactive hands-on science museum-type place. Great for families, kids, and big kids like us. We got there right when it opened so we could avoid the crowds, so it was nice having reign of the place. Somehow we managed to completely bypass a whole section of activities without realizing til last night when we were asked about certain activities (woops!). Ah well- we still did some of the major things:
The building is built to look like it's upside down, so even when you walk into the lobby, things look a little weird. :)
These were 360 degree extreme bikes. It started going back and forth like those pirate ship rides at amusement parks, but you could make it go faster by pedaling fast. If you didn't pedal, it would just swing; if you did, you could go high/fast enough to flip over... Which I did a few times. Crazy!! Scott saw me go per and was like "yeaaa, I don't think so". Haha. It was a scary/rushing feeling for sure. PS- we were strapped in like you would be on a roller coaster.
Bed of nails- for real laying on nails!! You lay down on a plastic board and then when ready, hundreds of nails are raised from below and rise you up about an inch or so. You have to distribute your weight evenly so you don't really feel it too much and it's a crazy feeling. There's a mirror above you, and if you give in, it kinda freaks you out because you remember what's happening. But if you don't think of it, it's not bad. It's a weird feeling but you can definitely feel the fact that nails are under you on diff parts of your body! Eek!
Brian, playing with giant bubble wands.
Astronaut Scott Ricci. ;) (haha)
Up above everything on the top floor is a giant ropes course. (Color code: orange are poles, green are the above rails that our harness was attached to/how we got around, and blue are ways to cross over). I've never done something like this but it was a lot of fun. You could go over balance beams and rope contraptions and test your balance by not holding onto anything (yea right! I only did this a few times on the balance beams or steps that I knew I could do- or only if I was close to the platform!). You could stable yourself by pulling on the harness attachment above or by holding onto supporting ropes that hung from above. It was a cool experience, but also made me germ crazy thinking of all the things hundreds of people touch in a day- so we ran right to the sink after. Haha! I was proud of Scott for doing the ropes course because things like that kind of freak him out sometimes. It was pretty cool to say we did it.
We actually were done with Wonderworks in an hour (again, skipping some things accidentally), and then browsed around in some more fun shops.
Cool store!! Lots of fun accessories for our basement bar at home- bar signs, clocks, beer accessories, etc.
My weakness- it took everything in me to step away from the Vera Bradley!! :)
We went to Tilted Kilt for lunch, which I felt like was basically an Irish version of Hooters. I have to admit I wasn't too thrilled about going here at first (way to knock down self esteem a few notches when I don't look like the servers) BUT I admit I put my foot in my mouth and take back my words. It was a cool place to kill 2 hours (it started pouring once we were in there so we ordered a few rounds of drinks to kill time). We ordered some wings (the traditional wing sauce was realy good!!), flat bread pizza, and shepherd's pie. All were yummy. Scott ordered a bunch of beers and I had some crazy fruity drinks (surprise surprise). Our waitress was really cool too, very personable and down to earth. She actually said she was glad we were her first table of the day because you usually get either sketchy old men OR a family/couples where the wives are realy mean and give dirty looks or say nasty comments. I felt so bad and immediately relaxed because as much as I was like "ehh" about going, my intent/thoughts would never be to be mean to the wait staff. She even made a good point by saying something to the effect of "you bring your wives and kids to the beach, so why not here?"- you wear less clothes at the beach, and see way worse. Point well said!
We spent the next few hours walking around in and out of shops again, dodging into places to avoid the spotty rain. We found a frozen yogurt place, a wine shop with cheap wine tasting (7 wines for $4!! Sweet!!), and a few more really cute gift shops. We finally headed back to the house and took a nap before heading out to dinner.
We went out to dinner with Mom & Dad R to a seafood buffet called Captain George's (thanks to Melissa & Cara for the suggestion!). It's a more expensive buffet but had higher quality seafood than the smaller chain places I guess. The place was giant and the hostess told Scott it had 700 tables!!!! Wow!!! It was a really cute atmosphere inside too- all the food station tables were made to look like ships. I was in love with the mini clams/steamers cooked in wine, and probably had about 50- no joke! Most places I get them, it's hard to find the meat in most shells and you end up with a plate of 20 shells and only about half have something in it, but every single one was filled. And they were delicious! Drizzle some lemon and butter overtop- yum!!
After dinner, we came back to the house and a bunch of family friends from down here came over to visit/meet us. One couple we know because they are from NY and have been friends with Mom & Dad R for many years. Some of their family was visiting, along with another neighbor couple and their family who was visiting.
So, we've managed to get a lot done despite the weather!! Goes to show how much fun you can still have on a rainy vacation! :)
Today, we'll see how the weather holds and MAYBE venture to the pool if it looks like we can get there between rain spurts, and then head back to Broadway at the Beach. Tonight we have tickets for a Myrtle Beach Pelicans baseball game. It's a local team, similar to the Hudson Valley Renegades back home. If the weather holds off, it should be a fun night!
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