EC 2011: Beach Bums and Royalty

July 10-16, 2011

Ally loved going in the water-- something she's generally not allowed to do on the west coast since it's so cold. She had fun holding hands and jumping over waves, playing "spank bottom" by pointing her rear end toward the ocean and waiting to be slapped by the water, hanging around Uncle Jordan's neck for 2 hours in the deep, sitting in the sand at the water's edge as the waves came in and out, and helping Aunt Sarah overcome her fear of sharks, fish, and unidentifiable floaty things.

Cora's beach experience was quite different. She sat at the water's edge only a few times, visibly shaking for most of it. She very clearly stated, "I not like that water, Daddy." Well, okay then! She loves splashing and floating in the bathtub, but the ocean and its waves were too overwhelming for her. Cora chose to spend her time looking cute, pocketing every seashell she could get her hands on, and trying to bury Daddy with shovelfuls of sand.
Every evening, some part of the Hoffman clan went for a walk on the beach. The children busied themselves with collecting shells while the grown-ups monitored the skies for illegal fireworks and rockets that were being launched straight at them. (One night a huge shell casing landed 5 feet from Ally and me; another night something whizzed by Nate and Kenny's head.) We also experienced some fireworks inside the house-- thanks Jim and Kenny! That was the same night as the thunder and lightning out over the ocean. Not a huge storm, but beautiful.
On Monday evening, we drove into Myrtle Beach to see the giant ferris wheel. We also played around in the arcade, used the restroom at the Gay Dolphin, and ate ice cream on the boardwalk.

On Wednesday, we drove down to Broadway at the Beach to hitch a ride on the old Pavilion Carousel. Out of all the unique, hand-sculpted and hand-painted animals on this merry-go-round, Ally wanted to ride the pony. Cora rode the frog, which allowed her to chase the zebra. For the rest of the trip Cora would repeat, "Froggy go up and down, Zebra go up and down, Cora go up and down." Although it was deathly hot, we braved being outside for just a little longer so Ally could procure more souvenir smashed pennies for her growing collection. Then we met up with the Lunger clan over at Medieval Times for dinner and a show.

Daddy bought Ally a rose, and Nate got a sword. With our crowns in place, we were ready to cheer on our knight (Go Blue!) and eat some grub. We were curious how Cora would do since she has a recently-discovered fear of live horses; she thankfully did okay. The whole thing was pretty gimmicky (and the princess' voice was over-dramatic and extremely irritating), but it did have some highlights.

The show started with some swordplay in the middle of the arena. With all the clanking and grunting and people being "wounded", Ally turned to me with a concerned look and asked, "Are we going to see someone get cut in half?" When they released the live falcon to swoop through the air (just after serving everyone the main course of half a large roasted chicken), Ally told me, "I'm pretty sure that's a hummingbird." We saw a horse stand on its hind legs and another one dance. After our blue knight won the jousting competition, he kissed a a red carnation and then tossed it up to Ally.

On Thursday we had to visit Barefoot Landing to update our family portrait. Again, it was deathly hot, so we opted to return to the air-conditioned paradise of our house. Ally and Daddy briefly ventured back out to fly their kite on the beach. Later that evening, Chris and most the other guys went down to Molly Darcy's for their second night of karaoke. . . I mean playing foosball. The kids had a dance party in the driveway with Grandma and the aunts, but Ally spent most of the time making milkshakes in the pretend kitchen instead of shaking it on the concrete.




Sometime during the week, Ally wrote the entire lower and uppercase alphabet in the sand. On Friday afternoon, we made a sand volcano and decorated it with shells; when the top collapsed, we named it Mount St Helens. Also on Friday, we took a family walk down the beach. On our way back, the clouds were rolling in and so was the cold rain. Daddy and Cora were smart and made a beeline to the house. Ally and I stayed behind and took one last swim (and cold shower) in the ocean. That girl just wanted to spend every moment she could rolling around in the waves.

On Saturday, we finished cleaning the house and had a pancake breakfast. While everyone else headed out of town, we stopped at Jungle Lagoon for some mini-golf. Ally and Daddy took on the two course while Cora meandered about and I took pictures. We saw a cave with a waterfall, lots of animals, and real fig trees.

I guess that covers our time at Myrtle Beach with the Hoffmans.

The weather was great, the beaches were sandy and uncrowded, and the water was a perfect temperature. What more could you ask for? Being able to fall asleep to the sounds of the waves AND the glow of a full moon over the ocean as heard/seen from our bed every night? Yep, we experienced that too.