Day 5 - Wednesday, June 13th
Our final full day here found us back at the beach at 5am. Devynne managed to
sleep though most of it, while Logan was abruptly woken up by a ghost crab scurrying
up his shirt. He was wide awake after that.
Logan was entranced this morning, as the color was beautiful and as an added
bonus the thunderhead was producing occasional lightning.
My favorite shot of the morning...
We made our way back to Surfside, as it was the best beach
out of all we visited.
Just as we got comfortable, we noticed it getting rather dark to the north. We could see the Myrtle Beach skyline and it was quickly disappearing. The wind picked up, the sky got dark, the thunder started rolling and a few crashes of lightning caused the entire beach to clear out in less than 10 minutes. We packed up and got everything in the car, but decided since there was no lightning we would stay put incase it just blows over quickly. It rained lightly for a while, but not enough to damper our fun. Chris and Logan finished the castle he'd started, I collected 5 more bags of cans and then we all made our way into the water. With the tide beginning to rise and the nearby storms, the surf was quite rough. We sat at the edge and let the water beat the crap out of us. We played there for several hours and as far as we could see, we were the only ones in the ocean, or on the beach. It was great. I felt like a kid again, especially considering I'm not a Mom who plays in the ocean. Once we;d each swallowed a few gallons of salt water, and accumulated enough sand in our suits to create a beach here at home we decided to head out and get cleaned up for dinner. We went to a touristy restaurant called Crabby Mikes - a 120 item buffet. I again filled up on crab legs. This ended up being the most expensive dinner I've ever experienced....but I think we all got our fill and technically got our money's worth.
After dinner we decided to go check out the ocean one last
time. High Tide was much higher tonight and there was no beach to walk. We watched
from the dunes for a bit before heading back to the hotel to pack up.
I had the kids smash up the cans, and once it was all said
and done we'd got 6 bags crushed. Not sure how I'm gonna get em home, but I
felt good for saving them from the landfill and eventually getting money in
my pocket for next year's vacation.
Day 6 - Thursday, June 14th
After a longgggggggggggggg drive through South Carolina,
we made our way back to the mountains of North Carolina. We were on a time frame
today so we had to enjoy the views from the uncomfort of the car...
At one point we drove through a pretty hard storm that started
out as a hail storm. Kinda scary when you're on a curvy road, you don't know,
in an area you don't know, while knowing there was a high risk for hail storms
and tornadoes. Somewhere in this area is where the windshield cracked..we assume
from a rock flying up from the roadway.
Later in the day we were able to see the cell we'd driven through, in all it's
massive glory...
Once we hit TN, we were all in need of a rest from the car
so we pulled over and asked some of the locals the best place to view the river.
We were in white water rafting country now and knew there should be some gorgeous
area around. While crossing the bridge we encountered the sparkliest river I've
ever seen. It was so bright that it was almost hard to look at...
We found a nice little pull off and walked down to the lower section, which
strangely looked just like where we often go camping down at BlueRiver in Corydon,
IN.. The water was crystal clear and ice cold. Very refreshing. It was kinda
slippery though so I had Chris walk me back to the bank...
The kick-ass rock face...literally.
We finally ended our drive in London, KY, where I ended the day watching this
enormous super cell light up with the setting sun. A nice way to end the day.
