Life with the Langs: The Langs Take South Carolina Part II: Myrtle Beach

Remember summer? With Thanksgiving here (!) and cold weather knocking at our doors, it's hard to think back to those warm days when homework was not a daily issue. And yet, I never finished our vacation chronicle, so let me transport you back!

Actually, Thanksgiving is an appropriate day to post this. I am thankful that we were able to take this vacation and spend time together as a family. Time together is not easy to come by with our work and school schedules. A week where we could focus on ourselves was a real gift.

As I mentioned, we took advantage of a promotional package offered by Hilton for an inexpensive vacation. The trade-off, of course, was sitting through a presentation on Hilton's time share program. Our guide was lovely and didn't make us feel bad for declining (yes, we're here for the cheap vacation). I must say, though, and I'm not getting paid by Hilton for this, if you're interested in a package from a big company, Hilton's seems to rise about the competition.

Sunset at Broadway on the Beach

So, Myrtle Beach. We stayed at a complex called "Broadway on the Beach." It's a manufactured boardwalk around a man-made lake, populated by chain restaurants (Cheeseburger in Paradise), stores, and entertainment (mini-golf, a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, etc.). On the one hand, it's obviously manufactured to part you from your money. On the other, entertainment for Deston and food (sub-par though it was) were not far away. They had a climbing wall and traditional boardwalk rides and Deston had a blast with these. It worked out that I could put Lucinda to bed while Andrew and Deston played. The stores provided an easy place to find souvenirs.

We were there in late August and it was really quiet. Most vacationers had already come and gone, so we didn't see Myrtle Beach at it's busiest. It was nice not to have to deal with traffic, crowded beaches, etc, but sometimes the quiet was a little strange. I generally feel weird when I visit less populated areas, however. Being around millions of people on a daily basis can do that to you.

We only had one beach day, much to my chagrin. Deston's last impression of the beach was a bunch of sand in his clothes and it soured him to the experience. Nevermind that he had been energetically body-boarding the whole time we were on the beach. The beach itself was clean and beautiful. The sand is coarser than beaches up here--a welcome change. The water was nice, the people were nice, it was overall really nice. Next time we're at the beach I'm either dragging everyone for more time on the sand or going by myself though! I hope I'm not the only beach bum in this family. Oh, and no one got sunburned! Win.

Andrew found a German restaurant, Bodo's, that was off the beaten path. The interior resembles your grandmother's basement (with the spiders), but the food was excellent. The family that owns it has been in Myrtle Beach for a long time and the place is filled with pictures detailing their history. It was the best meal we had on our trip. At the advice of one of the hotel staff, we visited Murrell's Inlet, which was our favorite place in Myrtle Beach. It's a little seaside town known for its seafood. It's so picturesque. We had dinner and wandered around, just enjoying the scenery.

We spent a lot of time in the car and Lucinda was not a huge fan. I did the long-distance driving and Andrew took the local driving. I loved the high speed limits and long roads--it's much more fun to drive down there. We all like staying in hotels and took advantage of the hotel pools and continental breakfast. This was the first family vacation we took as just the four of us. There were ups and downs with the kids' behavior--even fun schedule changes throw Deston off--but it was great overall. We didn't love Myrtle Beach enough to go back, but we had fun and I think it's worth going once. We had a laid-back visit with plenty to do and almost no hassle. What more could you ask for from a vacation with little kids?