We live only a few hours from the beach, and have already been twice. Our first trip was in September to Charleston, which is 2.5 hours away. We had to go pick up our Honda Accord, which had arrived from Germany after a boat trip across the Atlantic. We decided to make a day of it.
First, we picked up the car. The girls crawled around in the trunk of the van for a looong time while Hyrum took care of all the paper work.
And I'm just throwing this one in to point how how much SPACE there is in this van. The carseats don't even touch when they're 3 across. I love our Honda, but the kids were practically on top of each other in it.
Next stop: Hominy Grill. Yummmm Charleston is pretty well-known for their restaurants, so I found this one online and we decided to check it out for brunch. There was no wait, and the food was delicious. I got an egg sandwich and two slices of toasted bread--pumpkin and banana. Hyrum got huevos rancheros. The rest of the day was set up for success, because a well-fed husband is a happy husband.
We spent the last few hours at the beach. In the process I was telling myself: never again! The word that comes to mind to describe our experience is schlepping - definition: haul or carry (something heavy or awkward)... and as a noun: a tedious or difficult journey.
We schlepped.
We parked along the road, and had to walk a ways to the beach entrance, down a sandy path, up and over a boardwalk, then across more sand. I had the beach bag, diaper bag, thermos, towels, and Tiago's hand, plus my purse and phone. Hyrum was carrying the two carseats, and unknowingly was flipping sand on their faces every time he lifted up his flip flops.
So we eventually plopped all of our stuff on the ground, and were trying to wipe sand off the babies with baby wipes -- literally out of their eyes, armpits, neck creases, etc. Meanwhile Tiago was going crazy, and there were dirty diapers to be changed and the wind was blowing stuff everywhere. My anxiety level is rising just thinking about it.
My life:
Hyrum is always a bit more relaxed about it all. But I think in the back of the head he's thinking, "Eh, it doesn't matter if they all get dirty, the mess is fine, let's just have fun. Heather will take care of it." He probably wouldn't admit to that, but it's my theory about why he's more laidback.
It wasn't hot, but it wasn't cold either. I let Tiago run around with shorts on, but the longer he was in the water, the more he wanted to play. So we just put on a swim diaper and let him go crazy. I'm used to northern Atlantic waters, which are always freezing, so this water was a surprisingly neutral temperature. But after a while, the outside air started to freeze the poor boy, and he got out with teeth chattering and purple lips. That's something I was happy to take care of!
That was the end of the Charleston trip. We schlepped back to the car with a big mess and I got home and started laundry immediately.
A few weeks ago, Hyrum had two days off for Veterans Day. We took a quick overnight trip to Myrtle Beach. Again, it was surprisingly warm. (But maybe the heat should stop surprising me; it's Dec. 14 and still in the 70's.) Our first stop was again, food. We ate at a very southern restaurant/buffet. And Tiago couldn't find a single thing he wanted to eat, aside from chocolate milk, which he spilled on the floor. Fun times with my circus.
We parked the car and took a walk along the beach. There's a nice path, and plenty of shops and restaurants.
After checking in at the hotel, Hyrum stayed up in our room while the girls napped (except only one girl napped, the other girl screamed her head off for an hour. I won't name names... because I don't remember who it was.) I went down to the water with Tiago. He was really funny to watch because he'd put his feet in the water, then turn around and run as fast as he could without looking back. And repeat. Once that got too cold, we went back to the hotel pools. The hot tub was empty, so we warmed up there for a while and Tiago thought he was in pool heaven.
That night we went to a restaurant that sold Polish food. But after a 10 minute drive the kids were all asleep in the car, so we ate our perogies in the van. At least it was quiet!
The next morning we walked back down to the beach because Hyrum hadn't been in the water yet. We took a really bad family selfie--well, several of them, but this is the only one with all our faces. I fed the girls while Hyrum and Tiago ran around playing.
Lastly, we went to the aquarium before driving back home (about 2 hrs 45 min). Tiago had a fun time, almost as much fun as Hyrum.
And that was that. I don't want to go back to the beach any time soon, at least with kids. Traveling with this clan can be exhausting, but it's also fun to explore the area with the limited time that we're here. (Only about 3 more months!) Short trips have been nice because it doesn't take as much time to recover.
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