myrtle beach, south carolina

This year for Christmas instead of buying gifts that will be lost, damaged, or just irrelevant over time - I offered the kids an opportunity to join us on vacation in Myrtle Beach. All but one took us up on the offer, so I booked us a three bedroom condo on the north end of Myrtle Beach and some airline tickets. It was one of my favorite vacations, and here are some of my favorite moments.

We'll start with my favorite sunrise photo during the week.

We left Detroit on this guy's 16th birthday. I'm not exactly sure how he got to be 16 already. Who allowed that? Happy birthday to an awesome grandson!

Our hotel room faced the east, so we got the beautiful sunrises coming through our condo windows.

I actually slept through this one, but Burke grabbed my camera and took some amazing shots.

I booked us on a ocean tour, dolphin watching boat ride through Express Watersports. We were all super excited to go.

The waves were a little rough and motion sickness set in pretty quickly.

It became hard to enjoy the ride - but we did see some dolphins. The crew was very nice and really tried to help with our motion sickness. The boat was very nice too - plenty of room to move around.

This picture was taken right before he went out like a light. Slept through most of the trip, which was probably to combat his motion sickness.

The next day was much nicer and we spent the day at the beach, collecting shells and enjoying the sun.

I got my camera out and started shooting some pictures.

Looking for inspiration for my next painting.

This guy walked up and down the beach for miles.

Looking specifically at the shape and flow water makes for my painting research.

This was the condo where we stayed. It was very lovely, 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. Every room had a perfect view of the ocean. The owners, Diane and Jim made our trip really comfortable and we enjoyed staying here. If you're interested, you can find the rental info here.  Matthew kept calling this place, "The Tower", so ..... forever named.

Burke found a dead jelly fish on the beach. All the tentacles were torn off, but the body was so interesting.

I got out my macro lens and took some close ups. 

This really was just a clump on sand along the shoreline. Cool right?

I booked the kids to go to an Escape Room where you find clues to get out of the room. They had a great time. While they were gone, me and this guy went on our own adventure. We set out for a walk along the beach and boardwalk with my camera.

We came across this singing bird.

And some sandcastles.

There were wind advisories out and the wind kept trying to take his hat. He kept yelling, "my hat Nana!"

I finally got up in time one morning for the sunrise and I wasn't disappointed. This was taken from the balcony off the condo. The weather was rainy and stormy most of the week. We saw several severe storms and even had a tornado warning.

On our last day, we checked out of the condo and had several hours to kill before heading to the airport. We ended up going to Vereen Memorial Historical Gardens, Franklin G Burroughs, we played putt putt golf, and walked around the Market Common. Laney insisted I take his photo here at Putt Putt even though the sign clearly said to not stick your hands inside the sharks mouth. But ... it didn't say anything about heads, soooo.....

Then we headed back home to more wind, snow, sleet, and cold.

Relaxing at home, I was able to finish my painting adding the little research touches I found during my trip.

Time to start my next beach painting.