Myrtle Beach....Myrtle Beach...Myrtle Beach...I love Myrtle Beach!

Mommy had decided for her birthday she wanted to take a weekend trip to the beach.  The problem is when looking for hotels on the beach; unless you go Myrtle it is hard to find ones with a water park type complex in the hotel.  After searching and searching we narrowed our hotels down to two but based on reviews went with Island Vista...not quite the same over the top kid zone but luxery with a kid friendly twist.  Friday morning I woke up early to head downstairs and get a little work done.  I hear Samantha and mommy getting up but continue trying to knock stuff out.  Finally I hear Samantha coming down and she pokes her head in my office with hands on hips, "Daddy - get out of your work so we can go to the BEACH!"  I got the biggest smile on my face and started shutting everything down. 

We got to the beach, I have not been to Myrtle in years.  They have really done alot of work to clean up the area.  The new boardwalk was built last year so we decided to head there to walk around and get lunch.  We ate at Jimmy Buffet's Landshark prior to heading to the hotel to check in and go to the pool.  Good food and Good Atmosphere right on the boardwalk...can't beat it.

Samantha was so excited when she saw all the pools at the hotel....alot of which are the 1 feet depth pools that she can just run around and play.  We swam and swam prior to her finally saying I want to go to the beach.  Once it was said we loaded up everything and headed down.  She absolutely loved it and can't wait to get back down there with her on Saturday.

We let her play until she was covered in sand and then said it was time to head upstairs and take a shower.  After washing about 2 lbs of sand off of her we headed to Broadway on the Beach to walk around, do a little shopping, and to have dinner.  Samantha must have had a little too much fun in the water because as soon as we hit the car she remembered that she had not taken a nap today and passed out.  When she finally woke up we decided to eat at Charlie's restaurant and bar which is right there on the water and the food was great. 

For a while now everytime we drive by a golf course that is near our house Samantha proceeds to ask if her and daddy are going to play golf (no idea where she got that from and I always give mommy a weird stare like is there something you need to tell me).  I grew up on a golf course and never really played golf and to this day I do everything I can to avoid it (golf usually comes with the territory with insurance).  That said I use to love miniature golf at Myrtle Beach growing up and just about every trip had to include a trip to the golf course.  So I proceed to brag about how good of a mini golfer I am and if Samantha is ever going to play golf with daddy this would probably be the time.  Samantha was so excited.  We step up to the very first hole and Samantha lines up and daddy helps her and a hole in one...I think Cha-Ching, Cha-Ching...it did not happen again the remaining 17 holes (oh well it was a good thought).  Golf was alot of fun but mommy took every bit of pride that I had in my crazy skills and threw them in the water...that is +1, ok +3, ok +5....stop it we are suppose to just be having fun with Samantha....to which she replied uh huh.

After walking around some more we headed back to the hotel to put on a movie and go to bed.  As Samantha is getting her pajamas on she looks out of the balcony window (we are north of Myrtle almost right at North Myrtle so still residential homes on the beach) about a mile up the road is another hotel with all of its lights on for night.  "Mommy, Mommy I can see the castle...I can see the castle".  Daddy just laughs and says a couple more months for that one Samantha...a couple more months.