Summer Vacation!

Last weekend Chris and I went to Myrtle Beach for a little vacation! His brother rented a house for the whole family to get together. 5 bedrooms, 3 baths for 12 people! We had 19 when Chris' Uncle, Aunt, and cousins came over! :) It was FUN! It was also our first official vacation together!

We stayed at a place called Ocean Lakes Campgrounds and it is HUGE! 310 acres of houses, RV spaces, camping, and people! (we were in C4 see map...one block from the beach) They have an arcade, a small miniature golf course, a big pool and (the coolest) kiddie pool, horseshoes, basketball, shuffleboard, etc, etc... Tons of stuff to do, when it's not a billion degrees outside, and it was a billion degrees outside. (it felt like it) And HUMID. I have never felt that much humidity ever. Just being outside for a couple of minutes my feet were wet in my flops!

Anyway, it was hot, but we were at the beach. :)

I was really excited to see what the beach was like on the East Coast, and there are a few differences.


1. The dunes and dune fences. The dune fences are so cool, and I loved taking pictures of them. They were the main subjects of my pictures.  (I did a whole series of dune shots you can see on my Flickr page)

2. Small waves, warmer and shallower water. I think it's the continental shelf, but you can walk out quite a ways before having to swim, unlike in CA, but not as far out as Hawaii.

3. More shells on the shore. You know how in CA as the tide goes out you can find the sand crabs by the V's in the sand? Well here, there are air holes, and if you dig, you find little bean clams! They're alive and have little mollusks in there, and if you set it down, you'll see it scoot itself back down into the sand! It's fun! I found a video on YouTube if you want to see it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V8xm_6ht_I&feature=related

4. People go down early and set up canopies and chairs. Not just umbrellas like I'm used to, but good size canopies.

Now at this place, the golf cart is KING. Everyone has at least one. We rented 2. We parked some of our cars in overflow parking, and from then on, it was walk or cart! We had so much fun out in these carts!

It was a fun way to see the whole grounds, and cool down with the wind in your face! Some people own some over the top golf carts, and we could see some of these during the nightly teenager golf cart 'cruzin' up and down Ocean Blvd! HAHAHA! it was so funny!! from about 7:30 pm til 11:00 pm (curfew) a constant parade (hundreds!!) of golf carts full of kids holding out their hands for 'five' and teenagers being 'seen'. One night Chris and I tried to get in it, but by the time we found the end of the line, (far away) we sat, thought better of the whole thing, and took off. So funny.

I loved getting up early with my camera and jumping in a golf cart to go looking for places to take pictures. Then sometimes Chris and I would go out alone or with others to just cruise around. It was nice at sunset too.

So we hung out with family, ate, went down to the water, swam, picked up shells, played poker, went to the arcade, cruised, took pics, and had a nice relaxing time until we left on Tuesday.

Chris had the rest of the week off, and I was back to work on Weds. It was a lovely, and I'm so thankful to Chris' brother and family for such a fun time!

(ugh, I know this is a terrible pic of me, but wanted you to see our group!)

I hope you are all having a nice Summer, and tho I hear SoCal had a short heatwave, I hear it's quite cool at the moment, and I would like to say :P

I still hope to come back for next Summer and the Fair. Go say Hi to the Fair for me!

XOXO! Kelly

Moving in Summer

Hello everyone!

Greetings from South Carolina!
I was thinking that a blog would be a good idea to keep everyone updated on the happenings of my new "Southern Life", so here goes!

There is so much little stuff, but I'll try to keep to the big stuff.
Chris and I are doing very well, and are having fun being together! I am working at Starbucks still, and really like my new store, and co workers. I also found a salon! It is in a nice shopping center, that reminds me of California. (in that its NEW, lol) There are A LOT of old buildings, and old centers that just aren't kept up here, but thats another story.
So, all that is good. I'm working lots.

We are in the process of moving to a new apartment, and will be in on Saturday. We paid for an extra week so we could have some time to shuttle stuff over, and have only big stuff to move on Sat. with the big truck, and helpers. Now keep in mind it's averaging 95 degrees this week, so yeah, we're not having tons of fun, but the whole reason we're moving is because our current apartment has no AC flow in one of the bedrooms and the management keeps trying to tell us that's normal. (right). So, long story short, they let us out of our lease, and we're moving. It's called Broad River Trace, and it's beautiful and new (1998).

It's even tougher to get moving this week because just yesterday I had surgery to take the basal cell carcinoma off my neck. This was planned before the move. We drove down to Beaufort, (Chris' hometown) to the surgeon's office where Chris' Mom works. She helped me get it taken care of since I am still waiting for insurance from Starbucks. I'm VERY relieved to have it off, and done, but now I have a bandage on my neck, and I'm all sweaty trying to get things moved.

Beaufort is beautiful, and I finally got to see the beach in South Carolina!
Yes, I met the Atlantic!
Chris kept trying to tell me it isn't as easy to get to the beach in SC as in CA, but I just couldn't understand it unless I saw for myself, so... we went!
You drive out to the turn for the beach parking, and after paying $4 PER person, you proceed to wind your way back into this jungle of trees! I have never known so many trees to be at the beach! I imagined the early settlers with machetes, hacking their way through this forest, and coming across the ocean on accident! And it's not just the palmetto's, there are PINE trees here too! It really is beautiful, but now I know what Chris was talking about. You don't just drive down Newport Blvd to any street, park, get out and walk onto the sand.
Anyway, I will get the pictures uploaded soon, and then you will see. We saw the Lighthouse there at Hunting Island, and I dipped into the WARM water of the Atlantic, snapped some pictures, grabbed some shells, and left! That was fun. We even saw some dolfins just off shore! It would be fun to spend some time there at the beach.
We ate at one of Chris' (and Beauforts) favorite sandwich shops, Alvin Ord's. They make REALLY good sandwiches, and now I'm afraid I will start craving them! hehehe

OK, this is a good start. I will try my best to keep this current, and let everyone know what's happening, and how Chris and I are doing! He's taking good care of me, and I like to think I take good care of him too!

I love and miss you all!