North Myrtle Beach Vacation Edition
It’s not the destination; it’s the journey. That’s what they say when they want you to focus on the beauty in front of you, not what’s ahead of you. Our journey started at midnight, after no sleep. I haven’t pulled an all-nighter since I was an elementary school-aged kid at a slumber party ordering prank call pizzas for cute boys. But, with a few little cat naps, I managed. Dawn came somewhere in southern Virginia while my family slept. There were no accidents, no moving violations, and only one vomiting incident, so I consider it a great success.
The more you know. I left the South and the shore with two public service announcements to share.
#1: Maybe sunscreen does expire. At least that’s our preliminary observation after the six of us, coated in sunscreen, returned from the beach with our exposed skin a bright red hue.
#2: Cigarette smoking is still a thing, and it’s still bad for you. We were deep in tobacco country, but we felt like we’d time-traveled to the 1970s. I haven’t seen so many smokers since, well, the 1970s. My kids, who are growing up in a nearly smoke-free environment, crinkled their noses as we inhaled secondhand smoke at the pool and on the beach. I thought maybe it was a fluke, but based on the number of anti-smoking ads we saw on local TV, it was not.
–3–
We will not all agree on our idea of what constitutes vacation relaxation. And that’s … okay. We had a beach comber, pool lovers, people who preferred sleeping in, and early risers. Some content to chill in the motel room. One insistent that such chill is *not* vacation-worthy. Everyone has to give a little. And it’s okay. (I may keep repeating that until everyone here absorbs the message.)
–4–
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a hotel room with cable TV must broadcast Spongebob Squarepants 24/7. More Spongebob was consumed in one week than in the past year. For variety, we mixed it up with some Peppa Pig, which despite its simple (super simple) animation is surprisingly entertaining for the whole family. And when the youngest kids finally slept, a little Food Network rounded out the selections.
–5–
Dog-slow WiFi is equal parts frustrating and liberating. I’d already planned on minimizing my electronic tether to the world, but the truth is that ignoring all incoming messages for an entire week makes for misery on re-entry. With enough pre-scheduling and only a minimal perusal of messages and notifications, I felt less bound to devices, aided by WiFi that c-r-a-w-l-e-d. If the wait outweighed the urgency, I set the phone aside. And it was good.
–6–
The memories were worth it. Logic says we should not have taken this vacation. We still had a balance of Catholic school tuition that we knew we’d be unable to pay until the end of June. We’d just learned we needed electrical work amounting to $900 and a new boiler/furnace estimate at about $10,000. I can barely keep up with daily life, let alone do the work necessary to anticipate eight days away from home. Only one person in our household of six previously had enough clothes to even get through a week away from the washer/dryer. The timing wasn’t the best. We’d inadvertently backed the vacation up to the end of our son’s week at Scout leadership camp. In short, we had a lot of sound reasons not to take a week-long vacation. Again. But we did. For the first time in a few years, a least. Now, I’m not advocating a devil-may-care attitude that will drive you into debt. We had made a down payment on our inexpensive motel room and set aside money from our income tax return for the balance. Money that on paper would be better spent elsewhere. But I do not regret a dime of it. Our children are growing fast, and it’s not long until life takes them in other directions, away from our little family. It’s worth a little financial risk to give them memories of pre-dawn walks on the beach with Daddy, a mini golf hole inside a pirate ship, parasailing over the Atlantic Ocean, and sitting in the surf with a plastic shovel.
–7–
Re-entry into normal life is always overwhelming. The day after we returned, I did eight loads of laundry in our large-capacity washer and dryer. And that didn’t get it all done. I sifted through more than 500 email messages. I scavenged meals from ingredients found in the back of the freezer or stored in the basement. Verdict: Still worth it.
###
For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain’t the Lyceum.
I love this post! Especially since we will soon be taking our week-long vacation and we have similar reasons for why we shouldn’t (the debt, the timing, all that). And I know that we will each need to give a little because we each have our own ideas of fun too. And I hope that goes smoothly.
You are absolutely right about how quickly the kids grow up. Ours all all teens now and one might be moving out this fall. I know that while we’re running out of days to create moments to remember, we’ll have different experiences when they are grown. It will all be good. But we’ll never be able to go back to these times. Let’s make the most of them!
Every time we go, I say it’s the last time while we’re packing. And then I’m glad we did when it’s done.