A good time was had by all! (Sorry this took so long)

I have been working on this on and off for over a week now! I'm a little busier than normal - both at home and at work - right now. I'm working an extra hours a day for a couple of weeks while my boss is on vacation and coupled with doctors appointments, last minute income tax forms and a couple of family birthdays, I've been run off my feet. But I am determined to get this finished and posted tonight! So, without further ado...

...we left Thursday evening a little later than we originally planned, but the traffic was light and crossing the border was a breeze so we soon caught up and were back on schedule. We still had sunlight almost into Pennsylvania and we marvelled at how much greener everything was just a few hours south.

We drove until we hit Morgantown, just into Virginia and then stopped for the night. I slept really well and woke up early. A quick shower and quicker breakfast and we were back on the road. It was warm enough to drive with the windows down and we did! We saw all these lovely trees with pink blooms - I think they were crabapple but I'm not positive. Again we made really good time and didn't have to drive hard. It was a nice, relaxing drive and we saw a lot of pretty country.

We made it into town around 5 and I called Debbie's place; her husband gave me directions over the phone to the hotel. They picked out a really comfortable hotel for us to stay in and it was handy to everything too. I should say here that I don't want to say precisely where we were, just to protect Debbie's safety. I also don't ever recall her referring to her husband by name on her blog, so I am just going to call him "Junior". Bwaaaaahaaahaaa! That's a bit of an inside joke. Actually, that's what my husband has taken to calling him. Either that or "my brother". 'Cause they could be you know. Brothers, that is. They might be even more alike than Debbie and I (more on that later).

Oh, also, I am going to let Debbie post the pictures. I didn't have a camera with me (ours croaked a few weeks ago). But I will do my best to paint a picture with words.

Ok, so for dinner Friday night we went to Olive Garden at my request. We don't have Olive Garden here, so it's been about 15 years (or maybe more...) since I've been but it was as good as I remember. I had spaghetti and meatballs, which Debbie admitted she didn't really care for. Hmmmm.....a hint of things to come?

After dinner we went back to Debbie's house. They live kind of out in the country. Not too far out of town, but far enough that you feel like you are away from it all. They have a HUGE yard in front and in back! Debbie has a porch that runs all along the length of the front of the house - I could imagine us sitting out there and rocking. But it was getting dark so we went inside to visit for a while. Poor Junior was really tired because he had worked the night before and only had a few hours sleep. But we still had a nice long visit. Caleb had a friend over so we didn't see too much of him and Nathan wouldn't look at us at all! What a little lamby he is. If he came into the room for something, he covered his eyes the whole time he was in there. But he seemed to like the hockey stick I brought for him. And the Smarties (Canadian m&m's)! Amanda came out to greet me with a big hug. I really, really like that girl. *grin*

Since we were going to the beach the next day, we made it an early night (early for Debbie that is! That girl is a night owl! but waaaay past my normal bedtime. Another difference.....hmmmmm......)

We met up again the next morning and headed off to Holden Beach. On the drive there, Junior was a good tour guide, pointing out to us different places of interest along the way. At the beach, Ken and I acted like tourists and took off our shoes to get our feet in the water. It was SOOO cold!! I stuck my toe in and that was enough for me. I couldn't believe that people were actually swimming in it. It was a nice calm day and the tide was out, so we wandered up the beach and picked up interesting shells as we went. At one point Debbie and I both spotted what appeared to be a curly little Auger shell but it turned out to be bird poop (cleverly disguised as an auger shell). For some reason Debbie and I thought this was hysterical so Debbie took a picture of it.


After a while we went back and looked at all the beach houses. They are really something to see. They are all up off the ground on stilts incase the surf comes up during a storm. We took a peek inside a couple of units and I could definitely see myself vacationing in one of them (but I'd probably have to win the lottery to afford the rental fees!) They were definitely out of our price range.

Around lunch time we headed over to a little town called Shallotte where Debbie took me for my first visit ever to Bath and Body Works. Hoo boy! What a place that is! It smells sooooo good in there. It was here that Debbie and I began to suspect that we might not be long lost sisters after all (wink). Debbie took me around the store, pointing out the scents that she likes but I didn't really care for any of them! We tried about 10 without success. Then finally I found the fruity smelling products, which I like...but Debbie doesn't! They were having a sale, so I chose some Vanilla Raspberry scented body cream and some Mandarin Mango. Nice stuff! While we were shopping, the boys went over to Wal-mart and poked around. Then we met up and stopped for lunch at a little place called The Purple Onion. Debbie and I both opted for a really nice California salad, which was very good except for the house dressing that it came with. It was supposed to be poppyseed, but it was more like cream of raw onion. EWWWW! We swapped it out for a homemade raspbery vinaigrette which was out of this world. I would have drank that stuff.

Anyways, we got back on the road and headed down to Myrtle Beach!! Junior had been hinting all day long at a surprise he had for us that evening. Debbie guessed what it was, but I had no idea. Finally, he had pity on me and revealed that we had tickets to see The Carolina Opry! I didn't know what it was going to be like but I thought it would be a country show (a la the Grand 'Ole Opry) but it was more like a variety show. There were some really funny parts and some really talented singers. My favourite part of the show was when they did the old Ike and Tina song "River Deep, Mountain High" - but they did it like Celine Dion does it! (Who, you know, I like just a teeny bit.) During the intermission they had some commercials for one of their other shows called "Good Vibrations". Debbie had already seen it. "I didn't really like it," she said. "So you'd probably love it!" (She's right, I probably would!) So now we are operating on the principle of If-Debbie-likes-it-Anita-doesn't and vice-versa. She cracks me up!


After the show we hightailed it over to Cracker Barrel for a late dinner. I serenaded everyone with my best rendition of Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man". I must have been really good. People were staring. Debbie and Junior had a bet for a foot rub over where our server was from - she had an accent which Debbie correctly identified as being from...oh shoot, I forget where now. I couldn't hear anything different, but Debbie and Junior knew she wasn't local.


Before we left we browsed through the store a bit and Debbie found me a sign that said: ASAP - As Southern As Possible. So of course we got a picture of me with it!


Then we headed back to the hotel for the night. At the beginning of our drive to the coast, Junior told me if I saw anything I wanted to stop for, just let him know. So when I saw the Krispy Kreme with the red light on I told him to PULL OVER NOW!!! I was really tired but I still ate 2 donuts. When we got back to the hotel I got right into bed and Ken decided to go down to the pop machine to get a drink. I asked him if he would mind getting me a Coke Zero. Well, the machine on our floor was empty, so he went off in search of a machine that had Coke Zero. He had to check 2 more floors before he found one. When he got back to the room he found that I had (of course) already fallen asleep! He's a good man.


The next morning we had to head back already. We weren't really sure where there was a church so we missed going to church, bummer. Before heading back to Debbie's place we went to Calabash where we visited the coolest Christmas store I have ever seen! Do you know there are people who will pay hundreds of dollars for one teeny weeny Christmas ornament?? People! That's ridiculous! But there was a lot of really neat stuff that I had never seen before. Debbie and I poked around in the shops until our men dragged us out of there. Then we went to a restaurant called Ella's and ate seafood! Mmmmm....


We made a quick stop to Wal-mart on our way back where I picked up a few groceries that we can't get in Canada and then began the drive back to Debbie's. At some point I noticed a Piggly Wiggly store and I wanted to get a picture of the sign so Junior pulled over and took a few pics of it for me. For some reason the name Piggly Wiggly cracks me up and I've always wanted to have a picture of it. Small things amuse me, I know. As we drove back Debbie and I killed ourselves laughing as we tried to take pictures of ourselves. Those pictures were so terrible they were hilarious! I nearly peed my pants laughing over them. We were wiping away tears for quite a while and we both agreed "that's not going to make it on the blog!".

Ken had wanted to be on the road to go home by about 3 - 3:30 but I think it was close to 6 before we actually got on the road because we streeeeeeetched out our goodbyes, to the point were Ken was thinking we might end up staying another night! We got some final pictures, one of the 4 of us and some of us hanging out in the front yard, talking and prolonging the inevitable. I tried to get a little hug from Nathan, but he was still covering up his eyes! But I got a big hug from Amanda *smile*. Debbie and Junior prayed over us and then it was time to (reluctantly) leave. And as we were backing the car away from the house, I looked over to see the kids playing on the trampoline, and there was Nathan, waving to us and calling goodbye to us! It was very cute and very funny because he was so enthusiastic to see us going! Little monkey.

Our drive home was relatively uneventful - we had rain most of the way the first night, but fine weather the next. Instead of taking all interstates, we took some back roads and saw some really nice scenery. It took us longer, but it was a more enjoyable drive.

So that's the big story! Hope you enjoyed it. We sure did!