myrtle street to myrtle beach

dear friend, jenn, and her mom (aka momma dubs or momma w. to us lynchburg kids) signed up to run the half-marathon.  the race just happened to be in myrtle beach.  good excuse for a little girls' three day weekend?  i think so.  i am so blessed and thankful that jenn and momma w invited myself and roommate kristi along.  seemed like this trip had been planned for quite some time.  it finally arrived.  finally time to go from myrtle street to myrtle beach, so we loaded up momma w's brand new crv and headed for south carolina.  during the drive, i read the vow {kim and krickett carpenter}, which was the true story of the recently released movie.  both the movie and the book are great, but the book is certainly an incredible testimony of god's restoring and healing power.  {more from that in a later post!}

a beautiful drive it was!  it was nearing seventy degrees, which is pretty nice weather for february, even for the south.  our room was at the {anderson ocean club & spa}.  beautiful place, view, and the room--not too shabby!  upon entering the room, kristi and i may or may not have had to hide behind one of the doors to hide our giggles from the bellboy.  the room had 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, and a hallway.  what hotel room has a hallway!?!?  oh, and did i mention that each bedroom had two queen beds, which meant we each got our own queen bed?  what a treat!

after settling in, we hit up the hot tub for the first of many trips to the hot tubs.  as you can see, the hotel had the outdoor pools, hot tub, and lazy river, but it also had an indoor pool and hot tub.  soo relaxing.  then we headed out for some italian dinner, back to the hotel for more hot tub, and then some chill time.  we may have watched a few say yes to the dress episodes.  hey, we're in wedding mode, don't judge.

saturday was an early day--race day!  it required an early morning wake-up call, especially for a friday.  kristi and i got to show off our #1 fan t-shirts that jenn gave us for christmas.  fun, fun!  while they ran, kristi and i had breakfast at a cute little cafe, bagel factory, only to be followed by an obnoxious alarm.  we walked around forever, trying to figure out why we couldn't get away from this constant alarm sound.  only to later discover that it was jenn's phone, which kristi had been carrying in her bag.  the alarm had been going off every minute for a couple of hours before we realized what was going on.  embarassing?  yes.  but we had a good laugh over it.  jenn and mrs. washburn did great though in their race.  it ended up being another gorgeous day. 

after the race, it was time for more relax time.  a little beach and a little hot tub.  we also made a little note to jonathan on the beach.  we're all praying for you, jonathan.  we'll see you soon!  this weather made me so excited for summer though, and excited for another beach trip where we can actually lay out and tan!

next stop?  food!  it was time to eat.  we ate at {mellow mushroom}.  another first for me.  it was yummy!  surprisingly, we really enjoyed the chicken caesar salad pizza.  yum!  we had four pizzas altogether--i think our server thought we were crazy.

after we were full of pizza, we went to a cute, little shopping center.  love the outdoor shopping areas.  our next stop was the {myrtle beach state park}.  once we realized there was an entrance fee, we decided we were just going to turn around, but the generous workers let us in for free because "[they] were certain we would love it so much that we would come back again."  yay - super excited about the freebie!  we explored the beach a little and the fishing pier.  it was beautiful, especially as you could see some of the storm clouds rolling in.  the rain clouds provided incredible color to our impromptu photo shoot.  and we spotted dolphins - love it!  photos like this are such a treasure to me as it beautifully captures some of the blessings in my life! love you friends!!

a little more hot tub and a little more relaxing.  while we were relaxing, kristi taught me how to french braid.  as i practiced on jenn's hair, kristi french braided mine.  a regular old hair braiding line--just like grade school.  as we're getting our picture taken, jenn asks, "what should i do in the picture?"  me:  "just stare at your engagement ring."  i don't think jenn had any problem with that! 

 then, it's time for more food--a late dinner!  the {sea captain's house restaurant} was neat.  the waiting area reminded me so much of sitting in a grandparent's living room.  good food, too.  wish i wasn't still so full from lunch.

 departure day from vacation is always easier to bare when it's cold and rainy, right?  that was sunday's weather--rain, rain, and a few snowflakes on the beach.  time to head back to va.  it poured rain for a long time, but started changing to snow by the time we hit north carolina.  roads got worse and worse the further we went.  lots of accidents.  i tried to distract myself from my anxiety of traveling in the snow by reading and reading.  it was another emotional read, but another wonderful testimony of god's provisions.  choosing to see {mary beth chapman} --highly encourage you to read, when you have tissues at your side.  praise god for a safe trip home.  thank you momma w for getting us home safely in your new crv!  since the snow had already accumulated by inches and we had a three hour delay for work the next morning, we slept over instead of driving back to chezmk.  glad we did, too, because we had a nice stack of chocolate chip pancakes and peanut butter chip pancakes waiting for us in the morning {the stacks had been somewhat eaten by the time the picture was taken!}.  thanks poppa dubs!  the conclusion:  we need to get snowed in at the washburn household more, even come july!

what did we learn from the weekend?

• "the wisest people never take their own advice."  {me}
• {lobby...} "girls, if you keep practicing, someday they may need a new person to record 'lobby' for the elevator." {mrs. washburn}  this was her response to us after we would try to mimick the elevator's voice every time it would say lobby.
• "well, we can take both poses because it's a digital camera.  you never run out of film with digital cameras."  {mrs. washburn} -- lesson learned, kristi?!?!
• don't let your iphone fall out of your pocket at the beach.  it will get buried in the sand.  thank you, jenn, for finding my phone that i didn't even know i had lost!
• have lots of tissues handy when you are reading emotional books in the car, especially when driving through a snow storm.

sorry for the long post, but wanted to capture as much as i could of the weekend. =)