Summer Highlights - Celebrating the 4th, Going to the Beach, and Playing on the Porch

For the next three weeks, I am going to just share a few summer highlights of some fun things we did this summer.  We took a travel vacation in the spring to the Smokey Mountains, and we plan on taking another vacation this fall, but for the summer we just enjoyed our own backyard.

Ashley, her husband Jason, and the grandkids came up to visit us for a week.  They arrived on the 4th of July, so after grilling out, we all headed out for the local parks to see the fireworks.  It was Atticus' first time at the fireworks and we were all a little nervous about his reaction, but he LOVED it!  He thought they were the greatest and he was not afraid of them at all. 

Ashley and I both purchased these glow sticks for the kids to play with while we were waiting for the fireworks to start.  What a godsend these are!  I wish they had them when my kids were little.  They are so much safer than sparklers (I burned my fingers badly as a child with sparklers) and they really help occupy time.  The kids were not bored at all playing with these glow sticks.

Ashley made a fun ball with some of the glow sticks.  It did not stay this way long. 😁

I know this picture is blurry, but it is so precious anyway.  Ah, that expression says it all! He loved the fireworks so much1

This was Alethea's third time to the fireworks, so she was a pro!

Another activity we did while the grandkids were here was go to the beach.  Alethea and Atticus have a lot of splash pads where they live, and they've also gone to public pools, but they don't get to beaches too often.  This is a very unique beach, because it is actually located on the Mississippi River.  

It isn't often one can go swimming and see a huge barge behind them.

The kids were a little leery of getting in the water because I'm sure it looked pretty big and scary to them, but after a half hour of playing in the sand, they were ready!  And once they got their feet wet, it was hard to get them out of the water.  

I have no idea why, but the water is super warm, like bath water!  I'm sure that's one reason the kids liked it so much.  It's also very shallow and sandy on the bottom for quite a ways out.  Once they got in the water, and felt the warmth and saw that it wasn't deep, they felt very safe.

Grandpa Todd made sandcastles, but Ashley warned us that if Atticus saw them, he would knock them over.

Yep, sure enough.  The little guy saw the sand castles, and came right over.  Just look at the mischievous little grin.

The kids enjoyed the beach so much we took them twice.  It's only about a 15 minute drive from our house, so it was very convenient.  The second time we went, it was cooler, so when Atticus came out of the water, he snuggled with mom to get warm.

The grandkids also had fun making rivers and puddles in the sand.

When the grandkids first arrived in town, we were having a heat wave.  Then after a couple of days of horribly hot weather, a cold wave moved in.  We literally went from one extreme to another!  

During the heat wave, no one wanted to go anywhere as it was much more enjoyable staying home in the air conditioning.  But we did get out on the screened porch and enjoyed that!  I filled two galvanized tubs with water for the grand babies to play in.

One of their birthday presents were these amazing bubble guns.  They are battery operated and instead of squirting water they shoot out a ton of bubbles!  They are so much fun!  Again, why couldn't they have had these when I was a kid?  

We used our screened porch so much the week the grandkids were here.  It was like a giant playpen...ha ha!  Our yard isn't the safest for toddlers, so this is a nice place to be outdoors with them safely.

The grandkids got so much bubble soap on the deck it was getting very slippery.

All they wanted to do was shoot bubbles at us adults!  I think I was soaked in Bubble Juice by the time the evening was over.  Oh well, if I had to choose between being shot at with a squirt gun or being shot at with bubbles,  I'll take bubbles anytime!

I hope you enjoyed this little snapshot of my family.  Next week I'll be back with a visit to Pepin, Wisconsin to see the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Savannah, Day 4, Part 2, Tybee Island: The Crab Shack

This is a continuation of a travel series to Savannah, Georgia.  If you'd like to start at the beginning, go HERE.  The rest of the posts in consecutive order are HERE,  HERE,  HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

On Day Four of our vacation to Savannah we went to Tybee Island to spend the day.  It was one of the nicest, happiest days of our vacation.  I think because my husband and I are nature lovers at heart,  anytime we are in nature, we are happy.  We spent the morning at Fort Pulaski, which I reviewed in last week's travel post in case you missed it.  Then we headed out for lunch at The Crab Shack!  This was such a fun and quirky place, I decided to devote an entire travel post to it.

A giant crab greets you as you enter The Crab Shack grounds.

And this giant fish tells you where you can find your hostess!

The Crab Shack is just that:  a Shack.  Or shall I say, "Shacks".  It's more like a bunch of hastily thrown together buildings open to the air that would probably topple over in a good wind storm.  It can be confusing where to park your car (we wondered what was the legal parking as there were no markings anywhere and cars seemed to parked everywhere on the dirt lot) and even find your way around the grounds.  Thanks goodness for lots of colorful signs to lead the way!

They definitely play up the marine theme with lots of alligators, fish, crabs and all the sea life you can imagine decorating the walls and every nook and cranny.

The majority of the dining is outdoors under a canopy of oak trees.  It was very primitive, in a cute "Giligan's Island" sort of way.  Aren't the bushel basket light fixtures delightful?  Another fun (and practical) idea they had was to have a big hole cut out of every table.  Underneath the hole was a large garbage can:  perfect for easy clean up and tossing crab leg bones into.

We ordered a light lunch.  We tried two different types of soup;  "Shack Crab Stew" and "Clam Chowder":   both were delicious.  I had the "1/4 lb of shrimp served in the shell" and my husband had the "Deviled Crab".  Both were very tasty, however the portions were small for $8.99.  Hubby was still hungry, so we split a slice of peach cobbler.  Also very good.

After we ate, we walked around a bit to check the place out.  We loved this "Gilligan's Island" type sink for the guests to wash their hands after they ate.

 My favorite part of this restaurant was the outdoor cats they had running around.  A sign said "Please don't feed our cats.  They are well fed."  It also said they were spayed/neutered and up to date on their shots, but this sweetheart looked very pregnant to me!

The cats walked all around the dining tables.  Being a cat lover, I was in heaven, but I could tell one guest didn't care for it at all for she sat up in her chair every time one walked by.  When I told my daughter about the cats she thought that was odd because so many people don't like cats or are allergic to them.  I said they probably keep the rat population down with all the dining and cooking being outdoors.

My silly husband always likes to do funny poses when he sees statues like this.  Then he makes me take his picture. haha!  

The Crab Shack is located right on the back waters of the ocean.  All the outdoor seating has a water view.  I love how the place was decked off around all the oak trees.  No umbrellas are needed, the trees provide all the shade you need.

There is one building that is somewhat indoors.  It's just a crude structure with a roof and open windows.  There is plastic on the windows that can come down in severe windows.

The Crab Shack also has an Alligator Lagoon.  You can look at the alligators for free, but you can also feed them for $3.00

Of course hubby had to strike a silly pose with an alligator statue again.

The Crab Shack is such a fun place to explore.  Definitely a place to stop if you have kids, or are a kid at heart yourself.

We enjoyed walking around looking at all the fun, quirky stuff so much.  I bet it's really pretty after dark too because they had a lot of lights set up!

If you ever get to Tybee Island, I highly recommend checking this place out.  It's a lot of fun!

Next week I will be finishing my Savannah travel series with my last post of Tybee Island:  Tybee Beach.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Our Myrtle Beach Vacation: Day 1

I am back from a ten day road trip to Myrtle Beach (with a short stop in Charleston) with my husband.  As usual we drove, it was a twenty hour drive and  1,276 miles.  This trip we didn't face any car problems (thank God!) or traffic jams (we looked ahead using my Smart Phone and bypassed them).  But we did have to drive through some treacherous spring storms right through the Smokey Mountains.  That was stressful!

We started our trip on Friday afternoon arriving in Wheaton, Illinois around 7:00 p.m.  We spent the night with our children and said our goodbye's to Jackson (our cat) the next morning.  For those wondering how Jackson did without us for ten days:  very well.  In fact, he didn't even seem to care when we showed up to pick him up.  I think he enjoyed living with our kids for ten days and did not miss us at all.  Little stinker!

The next day we only had to drive six hours to Richmond, KY.  When we arrived at our hotel, we  had plenty of time to shop, eat a leisurely dinner, and get plenty of rest before the long drive the next day.

The next morning we woke up around 5:30 a.m. because we wanted to get to Myrtle Beach as soon as possible so we could enjoy Sunday evening there.  It was a nine hour drive,  and we got there around 5:30 ET.

When we arrived at our hotel in Myrtle Beach, the first thing I noticed when I walked through the hotel lobby was the ocean.  The winds were so strong, they felt hurricane force to me, and they produced large waves.

 We stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites  which is listed as the Number 1 hotel in Myrtle Beach on Trip Advisor and Number 2 on The Travel Channel.  It is an absolutely gorgeous hotel located right on the beach.  The beach theme decor in all the rooms of the hotel is so stunning.  They offer free parking, free breakfast, multiple indoor and outdoor heated pools, a spa, and much, much more.

When we first got there, we just walked around the grounds of this stunning hotel checking out all it's amenities. In the picture below I'm standing on one of their many decks outside the commons area overlooking all their pools and the ocean.

When we were in Myrtle Beach it was still the off-season, plus it was a Sunday night, so it was pretty quiet.  At first we thought we might have the whole place to ourselves, but more guests arrived later and breakfast was pretty full the next morning.

They had two lazy river pools and two children pools.  There was an adult pool outside, and several more inside plus a jacuzzi.  And the best part was, all the pools were heated quite warm so even though the weather wasn't really hot when we were there, we could still enjoy the pools.

The breakfast area was GORGEOUS!  I could decorate my house like this I loved it so much!  Every morning it was a joy to sit in this room and eat breakfast and gaze out at the ocean.  There were huge picture windows facing the ocean.  And yes, the breakfast was wonderful every morning.

As I stated previously, the entire hotel was decorated in a sea-side theme with lots of ship lap paneling, beachy colors, shell decorations, and nautical prints.  I LOVED this seating area with the seashell mirror, the coral reef print chair, and even a seashell centerpiece.

Being Christians, my husband and I couldn't help notice all the Christian crosses scattered about the hotel.  There was one made of driftwood and also this one made of shells.  We later discovered a sign that explained that told the history of the hotel and how the owners dedicated the hotel and it's guests to the Lord.  We thought it was more than a coincidence that we surprisingly ended up at a hotel owned by Christians.  They even had a Sunday Morning Service and a Wednesday Night Bible Study in the hotel.  How cool is that?

After we explored the hotel, we went to the car to get our bags and check out our room.  I was so excited when I opened the door and saw our beautiful ocean front view!

 This was the view from our balcony.

The room was a little small, but it was so cozy and had everything we needed.  We loved the nautical decor.  The bathroom was also quite spacious, I only wished it had some counter space to put my toiletry bag on.  I ended up having to set my bag on the floor, and it was a pain for me to bend down every time I needed something out of the bag.

The chair in our room had this cute seashell print.

After spending all day in the car, my husband was anxious to walk so we headed outside to check out the beach.

This is the view of our hotel as seen from the beach.

After a brief walk on the beach, we headed down the street to check out the town.  Our hotel was about 1.2 miles from the boardwalk, but there was still plenty of other restaurants and activities within walking distance like the Family Kingdom Amusement Park and Splashes Ocean Front Water Park.

 The winds felt practically hurricane force the night we arrived.  There were times I could barely stay on my feet!  But it was still warm and humid compared to where we had come from, so we enjoyed it!

 I had read a lot of reviews about Myrtle Beach being run down or having a lot of shady characters, but that wasn't my feelings when I was there.  Yes, there are areas where you will experience a larger cross section of society and there are also upscale areas where the elite members of society tend to hang.  We enjoyed spending time in both areas, and although we met a couple of interesting characters, we never felt unsafe.  BUT, we also were never out at night.  We are early-to-bed-early-to-rise type of people, so we were always safely back in our hotel at night.

I also read a lot of reviews about Myrtle Beach being too touristy.  My thoughts on that is that all beach towns are touristy:  it is typical for a beach town to be filled with lots of hotels and attractions.  If you don't like touristy, don't go to a beach town and pick a state park instead.  There are two state parks in Myrtle Beach which are very natural and peaceful.  We went to both and I will share our visit to those parks in a later blog post.

If you walk down the streets of Myrtle Beach you will see lots and lots of hotels (some new, some vintage), amusement rides, mini-golf, restaurants, and gift shops.  The Landmark was one of my favorite hotels on Myrtle Beach.  I just loved the color and the sky walk.

We walked so far our first night that even though I wore very supportive sandals, my feet and hips were aching!  We walked all the way to Pier 14 Restaurant and the very start of the boardwalk, then we decided it was time to find a place to eat dinner.

This is the beginning of the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk.  It eventually becomes a wooden boardwalk when you get closer to the historic section of town, but it starts as a concrete boardwalk.

 We ate dinner at this chain restaurant, which was new to us as we hadn't heard of this chain before.  The prices were super inexpensive, the food was great, and the service was excellent.  We liked it so much, we went back another day just for ice cream.  We were really impressed with the waitresses we had both times.  They were so friendly....hmm, I wonder if that has anything to do with their name!

After dinner we went back to our hotel and spent some time in the outdoor jacuzzi.  It felt so good soaking in that hot water after a long drive and a long walk.  I love outdoor jacuzzis!  It feels wonderful when there is a little chill in the air!

Next week I'll share our first full day in Myrtle Beach, which was a rainy day so we went to a upscale shopping center called The Market Commons.

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

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