Cody and I just got back from our trip down to Myrtle Beach to attend my friend Steph's wedding. We decided to use one of our vacation club condos and we went for the week with Hannah, Kyle, Sam, and Maia in a two bedroom condo at the Presidential Villas at Plantation Resort in Surf side Beach. This was one of our first vacations that we actually drove to (11 hours each way! yuck!) We left our house at 5:30am and got there at 4:30pm.
We were pleasantly surprised to see that Wyndham had recently taken this property over. We really enjoy staying at Wyndham properties. Here is our living room.
Kitchen area...
Our bedroom... I didn't take a picture of it but Hannah and Kyle had their own room with two full beds and a bathroom as well.
Here was our bathroom area... which was the only odd thing about our condo. Our bathroom sink was right next to our bed instead of in the actual bathroom. It was a little bit of an odd set up.
We all enjoyed the large pool that was on site. They had one main outdoor pool which was open 24/7 and then they had an indoor pool, and two smaller baby pools that were about a foot deep. We definitely took advantage of the pool being open all night long. We had quite a few late night swims... including after dinner on our first night.
I loved that the pool had a ledge inside the water to sit on. The pool water was also nice and warm. It felt very comfortable and it was easy to get into the water.
Another nice feature was the lazy river and mini-water park for kids. We enjoyed laying around in the lazy river quite a bit.
The first night for dinner we went across the street to the Bar-B-Que House and the food we had there was terrific! Everything tasted really good and they had extra sauces available. After a long drive it was nice to go somewhere close by.
The best part about staying with my besties was getting snuggles from my little sweetie pie!
Day 2
The next day we went out to the pool for the day, and we took Maia in the water for the first time. Here she is in her bathing suit!
Getting into the water...
Here she is with mommy... not too much of a reaction from her. She was just curious and tried to eat the water.
Here she is in the big girl float...
In the big pool with mommy!
Here are the boys hanging out with their drink cups behind them. Yay for being able to bring whatever we wanted to the pool. They didn't care if we brought our own drinks or food.
Here I am with my best little buddy! We had a fun day hopping from the pool, hot tub, and lazy river together.
Cody and I went to the Original Benjamin's Seafood Buffet for dinner, and it was delicious! They start you off by giving you a basket of the most delicious hush puppies that I've ever had (but had to limit myself on because we were at the buffet).
They had all kinds of ocean inspired decor all over the restaurant, and they had over 170 items on their buffet! We really enjoyed this buffet and thought that it was really good. After dinner we spent the night swimming and hanging out in the pool (night swimming is the bomb).
Day 3
Our resort gave us passes so that we could get into the state parks for free, so Cody and I decided to check out Myrtle Beach State Park.
We brought our lawn chairs with us and hung out under the pier (so that we were in the shade). We also attempted to play Frisbee with each other, but I'm pretty terrible at it haha.
Here is the pier that we sat under. It was so nice sitting in the shade and relaxing.
Later on that day Cody, Sam, Kyle, and I went on a kayaking tour in north Myrtle Beach.
Here we are at the island that we kayaked to. We had about an hour to wander around.
This trip was Sam's first time seeing the ocean! She was super excited, and we took all kinds of shots of her in the water.
Now, I really wanted to try something different when we were in Myrtle Beach. I really wanted to go on a crab catching tour, but there was only one company that did these tours, and they only did it on our first day in Myrtle Beach. I couldn't convince anyone to get up early on our first day and go crab hunting with me haha. But I was all about trying to hold a crab. So our kayaking tour guide caught one for us!
Yippee!!
We caught a small female blue crab that had one of her claws missing. Our tour guide gave us a little run down about crabs and pointed out how you could tell that she was female.
Here I am with Mrs. Crab! I was taking a gopro video of all of this, and at this point I go... I can't wait to show Hannah this picture haha. We were literally joking about how I was going to be a crab hunter the entire night before.
Here Cody is with her.
I'm such a dork!
Later that night Sam watched Maia and Kyle, Hannah, Cody, and I all went out on a double date. We went to the broadway area, and went to Yamato (hibachi) for dinner. We had a good time there and the food was pretty good.
We got out just in time to see the fireworks display over the lake. Then we walked around the broadway area. After the fireworks were over the place pretty much cleared out and most shops closed down.
However, we did have just enough time go to Margaritaville for a few drinks before we headed home. Once we got home, we played back alley for the rest of the night.
Day 4
On day 4 we decided to check out Murrel's Inlet which is known as the seafood capital of South Carolina. It has a nice little boardwalk area that has about 8 different restaurants on it, and a whole bunch of water sports.
Mmmm! We ate lunch at Drunken Jack's here is a appetizer sampler that I got. Their crab cakes were amazing!!
Later on that day Kyle, Sam, Hannah, Maia, and I went to Medieval Times. This is where you go to see knights fight each other, and they give you medieval style food where you eat without utensils.
Our knight ended up being the "villain" of the story and he ended up making it to the last fight.
Poor Maia... as soon as people started yelling and cheering she got scared and started crying. Kyle and Hannah had to switch off and take her away from the field. However, after she got a little nap in she was able to come back in for a bit.
After Medieval Times, I went down the road to the Boathouse to meet up with Cody and his friend, Bo. His friend grew up in Hancock with Cody, and then ended up moving down to Myrtle Beach. Cody decided to catch up and hang out with him instead of going to Medieval Times. After hanging out with Bo for a while, we headed back to the resort to go night swimming. I had bought a boogie board to float on, so we were doing tricks with the boogie board and had "boogie board challenges" which led to hand stand challenges. Poor Kyle thought he was in deeper water than he really was, and went to do a handstand and smashed his head onto the bottom on the pool. He kept joking that he was under concussion protocol, and we all just kept laughing at him. Later on, we realized that he had a big knot on his head from where he smashed into the bottom of the pool... Poor Kyle!
Day 5
The next day we got up early and went Banana Boat riding in Murrel's inlet. We were in a raft with a a family of 3, and we were being pulled by a jetski. We had fun on this excursion, but I wish that they pulled us with a speedboat vs a jetski, because it seemed like at times the waves weren't that big. I was proud of myself for not falling off the banana boat though! After that we went to a fresh seafood market and bought fresh crab cakes to make at home. We took a little nap, and then went to the pool for a bit.
After that the girls went to Miracle Nails to get our nails done for Steph's wedding!
Here's all the girls!
Here is all of our finger nails done. They actually talked me into getting gel nail polish for the first time. My nails normally chip the day after I get them done with regular polish, and they guaranteed me that with the gel that it will last a few weeks... I've had them for a few days now and so far so good... so we'll see how long they last, and how much of a pain they are to get off.
Afterwards we got dinner at Bubba's Fish Shack right on the water. After dinner we went out onto the beach and we saw big construction bulldozers moving sand out of the ocean onto the beach.
Now mind you... Steph's original plan was to get married on the beach at the Holiday Inn, but the government was doing construction on the beach and putting in a pipe in order to prep surf side beach for hurricane season. So needless to say, Steph had to find a new wedding ceremony location... cue comment above... about how when we went to the beach across from Bubba's Fish Shack we were concerned because those bulldozers were working about 3 blocks away from where Steph's new wedding ceremony location was supposed to be. Sure enough, day of the wedding Steph found out that they had worked on it over night, and that the beach was closed... so the poor girl had to find a new location on the day of her wedding. Luckily there wasn't any construction down a few blocks in the opposite direction so she was able to get her beach ceremony in. Speaking of... this leads us right into the next day...
Day 6
In the morning, the guys went to Preswick Golf Course for 18 holes of golf. Then they came back to watch Maia, and Hannah, Sam, and I were off to get ready with the girls for Steph's wedding that night.
The bride and her bridesmaids!
Here is some of the hustle and bustle of us getting ready.
Sam is my hero! She came to Myrtle Beach with us and did Hannah and my makeup and hair! Thank you Sam!
Here is her finished product on my hair! Good job Sammy!
While everyone else was getting ready, I went around and took some "photographer" pics for Steph... This one of her accessories on the beach is one of my favorite. I'm glad that it turned out well because I was laying on my knees and arms down in the hot sand to get this picture! Haha!
This is Steph's wedding dress! Thanks to Jon's mom, Judy, for being my assistant and helping me make this picture possible! It might look simple... but boy did we struggle getting this picture!
Here we are getting Steph bustled into her dress!
Here we are arriving to the ceremony location saying hi to the baby.
Awww! Aren't they cute!
Little details...
And the ceremony starts... I was the first walker... here I go... leading the way. :)
Here comes the bride!
The first look...
Vows...
The kiss!
Mr. and Mrs. Foos!
First dance on the beach... I love how happy Steph looked!
So much happiness! Love them!
Here are some of my favorite pics... This is the 3 amigas and Jon!
Bridesmaids!
Tug of war!
We're all married now!
Looove this picture of them!!
Love this one too! Just a candid moment of them playing on the beach.
Cody and I...
Sam and Maia!
Reception Time!
Cake cutting...
Are they going to be nice to each other??
Nope!!
This is her... I'm going to get you look...
Father/Daughter dance
Mother/son dance
Time for dinner!
After that it was speech time.
Time to dance!
Hannah and Kyle...
Love my Cody!
Sam and Maia dancing. Maia was such a trooper she made it all the way through the wedding and did so good during the reception.
The 3 amigas!
I love watching Cody play with Maia.
He's so good with her.
End of the night celebrations!
Day 7
Last day was a bit of a whirlwind... We went back to broadway to go to a man cave store that Cody was interested in. It was pretty hot out, so we came back to hang out in the pool for a few hours.
Later that night we went to Captain Archie's to hang out with Cody's friend Bo. They had a nice live band playing there and it was a pretty busy spot. We sat right on the water and hung out for a few hours.
Here is Cody and Bo. They needed a Facebook pic. :)
Final Thoughts...
Overall, I think that Cody and I agree that we had more fun in Myrtle Beach than we thought we would. We have about 60 or more resorts available to us in Myrtle Beach, but we've never been interested in going because we didn't think we'd have fun there. However, after going I have to say that there is a quite a bit to do there, and we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. The weather was also fantastic while we were there which was really nice! It was also nice getting to go on vacation with some of my best friends. We really loved the pool complex at our resort, but next time we'll probably look for a place right on the beach. I'm glad that we had the time to go for the full week, and I look forward to going back sometime in the future.
