Niagara on the Lake - a beautiful day

Today Ralph and I got up early and went to NOTL for a round of golf.  We left in time to take some pictures of the sunrise and also hoped to see some of the colour in the tree's.  It's funny though as there really wasn't much there yet, but if you travel north on highway 401 it is full of beautiful colours.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

This morning we woke up to the sound of pouring rain.  When looking out of the window, the the pathway that we had seen the day before was a small river.  We had seen deer on this path yesterday but I suspect that they went into hiding with the rising of the water.  This was a residual effect of the hurricane that was coming up the coast.

We relaxed over breakfast this morning and decided to go shopping at the outlet mall in Mebane, NC. It was about an hour away.  This was a Tanger Outlet.  We split up when we got to the Mall and planned to meet in a couple of hours.  

After shopping we went back to our hotel to figure out where to go for dinner.  We decided to go to a restaurant called The Print House Bistro.  What a good decision this was.The restaurant itself was very elegant looking and you could tell that meal was going to be good by the number of people that were there.  We were not disappointed.  The food was amazing and the service was top notch.  It was a nice break from the rain.  It had rained all day and there was no sign of it stopping.

We tuned into the tv when we got back to the hotel and were sad to hear that one of the piers in Myrtle Beach had all but 100 feet destroyed by Hurricane Matthew.  This pier was over 1,000 feet long.  The other pier which was closer to our Condo also sustained damage.  Thankfully the hurricane was downgraded to a Category 1 by the time it hit Myrtle Beach but there was still alot of damage.

Tomorrow we will head to Morgantown, WV for the beginning of our journey back home.  Hopefully the rain will have subsided by then.

The rain won't get me down...

We woke up to a fine drizzle this morning.  This must be an effect of the hurricane making it's way up the coast. The temperature is still really quite nice so we all dressed in shorts or a skirt. Unfortunately by the time we got to the course the rain had increased and we were required to put our rain suits on.

We booked a round at Greensboro National Golf Resort.  What a beautiful course. Given all the rain that we had, the greens still proved to be challenging for us.  This is a very pretty area that you play through.  There were only a few people on the course while we were out and it rained the entire time. At one point I was concerned that we might have to call it quits as the rain was coming down really hard but we played through it.

Today's competition was held on all the Par 5 holes.  Each player could select only one club and was required to play the whole hole using only that club.  Lawrence was today's winner with a total score of 30.  This was a pretty challenging competition and we all had fun playing it.

\

Afterwards we went out for dinner at a restaurant called Darryl's Wood Fired Grill.  The food was amazing and so plentiful.  I had rib's and I would say that they were the best I have ever had. Yummy!

No room at the Inn

As I mentioned yesterday, we were evacuated from Myrtle Beach and are currently in Winston Salem.  Unfortunately there is no availability for us during the weekend so we are moving tomorrow to Greensboro, North Carolina.  This is fine with us as it brings us a little closer to Morgantown where we are staying on Sunday night.

Today we played golf at Oak Hollow Golf Club which was in Highpoint.  We were pleasantly surprised when they gave us the senior's rate and were required to pay only $24 including cart fee's. We weren't too sure what to expect but found that the course was really scenic and quite challenging. The weather was slightly cooler and we experienced some wind as well.  We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and would definitely play here again.

The golf course flowed around Oak Hallow Lake

This was a very hilly and undulating golf course.

This was the "Blue" Tee box! Fortunately for the boys it was shut down while a Heron laid on it's nest with eggs.

We ended our evening with dinner at a restaurant called Milners.  The food was amazing and we all enjoyed our meal.

We are now relaxing in our room after doing our "golf prizes" and looking forward to another fun day tomorrow.

Blog update

Hello family and friends, I appear to have been experiencing problems with my blog where it wasn't sending out my updates.  I have made some adjustments and hopefully you are now receiving them again.

We are having fun, although no longer staying in Myrtle Beach as we were evacuated today.  We are staying in Winston Salem, North Carolina and plan to spend a few days here.

Our vacation has been really fun, the weather has been beautiful and the golf has been terrific.  We were sad to leave, but look forward to new adventures here in North Carolina.

If you want to catch up on my previous posts, they can be found here.

http://ralphandgrace.blogspot.com/

Evacuation Day

After packing early this morning we decided to drive to The Thistle to see if they would honor our rain check for another year. The receipt we had from last year was barely legible and the Golf team at the condo suggested that they might not honor it next year because it was so faded.  When we got to the golf course they offered for us to golf today.  We agreed and played an enjoyable round. Afterwards they helped us plan an alternate route to Winston Salem, NC via the back roads.  It was nice because we avoided alot of traffic.  We have another round of golf booked here in Winston Salem at a golf course called  Oak Hollow Golf and Country Club.  We're looking forward to seeing what this course looks like.  At least the temperature is still nice and warm here.

.

Myrtle Beach exodus

We got the memo this morning.  Time to pack up and go because of the impending Hurricane Matthew that's on it's way.  Our rounds of golf are cancelled and our bags are packed.  We are now joining the million people that are making their exodus inland.  This wasn't quite what we expecyed but we recognize the need to be safe.

Pawley's Plantation - a change is coming

Today we woke up to warnings about an impending weather change.  Hurricane Matthew is on it's way and has the locals quite concerned.  We can appreciate that, especially after experiencing one last year.  By Friday the hurricane is predicted to make landfall.  Wouldn't you know it, this is the day that we're playing our raincheck from last year.  I guess we'll see what happens.

Today we were told to expect an increase of wind and the weather station even predicted hourly how fast to expect it.  Sure enough by noon we were feeling a noticeable change in the weather.  You know how you can just tell when a storm is coming... it's on it's way for sure. The wind has picked up and some rain is in the forecast.  There are strong riptides right now and many warnings not to enter the water.

Our first alligator swimming by

Our golf was fun.  We have played this course a few times before so we know what to expect.

You play over the marsh and have a lovely view of the birds that are looking for fish.  It's really quite nice.

The ocean has changed it's direction.  Earlier in the week the waves were flowing to our left, but now they are flowing to the right.   I went out to see the sunset which goes down behind our condo.

Can you find Lawrence in the bright orange t shirt!!