Oh those amazing skies

Today was our first day all together.  I awoke ahead of the alarm and waited patiently for it to go off. I've been waiting since February to get back out to the beach to enjoy the sunrises.  Myrtle Beach never disappoints.

The condo was pitch black with the curtains drawn to ensure that Brody was able to sleep as he was enjoying the comfort of the couch in the living room.  I was ready as I planned what I would need the night before.  I quietly left the condo and was down by the beach at 6:15.  Oh what a beautiful morning.  The Lord was painting the sky this morning with some amazing colours.  This was just awesome.

When I got back to the condo, everything was still quiet except Brody was waiting patiently for me to return.  He was hungry so I made him his breakfast and enjoyed spending time with him.  He was quite anxious to get to the beach to look for more sharks teeth.  I explained that we had to wait for everyone else to wake up so that we would all go down together.

We decided to spend time at the beach in the morning as the forecast for the day called for rain and thunderstorms.  It was a good decision.  Brody, Hailey and I spent some time looking for shells and sharks teeth and then later the gang all decided to go for a swim in the ocean.  The water was very warm and nice to swim in.

As we were enjoying ourselves at the beach, we had some beautiful skies.  The weather was definitely changing.

Jordan and Brody enjoying time at the pool.

While standing on the balcony Jay saw this bird.  We're not sure if this was a hawk or a falcon.  Laura and I quickly went downstairs to try to capture it as it was sitting on the bridge leading to the beach.  

and then came the rain.....

The end of a beautiful day.  

Adventures at Greensboro National

I woke up early this morning in anticipation of another fun round of golf.  I couldn't remember what time Ralph had set the alarm for, but I was sure it was for around 5:30 so I got myself ready.  When the alarm didn't go off, I wasn't sure what to do, so I crawled back in bed with my golf clothes on and waited patiently.  I had too much sleep and was ready to go.  When the alarm went off (5:45) I jumped out of bed and went in search of a coffee for the two of us.

We arrived early at the course and had a really nice greeting.  We were the first to tee off and it felt like we had the course all to ourselves.  I saw a mother deer and two young ones cross as we were checking in and later at the end of our round we saw another two deers.  It was so nice.  The temperature was lovely first thing but got progressively hotter as the morning went on.  I'm glad we had an early tee time.

After our round of golf we decided to go to "Old Salem" and visit a few of the historic graveyards.  Sadly they have been blocked off from visitors with many "no trespassing" signs posted everywhere.  I would have loved to spend a few hours reading the tombstones as they contain so much history.   We parked the car near the Military College and Ralph stayed nearby while I wondered around but I didn't go too far in as I didn't want to get into any trouble.  It was pretty hot while walking around as the temperature by this time had reached 96F.

We connected with Laura and she has confirmed that they are now enroute to Myrtle Beach.  They will be staying in Pittsburgh tonight and will arrive tomorrow evening.  We're looking forward to a fun time with them.  Tonight we will pack things up and plan to leave early tomorrow.  It's been a fun couple of days.

Grandover Golf Resort

Today we golfed at a course called Grandover.  It was beautiful and very well maintained. It wasn't that busy which the Starter said was very unusual.  It was warm when we started and very hot by the time we finished.

This course is a photographers delight.  I could spend hours here just shooting pictures. Ralph kept us going so that we didn't fall behind.

I love the beautiful bridges all around the course. They are full of bright green moss and a beautiful mix of rocks.

Afterwards it was our plan to go Winston Salem and visit the old graveyards.  Sadly our tire blew while driving on the highway. The vehicle behind us also had a tire blow so we figured there must have been something on the road. We called roadside assistance via the Enterprise Car rental company and we were told the wait was about 90 minutes. Wow, thats a long time to wait when the heat was at 93F.  Luckily there was a AAA roadside assist person just around the corner who came and helped. We then had to exchange our vehicle at the Airport. By the time this was all done most of the afternoon was over.  We still thought to give it a try but ended up turning around after a fierce and heavy rainstorm came up very suddenly. We enjoyed some local BBQ at Prissy Polly (a Christian restaurant) before heading back to the  hotel. It's a quiet night and we'll be going to bed soon as we have an early tee time tomorrow.  Its going to be another hot day.

Kernersville, North Carolina

Today we drove to Kernersville, North Carolina.  It wasn't a long drive (roughly 4 hours) so we took our time and stopped at the New River Gorge.  There is a nice wooden pathway that you can take which brings you down about a quarter of the way.  The views were beautiful.  There are many steps down and it feels like twice as many steps going back up but it is definitely worth the climb.

There are plenty of things to do in this area and we'll have to come back and spend more time here.

We enjoyed a nice dinner at J. Peppers Southern Grill and then spent the evening relaxing by the pool. 

Let the adventure begin

The time has finally arrived for our summer vacation. We’re heading south this year for some rest and relaxation.   It’s been a busy summer with Ralph focusing on renovating the kitchen and I have been busy with work. I wasn’t expecting to work this summer but the project has lasted much longer. It has been very interesting but now I am ready to enjoy some down time. Ralph has booked two rounds of golf for this week in North Carolina. The first course we are playing is Grandover Resort and then Greensboro National. We’re looking forward to that. Today we are taking our time driving down and plan to stay in Summersville, West Virginia. Tomorrow we will drive to Kernersville, North Carolina which is about 3.5 hours away from Summersville. We’ll be meeting up with Laura and Jay and the family on Friday in Myrtle Beach.  It’s going to be so much fun.  We arrived in Summersville around dinner time and spent some time exploring. We never realized how beautiful this area is. Many of the homes have large sprawling properties and are in a very traditional “south” architecture. We really enjoyed seeing this.  We had a nice dinner at Applebee’s after finding out the restaurant of our choice was closed on Monday (Malone’s Bar and Grill). We’ll have to try this another time.   We plan to enjoy a quiet evening and hopefully stop and photograph the gorge on the next leg of our journey.