Edisto beach

We were up early this morning. What a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. We drove to Edisto beach which wss 2.5 hours away. While driving there we listened to a wonderful sermon all together. While at Edisto beach we went to see some dolphins. We were surrounded by them. They were amazing. It was so fun hearing the girls squeels of delight. They were in awe. What was so nice is that the dolphins were so near to us. We were in the intercoastal waterway around the salt marsh. We received a lot of information on the eco system and learned all about how the oysters take hold in the mud and cement themselves in. We learned alot. We finished our day with a nicE lswim in the pool as it is still a bit to wavy in the ocean formthe girls.

Enjoying ourselves

Well, we're settled in.  The girls spent some time colouring while we relaxed.  After an hour or so, it was time to go check out the ocean and the pool.  Hailey had to go feel the water.  Beautiful! It's so nice and warm, although the surf is rough and not good for anyone to go swimming in.  There is a sign warning about swimming as the rip tide is quite a threat because of Hurricane Irene.  We noticed that all of the pools have sand on the bottom as a result of the high winds, but otherwise things looked pretty good.  After our walk along the beach we went to the pool where the girls spent some time enjoying the lazy river and showing us what they learned in swimming lessons.  It was nice and relaxing this afternoon.  

Oooops

A picture is worth a thousand words.  The pool and lazy river are cooler than the ocean.  The waves are very high right now so we decided it was better to sit by the pool.  There are lots of shells washed up on shore.  One day we'll spend some time shelling to see what we can find.  Ralph was leaning over to give Jordan a hand.  Before he knew it he was in the Lazy River with her.  It was so funny.   

We're here

We arrived at around 1:30 and went directly to the grocery store.  It's beautiful here. No rain, windy but not crazy.  We're pretty excited that we're going to have an amazing week.  We checked in only to have issues with the first two rooms that they gave us.  The first room - at the Chelsea was on the third floor.  We have bikes, golf clubs and children and thought climbing the stairs would be too much.  As well our room key didn't work after lugging bags all the way up... So off we went to see what could be done and they gave us another room on the ground floor.  This time, the sleeping arrangements weren't good.  Off we went, back to the front desk.  They were so nice and accommodating for us.  We were given a 3 room condo in the Cayman Tower.  Wow, we feel spoiled.  We're facing the beach and on the 19th floor.  The girls are so excited to have their own room (as are Laura and Jay).  Our bedroom leads out to the balcony so we can sleep listening to the waves crashing against the beach.  We're looking forward to an awesome vacation.

Hailey was so cute.  I want to see Myrtle Beach she kept saying.  In her mind, Myrtle Beach is only the beach.  Not the area that we are staying.

On our drive here, we stopped to show the girls the cotton that was growing.  Jordan wasn't too impressed.   

An early morning

It started at around 4:00.  Why is the alarm going off? It's too early... Every 5 minutes I hear this buzzing.  Ralph is walking all around the room trying to find out what that noise is....arghh....it doesn't look like we'll get a good sound sleep for the rest of the morning.  I think it might be the carbon monoxide detector, but who know's.  It just seems to come from somewhere in the room and it's not the alarm.

Oh well, it gives me a chance to look out of the window and see that it's pretty windy outside, but no rain yet.  We're meeting Laura, Jay and the girls shortly for breakfast and start the last leg of our journey.

The first leg of the Journey is done

We were up early. Ralph did the finishing touches to the packing and we were on the road by 6:00. We met Laura anod Jay by the Duty Free store at Peace Bridge.  Everyone was excited and ready to go.  The weather is perfect for travelling. It's clear sky's all the way to North Carolina.  Suddenly the sky is starting to get quite black.   We hope that the storm won't be too bad as we still had 2 more hours of driving left to do.  Thankfully we seemed to drive around it as we only had a few sprinkles.  On the radio, we hear all about the State of Emergency that has been declared along the coastline in North Carolina.  The storm is going to hit this evening and tomorrow morning. They are warning that there may be severe flooding and wind damage.  Hopefully we will miss the worst of the it.

Finally

We've been waiting all summer and it's finally arrived.  We're leaving on vacation tomorrow for a week in the sun.  Hurricane Irene is threatening rain and high winds, but we're ready.  We have two decks of cards packed and lots of things for the girls to do if the weather doesn't behave.  I'm sure everything will be fine.

Tomorrow we leave at 6:00 a.m. and plan to meet Laura and Jay at the Border.  We're crossing at Peacebridge.  We hope to drive to Winston Salem - North Carolina and will have a short drive on Saturday.

The car is packed and we're ready to go. We rented a Kia Soul - which is similar to a Rav 4 - its a fun sporty little car.

I've got 4 books and magazines packed.  It's going to be a relaxing and fun week.