Between the raindrops

We were up bright and early this morning.  It was overcast, but looked like it might be a nice morning for golf.  We headed to Starbucks for our coffee and tea and as the barrista was creating our drinks, huge drops started to come down.  It will pass we said with confidence.  We drove to the course in the pouring rain and arrived there at around 6:45.  We were about 45 minutes early for our tee-time.  As we arrived at the club house, the phone was ringing off the hook with people cancelling their rounds.  Unfortunately for us, we had no flexibility left in our schedule.  We were game to give it a try.  We both had rain jackets with us and by 7:15 the rain wasn't that bad.  It rained till we were on the 10th hole.  At that point, we were pretty wet,  but we were having a good game.  There was no pressure as no one was pushing us from behind.  As a matter of fact when we talked to the marshall he told us that only 4 groups were teeing off this morning. Everyone else had cancelled. 

Our final 9 holes were played with no rain which was great!  It was a fun morning.   This afternoon, it started to rain again so Laura and I went shopping together while Ralph took the girls to the pool.

Sun, sand and seashells

Today we went on a Shelling adventure to North Island by Georgetown.  This is a 3-4 hour tour where they take you out to an island and you are given an opportunity to look for seashells.  During the cruise we saw an Eagle and some dolfins and while we were shelling we saw blue crabs and a sting ray.  It was a lot of fun!  Regretably I didn't take my camera while we were shellling as they advised that we leave all electronics on the boat for fear that they would get damaged. 

I was up at 6:00 a.m. to get pictures of the sunrise.  Regrettably there wasn't much colour this morning.

This was so funny, as soon as I was taking this shot a wave spashed over the railing of the boat and we all got wet.

I hope you know where you are going??

The island.

Eagle in the tree.

The girls thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride and time spent collecting the shells. We found some pretty large welks, star fish and other treasures.  I smile while typing this as every shell was beautiful to the girls.  It was an enjoyable time. 

On our way home we stopped for some fresh shrimp. These were caught this morning so we thought it might be nice to try some right out of the ocean.  I will say that they were amazing.  We cooked 3 lbs of shrimp and they melted in your mouth.  I normally don't like shrimp but there was no fishy taste to these at all.

At the beach/pool

The day wouldn't be complete with time spent at either the pool or the beach.  Jay and I went for a dip in the ocean.  The water was so warm and it felt great to be enjoying it. The waves were amazingly high.  When I started walking in - a wave knocked me off my feet.  You didn't have to be in very deep and the waves would  come in so strong.  The girls wouldn't have been able to go it though as it was too rough.

 

Jordan and Hailey were enjoying the pool while Laura was watching them.  They are such little pool rats.  They love the water.  It's amazing how quickly they went to sleep after dinner. 

A beautiful day

I was up early - just as the sun was coming up, but there was cloud cover so it wasn't a good day for a sunrise picture.  We enjoyed a nice breakfast all together and got ready for church.  We attended Faith Presbyterian Church which we have been before with Teresa and Lawrence.  We enjoyed a nice sermon and felt very welcome by everyone at the church.

This afternoon we drove to Murrell's Inlet and took a walk along the Marsh Walk. It was such a beautiful afternoon.  We saw the Mullet's jumping which the girls found quite fascinating and also saw a Sting Ray swim by.  We spent a couple of hours there enjoying the view and sites to see.  We're now getting ready to go to the pool.  Our girls are so anxious to get there. They are running all around the condo, playing games.  It's time to wear them down with a swim. 

The family has arrived

What a beautiful day it turned out to be.  First, Ralph and I played a round of golf at the Tournament Players Course (TPC) and then later in the day Laura, Jay and the girls arrived.  The sun was shining and we had a wonderful day all together.

TPC is an amazing course.  Unfortunately it was soaking wet.  They have had almost 10 inches of rain during the last week and there just isn't anywhere for the water to go. The bunkers are like mini lakes and all you hear as you walk across the fairway is squish, squish, squish.  Many a time, all of us were rewarded with mud splatters all over ourselves.  Even though the conditions were very wet, the golf was amazing.  My drives were long and straight and I wasn't complaining.  We met a nice man from Arkansas whose name was Dave.  He was down for the World Amateur tournament that is starting on Monday.  Myrtle Beach will be very busy with this tournament.

Ralph & Dave talking about the best way to approach a shot.

Wild turkeys....

How do we know when the elevator is coming?

While Laura and I did grocery shopping Jay and Ralph took the girls to the pool.  As you can imagine they were quite anxious to feel the temperature of the water.  We ate out for dinner (pizza) and are now enjoying a relaxing evening all together.  I'm looking forward to spending this time all together.

Rain, rain go away

We  woke up to rain this morning.  It rained all day and not just a soft drizzle, but a downpour.  We drove to Calendonia where we had a 2:00 p.m. tee-off but once we got there and saw how wet it was and how hard the rain was pouring, we changed our tee-time to another day (Thursday).  We were disappointed but there isn't too much you can do about the weather.  We enjoyed a nice lunch at Caledonia and then drove to TPC - Myrtle Beach.  What a beautiful looking course. We're golfing there tomorrow (weather permitting).

It was a lazy day after that. We did a bit of shopping and went out for dinner and returned to our room.

Myrtle Beach

Today we drove from Charleston to Myrtle Beach. We enjoyed a nice relaxing breakfast before packing the car and leaving.  We stopped at one of the roadside booths on our way and spent some time speaking with one of the ladies that was weaving baskets.  It was really nice to speak with her and she showed us how she weaves the baskets.  She had so many to choose from.  It still amazes me how expensive these baskets are as some of the weavers are charging between $100-$150 just for a small bowl shape basket.  Celestine believes in keeping her prices down to a more reasonable amount which helps her sell more of her craft.  I'll do a more length post of her with pictures at a later time.

We are staying at the Hilton and will move to our condo on Saturday. 

Tomorrow we are golfing at Caledonia. Ralph is quite excited and looking forward to that.  It's in the afternoon so hopefully the weather will be good.  We had some rain late in the day today and that's all you hear from everyone, is talk about the weather. It has rained constantly here for the month.  The forecast is for rain until Sunday and then it should start to clear up.