Just Beachy

2 Surfside Beach not Kenny Gs - Saturday, July 13

The Crew: Azaryah, Krista, Michael, Alivyah, Dave (son), Penelope, Adin, Me, Mindy

I was up at 645am, showered and eager for the day ahead. I checked my work phone, following up on an issue I left behind Friday AM (shouldn’t have). I checked my investment account too. I was quite pleased to have surpassed another major milestone. I spent no more than 20 minutes tops on both of my phones. Mindy woke up around 730am. I went for lobby coffee for both of us then returned. She soon suggested I go for breakfast while she readied for the drive. She wasn’t interested in the complimentary breakfast. However, she asked that I bring her more coffee. The complimentary breakfast hit the spot – sausage patties, home fries, and omelets. Yum! Before heading to the lobby to check out, I re-iced our drive cooler.

We checked out, loaded our overnight kits and drive-cooler into the CRV just ahead of 930am. Soon we were on the road for sunny Surfside Beach, SC.    ampton Inn comc

Another easy drive. We took I-77 south to 485N around Charlotte, eventually picking up I-74 east. Happily, traffic was almost nonexistent. A couple days prior, I had scoped out our route and noticed that we’d be passing right by John G’s BBQ in Peachland, NC. I figured we might stop and get some of their famous smoked brisket if the opportunity presented itself. You see, it’s a hugely popular BBQ joint that smokes a certain amount of meat each weekend. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Sure enough, we could see it right off the highway. We did a U-turn and headed back to see if they were open. As I understood it, they’re only open on the weekend and there’s always a line of folks waiting for them to open the doors. We didn’t see any line from the highway, but once we did a U-turn and circled back, we saw a queue of about 30 people sitting, waiting in lawn chairs around the small unassuming building. Forget it! We weren’t going to wait. Frankly, was happy that we got to see it live and in-person.

The remaining drive was rather easy. In total, about 4.5 hours, the last 3 hours mostly flat, two-lane highways through NC and SC. We texted Dave and Krista learning that they weren’t too far behind us. They left CMH around 3am and were driving straight through.

Just Checking In

Arrived at the beach house right at 2pm. Unlike our Sugar Mountain getaway, I was keenly familiar with the exact location of the beach house. Found it easily, and it was just like the photos showed. Checking the key lockbox combo VRBO sent me, I was happy that it was already working even though we were technically there two hours early. Yea! No sooner had we scoped out the physical layout and returned to the CRV to start unloading our gear, Dave, Krista and crew pulled in. They couldn’t have been 5-10 minutes behind us.

Let’s get this party started!

Joyful organized chaos is an apt description of the unpack and prep process. There were nine of us in total, so assigning bedrooms, making beds, passing out bath towels was task one.  My only requirement was that Mindy & I got the upstairs master suite. The other three bedrooms were fair game for Dave & Krista and the five kids.

Many beach front rental homes on the Carolina coast no longer come with linens. Instead, one is directed to one of many linen suppliers on the grand strand. In kind, I priced a linen package customized to our particular rental home complete with bed sheet sets, bath towels, etc. It was going to run near $300. However, before locking in, I opted instead to see what we could buy via Amazon and Walmart.com. Ended up getting six 1600 count bed sheet sets (1-king, 2-queen, 3-twin) plus 12 bath towels, 8 hand towels, 12 wash clothes for $160 from Walmart.com. Mindy even washed them all before packing ‘em up for our trip. We considered that a big win. Half the cost of renting a linen set and we’d have them into perpetuity. 😊

After getting our bed made up, I helped a couple of the kids with theirs. Then I figured I could be a big help to Dave & Krista if I took the three younger kids to the beach. Adin and Azaryah were already off to the beach on their own. After all, Dave, I knew, wanted/needed a nap after an 11-hour drive that began in the middle of the night.

It was about 3pm. The skies partly sunny and waves more than decent. The kids hung mostly in the ankle-deep surf, apparently not wanting to get fully wet. Only Penelope was in her swimsuit. The other two in shorts and t-shirt.  We hung out for about 30 minutes before being joined by Krista. We might’ve stayed another ten minutes before making our way back across the street to the house and pool.

Once Mindy was unpacked, she and I soon headed off to the local Walmart to stock up on groceries. Figuring out a meal plan for nine is no easy task. We also planned a stop at Angela’s Seafood Market, too, for what has become a right of passage on arrival day. 😊

At home we never do our big grocery shopping at Walmart, but figured with our group size, it just made better sense. We tagged teamed our list, Mindy sending me off to get this and that all the while she tracked the list and searched out other goods. Spent roughly an hour in Walmart and filled our cart to the brim. Our meal plan included enough breakfast food for the entire week, and then three dinner-at-home nights – burgers and dogs, tacos, and lastly a pasta and meatball night. We also fetched some sandwich making stuff along with a variety of drinks, snacks, and other accoutrements.

I also wanted to have a few good IPAs on hand as well as some seltzers. As such, we made a quick stop at the Atlantic Ave. Kroger before our stop at Angela’s for fresh, and I do mean fresh, low-country shrimp. I sent Dave a text on our drive back to the beach house asking for help carrying our big haul up the beach house stairs. Most of the kids helped too. That made us happy. 😊

After putting away the grocs, we collectively settled on a dinner venue, Old Chicago Pizza. Mindy and I have been there a couple of times past, thus knew of their extensive menu offerings, and most of it, if not all, really good.  

Table for nine, please!

Dinner was delicious, and moreover, an excellent ice breaker opportunity for everyone to get used to one another. After all, we were launching into a full week together after maybe hanging out just four or five times over the past couple of years, and each of those visits were limited to a couple hours each.

After getting back to the beach house, most of us went on a beach walk. Lots of stars. The kids had a ball with my extra-bright flashlight, looking for sea creatures in the water drains to the ocean. Felt good putting our toes in the sand.