Can I tell you the great thing about traveling with teenage children?  They are actually old enough to be helpful if properly motivated.  Bryan and I left them alone in the morning and told them to pack up and load the car.  Sure enough, when we returned, they had everything loaded and they had walked down to McDonald's for breakfast.  Love it! We picked them up and were on our way to take a tour of a plantation.

Annie picked the Middleton Plantation for our tour.  Other options included the Drayton plantation and the Magnolia Plantation.  The grounds at Middleton were beyond beautiful. Pictures can't even begin to do them justice.  I think strolling these grounds has been Annie's favorite thing so far!  The gardens are sculptured and Annie could just imagine herself in a Regency Romance novel (her favorite reading material).  Abygail enjoyed the educational interactive areas.  She found out all about the animals kept on the plantations, candle making, weaving, pottery making, the blacksmith, etc.  The rest of us went on a tour about black life on a plantation. It was hot and humid (about 98 degrees) and after a few hours it was time to leave and we were all eager to get back into our air conditioned car and willing to pay for bottles of cold water.

Another 1 1/2 drive brought us into Myrtle Beach, SC.  It seems to be an older beach town with lots of buildings vacant--a completely different town from the others we have been to so far--more commercial.  There were like 10 miniature golf places as we drive into town.  I  was in charge of Myrtle Beach and I was looking for a hotel directly on the water.  I booked us at the Hampton Inn and Suites Oceanfront. We have a room up on the 9th floor and so far it seems great for what we were wanting.  The beach is literally out the door and steps away.  So that couldn't be any more convenient.  Abby thinks it is perfect because it has 7 pools plus 2 Jacuzzis.  Two of the pools are lazy rivers and they have a small playground area and 4 hammocks.  Beach towels and chairs are provided so that is convenient as well.  They also offer kids club activities for free and breakfast is included (I am always looking to save money in the food budget area if possible).  Abby is signed up for the kids club for tomorrow morning.  She is excited for that.  

Once we got here and got our stuff unloaded we somehow realized that Miss Abby (who just had to have us stop so she could use the bathroom 10 miles from the hotel) had knocked Annie's retainer out of the back seat of the car as she climbed out.  She thought Annie had grabbed it, Annie didn't hear her yell it had fallen out.  Long story short...we left the kids to swim in the pools and went back to see if by any chance the retainer had somehow survived in a gas station parking lot.  Traffic is a bear.  But we eventually made it back to our random emergency pit stop, and sure enough....there it was.

While we were already in the car, we decided to just stop and grab a pizza to feed the kids at the hotel so that they could continue to swim and play without stopping.  We also stopped by a grocery store to pick up some snacks (since James is ALWAYS hungry--even if he just ate an hour ago).  I haven't been to a grocery store in over a week, and I was like a kid in a candy store. We got some snacks and then joined the kids back at the hotel.  On our little errand trip we were driving through that heavy traffic and Bryan happened to be looking down and not at the road when the car in front of us hit his brakes.  I yelled "braking" to Bryan, but before he even had time to react, the VSM (vehicle stability management) system in our car had already kicked in and stopped the car and sinched up our seat belts. Bryan was very excited to learn that the car safety system REALLY DOES WORK!  Thank you Equus!  

The ocean here is great!  The sand is soft. Not as white as Pensacola, but super soft.  The water is a great temperature.  Annie described it best--not as warm as Galveston, but not as cold as Pensacola.  It is practically perfect.  And, the clincher--good waves!  In fact when we first showed up the waves were too big.  But the ocean settled down after a little bit and everyone had fun body surfing.  Annie is our family FISH.  She never gets enough time in the water.  And Bryan won't let anyone swim alone, so she is always looking for a buddy willing to head out into the water.   I am always done after 20 minutes or so, so thankfully Bryan loves body surfing.  I like to keep watch from the beach so that I am sure everyone is safe--the ocean makes me a little nervous.  It is just SO powerful.  I am glad that the kids have a full day here tomorrow to play while Bryan and I try and get some work done.  It feels like we have been running constantly.  I can't believe we still have 2 more weeks on the road.