Faith, Hope, Love, and .... Life!: Our Weekend Away

I was at work one day, when Allen called to tell me he had gotten some "deal" and we were going to go to Myrtle Beach for a long weekend. Despite the initial nervousness about what kind of "deal" he'd gotten, I was excited to be planning a weekend away, just the two of us!

So, the weekend finally arrived and we packed up our things and headed to Myrtle Beach. We were excited to learn, that despite the fact it was January the weather report predicted a nice warm weekend in the 70s! When we arrived to our hotel, Allen asked if we could be upgraded to an ocean front room, and since things were slow they upgraded us at no charge! We stayed in a nice one bedroom suite with a beautiful view of the ocean (what a "deal")!

After we unpacked, we decided to go check out a local brewery - New South Brewing. We went for a tour and tasting, and even though I don't really like beer, we both had a great time seeing how the beer is made and learning the whole process from starting as grain to finally being canned. It really was interesting and I even enjoyed a few of the tastings!

Next we decided to head out for a "touristy" dinner on the main strip in Myrtle Beach. We were completely surprised at how quiet and dead everything was. We were expecting it to be quieter than usual, but it was completely dead. We ate at Landshark Bar and Grill and we were, literally, the only ones in there. Definitely not what you expect at Myrtle Beach!

The next morning we woke up early for our the meeting we had agreed to when we got our "deal". The meeting was with a Realtor who was giving us the ends and outs of owning a time share at the condo where we were staying. She gave us her spiel and then took us to see a few condos. Allen and I had agreed, that we were NOT going to buy anything. (We have a history of buying things we don't need - another story for another time!) About halfway through the tour, I turned to Allen and said "I kind of think this sounds like a good deal.. what do you think?" Obviously I failed to hold up my end of the bargain. Luckily Allen was stronger than I was and we somehow left the meeting without buying a timeshare that we don't need and can't afford!

So after our meeting, the "deal" part of the vacation was over and we had the rest of the weekend to just enjoy our time together. We went for a short walk on the beach and then we decided to try something new and do something we wouldn't normally do.. horseback riding on the beach. Neither one of us had ridden a horse in years and even then we'd only done it once or twice.

So we got to the park and met our guide and our horses and we took off for a two hour horse ride on the beach. It was such a neat experience and we both had a great time. I was even ready to buy a horse.. just kidding!.. kind of :)

Next we picked up dinner at Toffinos, an Italian bakery and deli, recommended by our brewery tour guide. We were exhausted from our long day, so we just took it back to our condo and enjoyed a lazy night in.

Saturday, we woke up to a gorgeous sunrise and nice warm weather. Allen fixed us breakfast and we ate on the porch while we watched the sunrise. After breakfast, we headed down to the beach and spent a few hours sitting in the sun. We took a break from the beach to watch NC State beat Duke in basketball and then headed back down to the beach to take advantage of the wonderful weather we'd been given.

That evening we headed out, looking for a place to play putt putt. Unfortunately, we learned quickly that most putt putt places weren't open in the winter and the one that was open had power issues and wouldn't be able to stay open much longer because the sun was going down and they didn't have lights. Oh well :( Since that didn't work out, we headed to Barefoot Landing where we did a little bit of shopping before going to dinner. We ate at the Flying Fish. The food was delicious and we even tried alligator bites! (yep, picky me ate alligator! Go me!)

Sunday, we woke up to another beautiful sunrise and Allen fixed us another delicious breakfast. Thanks to technology,we watched our church service online and then packed up and headed back down to the beach. We spent a little more time on the beach enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, before we finally headed home.