Pics of Myrtle Beach

December 25th.....a large storm system hits bringing us rain and pounding surf. Elsewhere in the US it brought blizzards and ice. We'll take the rain......but we missed our walk on the beach, not much else to do on Christmas Day when you don't know anyone. Good job Myth Busters was on all day!


My peaceful stroll on the beach yesterday was good for the soul.



Awe inspiring, the ocean. Constantly shifting and changing shape & personality. It's one view you just never tire of.



On the lazy river.

Myrtle Beach SC

We made it. Home for the next 6 weeks or so.

The condo is all and more that it promised to be. The view of the beach and ocean is stunning. We face East and the Murphy bed in the Living Room that Gary & I are choosing to sleep on faces the window so this morning was spectacular. Even with the balcony door shut you can hear the pounding surf. And the bathtub.....heaven, the biggest one I have ever soaked in.

Myrtle Beach looks great. A big enough city to offer the best of shopping, but much more laid back than Florida. The people are very "southern" and quite friendly. We hit Wal Mart as soon as we arrived to fill our cupboards and managed to find a warm outfit for us all for walking the beach. We woke up this morning and sat on the balcony with our coffee. It was chilly, but pleasantly so.

We then hit the beach for a stroll. Lots of shells & coral to be found. Back at the condo, Nikki settled into her room to watch Dirty Jobs, a show she has really missed over the last year, while Gary and I hit the gym which is just down the hall from our condo. We are now doing a little laundry before we take Nikki down to the pool. There is an indoor lazy river as well as a hot tub and swimming pool inside. The outdoor pools are obviously a little too cold for this time of the year but we noticed last night that the two outdoor hot tubs were full, even late at night so we intend to try them out one night.

It's not quite home, but it will be a nice place to hide out for a month to avoid some of the worst of winter.

Savannah Georgia

We sadly left our friends in Florida this morning and hit the road. Sorry to leave behind awesome friends, but not sad to say goodbye to Florida, we travelled the busy 95 Interstate for about 6 hours and by early afternoon were at our "today" destination, Savannah Georgia.

We picked this as a half way point on our travel to South Carolina as it was good timing as well as a beautiful location to briefly stay in. We picked up a flyer for hotel deals at a gas stop and when we arrived, after striking out at one grotty Quality Inn, ended up at a 5 star historic Inn overlooking the waterfront for the same price! We ate real Southern food at a little pub like restaurant (I think it wasn't as good as what I can cook) and are now crashing in the room. Tomorrow we hope to spend a couple of hours wandering through the downtown historic area before hitting the road again for another day of driving. About 4.5 hours should get us to North Myrtle Beach.

The Pilot is running really well and is a very comfortable ride. Gas isn't awful either.

Busch Gardens & Then With Friends on the Atlantic

I'm not going to be able to say too much as we are on the run.

We are at Turtle Reef Resort on the Atlantic where our friends have time share and kindly invited us to join them for a few days. They are snow birds from Nova Scotia and seeing them has been amazing.......they know where all the half price & early bird specials are! We went beach combing this morning as there was a wicked storm pass through and there are lots of treasures to be found. We saw a ton of Japanese Man of Wars. Made us keep our feet out of the water!

We spent the last day we were in Orlando at Busch Gardens which was a disappointment. It is supposed to be the "mother" park to Seaworld but was sadly neglected by comparison. Obviously not a lot of money has been spent there in some time. Many of the exhibits were obviously originally built in the 70's and had not been updated.

Still, we had fun and Nikki found her courage for some rides....her and Gary were well and truly soaked by mid day. The day was hot and sunny so it didn't take them long to dry off...and start burning.

We are here until Sunday when we hit the road again......

We Have Touchdown Captain!

(insert jig here) (and again) (and again)

I feel human again! I'm sorry for my need for external things BUT wheels is from here on out a necessity. I'd rather have a car than a home! I'll sleep in the car.......but I digress.....We are now the proud owners of a used Honda Pilot...I will spare the painful details of why it took us from 10 am this morning to 3 pm this afternoon to walk out the dealership with the key....or why it took us an entire day last week to get the money from Canada to the USA....but despite every obstacle heavenly possible being in our way (think I'm exaggerating??? I dare you to challenge me......listen to the whole story....I'm just dying to bore every one with boring details). We know it's not over yet, we still have to get another 30 day permit and then get it across the Canadian border....but who cares, we will have wheels!!

Nikki had her head out the window tonight on the way home (yes like a dog....she's home skooled) and Gary & I could hear her singing little sweet made up songs to herself....we hadn't heard her do that since we left Canada, since we last had wheels. It warmed our hearts!

We have decided to call the vehicle Chuggalugg. She's likely to be a gas guzzler.......who cares....We have wheels.

We spent Sunday doing all the things we missed at Seaworld. Had another fabulous day although this time the weather was amazing and it was the weekend and so, you guessed it, it was crowded. But we managed alright, still had an amazing day. Tomorrow we are off in Chuggalugg to Busch Gardens. I think that will take at least 2 days as well. Animals this time (instead of marine life) which is Nikki's big thing. She has little interest in rides. Must be the Brooks side ;)

Looking forward to hitting the road at the end of the week, now that we can hit it with something other than our feet. Living in a one room hotel room has lost it's charm....we're ready for the condo in S Carolina and thinking about taking it a week earlier, only spending a couple of days with our friends (where we are sleeping on the couch). Orlando is not a place we would choose to spend any time again despite the great parks. It is all concrete, the people are rude and the landscape flat. And the shopping stinks!

A Big THANKS to Mom for all her help sorting out insurance. Cheers! I'll buy you a beer at the Pub when I get home........not long now!

Orlando

Life is certainly never boring!

Nikki spent the first couple of days down sick with a fever and then low and behold, two teeth fell out and at least one more hanging on by a thread, plus a new back molar breaking through. Poor kid can simply not eat. Huge changes going on in her little body!

We spent the first week shopping for a vehicle to purchase. A real challenge without a car! We rented a car for one day but at a cost of about $70 a day, we just can't keep doing that. We are trying to find a vehicle to give us enough room to get home, is importable and has enough value to make it worth the costs involved with doing so. Also, with the thought in mind that we may sell it once we are home. We have finally settled, or so we think, on a 2003 Honda Pilot. It is an 8 seater but the back seats fold into the floor so most of the time is simply a SUV 5 seater. It has a built in entertainment system which was a real plus with Nikki's portable DVD player being one of the casualties of the break in. We are trying to arrange money wires today and hope to have it the beginning of next week. Then the real fun can begin. We have been unable to do much shopping and we have very few warm clothes, so we have had some chilly days!

We did make it to Seaworld yesterday which was absolutely wonderful! It was an overcast day and so was not very busy. Nikki was in heaven, in fact we are planning on going back today since our tickets give us unlimited access for 14 days. We touched Manta rays, touch and fed dolphins, saw some amazing shows and got up close and personal with sharks! It is exceptional.

The tickets we bought are also for Busch Gardens and we plan to hit that next week for a day or two. Then we hit the road again....hopefully in our Pilot!

I must admit that I am eager to get home to Canada...I just wish it weren't winter there!

Florida

Life is full of irony and the older I get the more I appreciate it. Gotta get your jollies any way you can somedays.

We finally left the heat of Nicaragua behind us, where it never did cool down more than a couple degrees, simply lost some of the humidity. We arrived in Florida to the hottest day on record for December! That's irony :) For us it still felt cool though and both Nikki & I still ended up wearing light sweaters through most of the day. I can't believe how cold the stores keep the A/C. In Nicaragua due to the extreme cost of electricity it is always kept to a minimum even if they have it. I don't think there was a single restaurant in Granada that even actually had it.

The plane ride was uneventful. My panic was kept at bay for most of the journey through a combination of Gary hand holding, pills, music, book and sheer will power, I was getting out of Nicaragua and this was the only way! It is a horrible feeling to feel it starting to overtake my control as it started to a couple times, but always somehow managed to be pushed down so that I didn't make a fool of myself.

Then we arrived in Florida.....and it was gone. I kid you not....and I wasn't making it up to get me out of Nicaragua, I'm not that good!! I will spend alot of time trying to figure it all out. I had a brief moment today in the elevator as the doors took a long time to open, but honestly, other than that I am fine....so far. And I have no need for any pills, which I have to take to wean so that I don't experience withdrawal, but I am immediately down to 0.5 mgs (which is almost none) and tomorrow none.

Another irony was that the moment we arrived at the hotel, Nikki's shoes broke. Sounds like not a big deal except that they were the only ones we had left and I had only one pair left myself other than one pair of red high heels (Nicaragua was VERY hard on our shoes and you can't buy good ones there). So the next day she wore my sandals and I had to come up with an outfit to wear all day with my red heels! A few blisters later, after spending half our day at the airport again trying to secure a rental car (most rental agencies were OUT of cars and many only had big, very expensive ones) we headed out to try and find a mall. And did we ever find one! After a year of no, and I mean no good shopping in Nicaragua this mall was overwhelming and incredible. I think we walked around for the first hour in a daze with our mouths wide open and drooling!! In fact we were so stupefied that we barely bought anything but did manage a new pairs of sandals for Nikki & I. Nikki also got some PJ's. For the last three months she'd been wearing an adult pair of sleep pants that the crotch hung down to her knees and the legs dragged behind her, but I had been lucky to find them at the second hand store. She got an adorable pair with dogs on them, big surprise.

And for my dinner in Florida I had a real Chicken Cesar and for the second, Sushi (thanks Jess!) I am in heaven!

Today we left Fort Lauderdale, which to us looked like a fake city where the perfect houses are made of cardboard, the front lawns coloured in and where even the people look fake. We travelled the three hours to Orlando in our tiny Nissan Versa (Gary is my hero for making our luggage fit) and arrived at our $29 a night comfort Inn which is twice as good as the $79 a night Ramada we just left. We are within minutes of all the attractions. We said it reminded us of Niagara Falls, all shiny and flashy, commercial. Not our sort of place but we do look forward to taking Nikki to Busch Gardens and doing some serious shopping. Even Nikki said today that she doesn't think much of Florida. We are really looking forward to our time in South Carolina.

We made contact with a local Brother who sells cars and we are going to go and look at what he has tomorrow. We turn our car in at the end of the day. Renting is very expensive as since we have been out of Canada for more than 6 months we are not covered through our Visa for insurance so we have to pay the almost $30 a day for theirs. Rip off! We will take it day at a time and make decisions as things present themselves. So much to sort out.....but isn't life exciting. And we are sure making some memories. Good, Bad, Ugly, Rich & Rewarding.

Life instead of simply time.

Can't wait to see the family....we have some cool presents we are lugging about, that you sure better appreciate! And my one luxury from Nicaragua, a ceramic vase, is still in one piece (I actually carried it on the plane)!!