9-26-21 Beach time!!!!!

 After a very restless night, I finally gave Ken a Tramadol about 5am.  Then we both fell sound asleep.  Only to be awakened at 6:30 by the alarm on the clock in our room!!!!  I figured I might as well get up and check out the sun rise from our lanai.  

Nice sunrise view!  Note the blue pavilion below, that's where Ken would spend a good part of 2 days while we were on the beach.  He seemed to enjoy visiting with other vacationers who hung out there, too.  Then at 7pm the resort would light a fire in the fire pit.  Angie and Josh went down there one night, but Ken and I stayed in the condo with Layla.

 

A bit later Layla joined me on the lanai

she's such a little problem solver.  Here she's trying to figure out how to carry all her toys back into the condo.

Layla, Josh and I waited for Angie and Ken to wake up.  Apparently Angie didn't sleep well either.  She had been to a clinic a couple days before to make sure she didn't have Covid.  Tested negative, but must have caught Layla's perpetual cold.  Seems like as long as Layla's in school, she has a cold.

at least the colds don't seem to bother her much.  Just has to use lots of Kleenexes.

Layla is so easy going.  She entertains herself very well.

Ken napping already.  I liked the saying on the sign in our dining room.  

Advice from an Ocean.  

Let your cares drift away.  

Seas Every opportunity.  

Adapt to changing tides.  

Surf Life's rough waves.  

Harbor strength and persevere.  

Don't be shellfish.  

Bet on a  shore thing.  

Love

As if the "concierge" didn't know what 50, "NOs" meant when I registered yesterday, they called again to try and set up a time for our "update".  Again I said, "no, no, no" and they kept talking and talking.  Finally Angie grabbed the phone and told them her Dad has cancer and we just want to get away and chill.  They still wouldn't take no for an answer.  Then she handed the phone to Josh.   He also told them no and they kept at it.  Finally hung up the phone and took the receiver off the hook.  Layla liked that, she had another toy to play with!  We usually have a problem telling them, "no" for an update, but they usually get the point eventually.  They were unrelenting here!

I cooked breakfast for us all, then we finally made our way down to the beach.   Then the kids went down to set up the dining fly while I watched from the lanai.

Then they came back up and we all got ready to head down.

Ken set up under the shade where he could watch us.

Layla heading to the beach

the path to the beach

Looking back at our resort. 

Layla enjoying the sand

Didn't take long for Layla to get me to take her to the water.

She went straight to this little pond that someone had made.

Looking back at our condo and 3 of the 4 towers.  the 4th tower is across the street.

Layla playing in the sand---something she wouldn't do last summer!

Then she wanted to go play in the "food trucks".  Don't know why, but she calls big waves "food trucks".  I loved that it was shallow quite a ways out. 

back to playing on the beach

After a couple hours, we headed up to the pools.  First to the lazy river, then to the outdoor pool.  There's an indoor pool, too, that we never even saw

It's suppose to be an infinity pool, but the trees at the end block the view.

Ken getting more interaction with us

We also checked out the lazy river.  Ken took over camera duties then.

still dealing with a runny nose

 

Back to the condo to rest up and plan on dinner.  I believe this was the night we ordered pizza from a local place.  Not as good as Angie's home made pizza or Jets pizza, but not bad. 

and another sunset to enjoy.  Never did have clouds to light up the sky at sunset, but it was still pretty. 

 A tired little girl joined me on the lanai

such a beautiful evening to watch a sunset

and a fishing boat

and the birds by the fishing boat

Even Layla appreciated the beauty and got her camera to take some pictures.  I had to get her a camera so she'd leave mine alone!

If only we had the energy to go down to the beach for sunset.  Or to the pier in the daytime!

 

It was a great day.  Even a great night.  Ken slept, and so did I.

9-25-21 drive to N Myrtle Beach, S. Carolina---Wyndham Ocean Blvd 3 bedroom OF

 After a week of cooler weather and lots and lots of rain, today was a beautiful day.  Looks like our next 5 days were going to stay beautiful.  Ken was up extra early today and not able to go back to sleep, so I decided to just load up the car and get on our way.  We were on the road before 8am.

 

The ride wasn't bad.  It was a pretty drive.  Took about 7 hours to get there with 1 stop for gas.

Got there about 2:30.

 Once we got there, the annoying part of the trip began.  Drove around and around the parking garage to find a spot to park so I could register and get our keys.  Finally ended up in a line of cars waiting to register.  Finally was directed to the other side of the garage to park in the middle of the lane.  Went in to register.  Which means being sent to the "concierge" for our keys.  After telling her about 50 times that we weren't going to the "owners update"---even telling them about Ken's cancer and just needing family time---I finally blew up and told them, "NO" for the last time and walked away.  Back to the car.  Drove around looking for a parking spot again---no luck.  Finally directed to another lane to unload.  Got Ken unloaded.  They called for a porter to take our stuff to the room.  I thought I was going to have to make 2 trips, but I was happy to pay the "tip" and have someone else haul up the stuff.  Then I had to go back to the car and move it to the parking lot across the street in another building. 

I was very happy with the view from our room, though!

the beach here was really great, too.

Finally I got around to moving stuff around to better accommodate a wheelchair.  I'll have to admit I didn't have to move much---3 chairs in the living room and the trash can that was in the hallway (although I moved one of them onto my foot and had a black and blue toe for a couple weeks).  At least the bedroom and bathroom were good. 

only had to move the 3 living room chairs to get a comfy chair over to the window for Ken to use.

the kids bed, but ours was similar.  It was a mess by the time I could take pictures, so I didn't get a picture of our room and bathroom.

Layla's room

the "kids'" shared bathroom.

All that took about 2 hours!  Just to check in!  That was about the time that Angie and Josh and Layla arrived.  They were able to come straight to the room.  Even found parking in our building!  As bad as arrival was for us, she said it was super smooth for them. 

Those smiles made the last 2 hours all worth it!

Layla playing in her room

By now it was about 6 and we needed groceries and dinner.  So I volunteered to go to Publix and then make dinner of spaghetti.  

I loved the area of N. Myrtle Beach.  Angie said it's a lot quieter then Myrtle Beach, but she didn't like it as much as S. Myrtle Beach where a friend of hers has a family vacation home.  I thought the area was great.  And I loved being back in the land of palm trees!!!

 While I was at Publix, they actually got Ken out onto the lanai and sent me this picture.  Unfortunately he didn't want to go out there for the rest of the trip.  Wanted to get a group selfie from there, but wasn't able to.

 

Back at the condo, it was almost sunset.  So I caught the end of it before working on dinner.  I was surprised to see that we could actually almost see where the sun sets over the ocean.  Probably could have seen it from the beach, but never made it down there for sunset.  Didn't even make it down to the beach today.

The night turned out to be pretty miserable.  Ken had a restless night and, therefore, I wasn't able to sleep much.  My c-pap machine said I got 1.9 hours of sleep.  I was wondering if we were going to make it the whole 5 days, but it got much better.