Day 9, Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Today was a day full of rest & relaxation. We never even left the campground today. I must say, that is a big advantage to staying at state parks, your “entertainment” is built in.
Johnny & I started the day with a sunrise walk on the beach with Ona. One of the things I like most about being at the beach is listening to the waves crash while drinking my morning coffee. It is even better when you get out there super early, when the beach is almost deserted, to watch the sunrise. It was also fun to watch our dog have her first experience walking through sand and running from the waves. She loved the sand but was not a fan of the waves at all.
The kids were not as energetic as Johnny & I, they had zero interest in getting up early to see the sunrise on the beach. Instead, we drug them all out of bed around 9 am to go on a nature walk. Myrtle Beach State Park offers many walking/biking trails. Actually, if we had our bikes with us we’d be biking all through the trails and along the boardwalks on the beach. But, we don’t, so we settled for a trail that went through the lush forest around us. Macy was not so happy with that. She acted like a girl who had never been out in the woods before, which is very far from reality. She was running from every spider & bug we saw. It was quite funny actually. I think the real problem was that she was not at all interested in walking, she only wanted to get to the beach to lay on the sand for the day. Logan & Noah on the other hand seemed to really enjoy the trek through the woods. They especially liked seeing the hawk catch his breakfast and carry it to a tree right in front of us (poor squirrel).
We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach. We even made it a super simple day on the beach. Typically, when we go to the beach we load up a wagon full of chairs, ice chests, beach toys, etc. Today though, we only took a couple of chairs, some small blankets for laying on, and whatever we could fit in a back pack. It was perfect. I think at one point at least an hour went by that no one spoke. We were all too “busy” reading or taking a nap. Sometimes you just need to slow down and enjoy the sunshine. Though, Macy may have enjoyed too much sunshine. She is red as a lobster this evening. I’m sure tomorrow’s two-hour drive to Charleston is going to be interesting with her burnt to a crisp.
My favorite part of the day may have been watching my husband comb the beach for the perfect shells for me to put in my flower pots. I love adding “trinkets” to my pots and flower beds and shells from our trips top the list. He walked that beach I don’t know how many times just because he knew I wanted the perfect, unique shells. Twenty years ago I might have told you there is no way I’d find him doing that. But, I guess as we age & mature in our love, it’s the little gestures like that that mean the most.
We ended the evening where we started the day, walking on the beach with Ona & our boys, this time watching the sun go down. It was a nice slow-down & take it easy kind of day.