Travel Journal - Beach Trip 2005

My husband Jonathan’s brother Mike, his wife Cheryl and their three kids Noah (6), Nyle(4), and Lily(2) flew into Charlotte from Michigan on Friday evening. It was great to see them again as it had been exactly a year since we had made a big family trip to Disneyland. Friday night, they slept at our house. We ordered dinner out from Jason’s Deli, then they played for a while before bedtime. The two boys shared Ethan’s room and Lily shared the guest room with Mike & Cheryl. The boys were so excited, it was hard to sleep, but eventually, the house was quiet. Of course, when we woke, Noah and Nyle had relocated to be with their parents, but at least everyone got some sleep.

Saturday morning, our whole group, save me, went to McDonald’s for breakfast, to let the kids run around a bit before we took the long drive to Surfside Beach. I stayed behind and packed the final gear for the trip. By 11:00, we were on the road, taking the minivan and a rented car. Our kids did quite well on the trip I must say. We had a a couple new kids CD’s, including music from Ralph’s World, which is even fun for the adults. We had a portable DVD player and the kids spent their time watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which is a full 145 minutes (and takes about 60 minutes to get to the main plot point, of introducing “Chitty”, but the kids don’t seem to mind the long setup) We stopped three times, once at Wendy’s for lunch. We arrived at the Dune’s Realty office in Garden City right at the 3:00 check in time.

The house was awesome. Down at the beach, all the rental properties have names. We could have considered The Shag Shack or Looney Dunes, but we finally had settled on reserving Turtle Time. The place was really nice, newly decorated, and contained all the comforts of home. Ethan and Adam shared the bedroom with two twin beds downstairs. They had a blast sharing a bedroom! We claimed the bedroom upstairs with one king size bed and our own balcony and private bathroom. Mike and Cheryl took another large bedroom that had two queen sized beds and a private bath. Noah, Nyle and Lily took the middle bedroom that had two full size beds and a pack n play and their own private bath as well! It was the perfect setup.

(our bedroom)

The first day, we basically didn’t do too much. We unloaded the cars, and then took the kids across the street to the beach. There is nothing like seeing a child’s expression when he/she first sees the ocean. All the kids were very excited. It wasn’t long before Ethan, Nyle and Noah were all soaked. But, we went back to the house and changed. We sent Mike and Jonathan out for food and we unpacked. After dinner, the men went back out and bought groceries.

I noticed that Adam had a huge splinter in his foot, possibly from the wood patio. It was about an inch long. Most of it has broken off and come out now, but some remains and I'm gradually working on getting the rest out.

We went somewhere every day, but the rest of the time was spent either at the beach or at the private pool. On Sunday, we went to Broadway On The Beach, an outdoor shopping mall set on a man-made lake. On Monday, we went back to the same area and went to Ripley’s Aquarium. On Tuesday, the older kids went with Jonathan, Cheryl and Mike and did putt-putt golf. I stayed behind and played with Adam and Lily and took them for a walk in the rented double beach jogger. On Wednesday, the families went their separate ways as they went to some flea markets and we went to the Coastal Grand Mall. On Thursday, more local shopping and lots of time on the beach, which is where Cheryl and I got our backs completely sunburned. Friday was spent mostly relaxing as it was the first day of bad weather we had. The kids watched Racing Stripes and played indoors mostly, while we packed and cleaned up. Saturday morning, they got up at 4 am to return their rental car and catch a 6:30 flight out of Myrtle Beach and we got up, went and had breakfast at Big Apple Bagel, came back and packed up the car and checked out.

The two families got along quite well, despite some obvious differences in our parenting styles. It was actually interesting to see how other people raise their kids and we took home a couple good ideas, as well as some appreciation for the things that we feel we’ve done a good job on. Our discipline styles were dramatically different. People who know us know that Ethan and Adam have never been spanked, hit, slapped or otherwise harmed on purpose to get some kind of a point across. So, it was interesting to see how kids who are used to getting dealt physical punishment behave. By the end of our trip, we definitely confirmed that we made the right choice for our boys by using other means of discipline. I really can't imagine ever doing it or running out of non-violent choices of discipline, but I do understand that it makes sense for other people, and I've learned the art of biting my toungue.

But, on the other side of the coin, we were inspired by mealtime rules that their family had, that we had been quite slack on. For instance, we had never thought twice about the boys bringing a car or other toys to the table with them, we just figured it would keep them entertained so we could finish our meal. But, we soon saw that a strict “no toys at the table” rule was quite helpful in getting kids to actually eat their food.

We also quickly learned that Ethan is one of those types of kids that is eager to please and likes to make others happy, therefore, he’ll go along with anything. If his cousins told him to jump off the bed, he’d do it. So, we’re definitely going to nip that in the bud and encourage Ethan to use his conscience as his guide. Of course, on the times he does use his conscience, he gets great pleasure in taddling. LOL.


All in all, there was no tension and our time together was fun and enjoyable. The last night, the kids said their goodbyes by playing a bit of ring around the rosie and hugging each other. We’d definitely rent a beach house with family again. I'm sure the kids will have many fond memories of this trip.