Myrtle Beach 2012: Day 2 & 3

Why is it that whenever I am away from home my sleep takes a major nosedive? I'm supposed to be resting and yet I NEVER get a good nights sleep in a hotel, no matter how pricey they may be. I think during vacation I got a total of five hours sleep. Part of it was from dealing with kids waking up in the middle of the night, unused to a new environment, The other part is that if it's not my bed and my pillows, my body refuses to give in to unconsciousness. It's the one part of vacations I hate. I keep thinking it will change *this* time, but no such luck.

Aside from being exhausted, Day two was great. We woke up, ambled downstairs for free breakfast by the beach, then headed to one of the many indoor pools. It was too chilly to use the outdoor lazy river the boys were dying for. Xavier tried to get permission to go in the frigid river, even saying the 40 degree water wasn't THAT bad. Instead, I hauled the floaties into the heated warmth of inside and let the boys play on those in the pool.

After two hours of swimming and looking like prunes, we headed over to the beach, where Soren learned how much fun it is to chase seagulls. Poor kid didn't stand a chance, but that didn't stop him from trying for a good hour.

We grabbed Chinese delivery for lunch, chilled a bit, then headed out to the reason we came here in the first place: MagiQuest.

If you're a gamer, it's a pretty easy concept to understand. You game in real life, with quests and stuff. For you non gamers, I'll break it down a bit with an explanation.

At Magiquest, you become a character in an adventure. You choose what you want to be (sexy warrior? Trixter a la Puck? Want to be a magician? Name it). You create your own wand that works via lasers on tons of things both inside and outside. You want to open a door? Just point your wand at it and voila. Want to open a chest of gold? Use your wand. The only thing the wands didn't work on was flushing toilets in the restrooms.  After you have your wand, you are transported to a huge room and you are given a bunch of quests you choose from. And then you and your wand are off. Think of it as multiple scavenger hunts in a fantasy world.

The boys rocked it.

We had 90 minutes to complete as many quests as we wanted. Xavier tore off like a bat out of hell to solo quest. Ashe and I teamed up to quest together. Soren (and J) took off farming. For non gamers, this means they didn't quest, but looked for chests of gold. Every time Soren found a chest he'd wand it to death, then sing the Zelda song and pretend to open the chest with his hands. J and I laughed our asses off. I snagged a video.










Day 3, after (again) no sleep, we hit breakfast and the pool for a good while, until iut was time to pack up and leave the hotel. Boo. None of us wanted to leave. We loved our little penthouse suite with the amazing ocean vista. But unless we wanted to eat PB&J sandwiches for the next month, we were out the door.

Before heading home we stopped at Ripley's Aquarium. I'll be blunt. Don't waste your cash. It wasn't worth it Maybe I'm now spoiled after Atlantas aquarium trip last year, but I just couldn't get shelling out that much cash for such a tiny place. We went through the aquarium S.L.O.W.L.Y. and it still only took us 45 minutes.

Before heading out on the road, we decided to grab some lunch. We stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe, which looks like a pyramid. The boys loved it, as did I.

After a rocking good meal, we jumped in the van for a three plus hour drive. The boys passed out within the hour (THANK YOU!!!) so J and I had time to relax, watch the scenery, and not listen to "Are we there yet?". A huge bonus when you have three kids.
It's good to be home. It's nice to have my own bed again (YAY!!!) Still, the boys are clamoring for MagiQuest again, and J and I already miss the pull of the ocean. We're going to try and get more beach time in this year.

I had time today to take our photos and put them into a video scrap book. Check it out!