Myrtle Beach

This week, we went to Myrtle Beach for a short vacation. Yes, we just took a trip to Salinas, but we had to book this vacation or lose it. Don't ask me to explain.

We took the long way to Myrtle Beach, choosing to go through the Great Smokey Mountains. Much to our disappointment, Spring hasn't yet arrived in the Smokeys. Most of the trees were still bare and the flowering trees weren't yet in bloom, save for just a few I didn't recognize.

Larry wanted me to see downtown Greenville and I'm glad he did. There is a creek flowing through it complete with waterfalls. The city has built a beautiful public park around the falls. Sioux Falls has water falls in town too but they don't beat this!

Here is a very interesting curved bridge with all the supports on only one side.
Unfortunately, for those of you interested in architecture, we didn't get photos of the whole thing including the two support beams with cables. Actually, you can see one of the two beams just to the right of center below the bridge in the upper photo. The photo belows shows the Reedy River Falls and the city park.

I'd love to keep showing you photos of Greenville but this trip is still about Myrtle Beach.

If you love the beach then you would probably love Myrtle Beach because it's great as far as beaches go. We discovered that we're not really beach people. The rest of the city was primarily resorts, miniature golf, and restaurants. Oh yeah - and lots of the gaudy souvenir shops you also see in Florida. It wasn't our favorite place but we're glad we went once.

A commercial area called "Broadway at the Beach" was recommended to us. It turns out to be rather like an Outlet mall surrounding a man-made lake. The best part about it was the catfish. For 25 cents you could dispense fish food from a gumball machine and feed the fish. They knew it too because they hung out beneath each and every machine with their mouths wide open, hoping you'd throw food in! The ducks liked it too and it was a frenzy of fins and feathers when food was thrown into the water. It was a riot... really! Take this photo below and multiply it by 50 and you'll have an idea what it was like. They were swimming on top of each other and the ducks (not shown) were on top of them!

Finally, the last thing we did was go to a show called the "Carolina Opry" which was really a variety show. There was lots of singing interspersed with comedy and occasionally these amazing tap dancers. I wish I could make the photo bigger for you but it came from the internet and this is the best I could do.

Bocce Court

It's hard to remember when the mountains of "rock dust" were delivered but Larry and I have been steadily chipping away at if since. We started out with 3 mountain ranges. In this photos we're down to only two mountain ranges.


Shovel by shovelful, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow we moved the mountains from side to side.

Finally, on Saturday afternoon we had it distributed well enough to rent the machine that compacts it. Looking good!

This afternoon we played a little test game and it's pretty good. there are a few high and low spots but nothing some raking and smoothing won't eventually smooth out. Now... back to landscaping!

Progress Report

Laura and Ben have less than two months before Baby Snell is born! The time (as least for Larry and me) is going by so fast. Here is a recent photo of Laura. In just a couple months you won't be seeing photos of Laura or Ben much any more... because Baby Snell will be in the eye of the lens.
Oh wait! That's not right. Something is wrong with this photo, don't you think?

There. That's better!