myrtle beach

We booked this short weekend trip a few months ago.  I didn't want a party for my birthday, but Jay teased that I was making him look bad, so we compromised on this idea.   I spent a couple hours clicking around on the internet and this trip presented and checked all the boxes: warmer than home, ocean, hotel close to the ocean, not expensive.

The beach this morning was beautiful, soft, cool breeze, bright.

Later in the morning we drove to our niece's house a couple hours away and spent the afternoon with them.   Their house is interesting and beautiful, high ceilings, shiny floors, big comfortable rooms, and the neighborhood is cool too.   

When the oldest child graciously gave a tour, including a patio type of space off the second floor, I asked her about the tree in the front yard, had never seen those before. "Live Oak," she told me.

There's an old Don Williams song, "I can still hear the soft southern winds in the live oak trees. And those Williams boys, they still mean a lot to me: Hank and Tennessee..."   Never knew before that this was a specific droopy type of tree, looking like tulle is caught in the branches.

Now I know.

We talked a lot, ate delicious tortilla soup, played  Exploding Kittens, a funny card game with the kids, went for a walk,  The middle child baked a fantastic cake and the pretzels she pressed into the frosting were unexpectedly delicious.   Should have expected though.  Pretzels dipped in almond bark or chocolate are good.

We had a very enjoyable afternoon with this sweet family.   When we were getting ready to go, the kids seemed surprised and not thrilled, "So we'll NEVER see you again?" (I thought we were probably fairly boring visitors for kids, and Matt did say they were a little disappointed we didn't have those ten children of ours with us.)  

My niece's eyes met mine and she assured them they're coming to Minnesota this summer.  We will definitely be together again.  It was very sweet.

My cousin, Tammy, thoughtfully sent me this old picture, and I sent it to a facebook group I'm in about Vintage slides and color photos, something like that.

"Today's my birthday, 60 years old and I can still kick and kick, and that's me feeding Red Riding hood a bottle. So grateful to have celebrated this day enjoying a weekend trip to Myrtle Beach. It was so cold in Minneapolis and in Wisconsin too. Love this group"

A stranger in this group wish me happy birthday and recommended a restaurant in Myrtle Beach, so we ate there tonight, at Mr. Fish, and he was right.  It was fantastic.

Onward, tomorrow is Sunday.

Love you all, MOM aka Val aka Grandma