Our Vacation From A to Z
by Jenners • 08/29/2010 • Travels • 35 Comments
A is for Altima, which produced some awesome gas mileage. (We only had to fill up two times for the 1300+ miles we drove). Good job, Altima!
B is for Boogie Boarding, which the Little One excelled at and Mr. Jenners and I were only fair to middling.
C is for Crappy Hotel Computers, from which I attempted to blog during the evening after the Little One collapsed from exhaustion. It was frustrating and took 1,000x longer than it should have to do everything–plus I would get booted off every 15 minutes and have to log on again. Not sure I would try this again. It seems obvious to me that the solution is for me to get an iPad. (Hint, hint, Mr. Jenners.)
D is for Diving, which is what the Little One called what he did off the side of the pool. (You and I would call it bellyflopping.)
E is for Eyeglasses, which the ocean waves snatched off my face and took forever. I was wandering blind and frantic in the surf until I found Mr. Jenners. (Advice: If you need your glasses to see, never travel without a back-up pair.)
F is for Flailing, which is what the Little One’s newfound swimming ability looks like. But darned if he didn’t actually propel himself across the pool about 8 feet or so. Methinks it is time for swimming lessons.
G is for Golf (Mini). Myrtle Beach has a gazillion mini golf places and we went almost every day. Sadly, we didn’t find the volcano mini golf course until too late.
H is for Holes in One, which only Mr. Jenners got at mini golf. (Note: I asked the rest of the Jenners family for help with this post and this is the first thing Mr. Jenners came up with. Show off!)
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| Mr. Jenners Celebrating His Holes in One |
I is for Ice Cream, which we ate every single day.
J is for the Jellyfish that Mr. Jenners and the Little One found on the beach during one of their morning exploring sessions.
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| Ewwwwwwwwwwww! |
K is for Krispy Kreme, from which we purchased three dozen donuts in 4 days. I guess there is no mystery why we came home weighing significantly more than when we left.
L is for Lenscrafters, which came through and made me new glasses (in about an hour) after the ocean took mine. I hate the new frames though so I’m going to go back and swap them out.
M is for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina–our vacation destination.
N is for Need A New GPS. Our GPS became psychotic on this trip–giving crazy estimations for time, taking us to service entrances rather than main entrances and being snippy with me when I pulled off the road for a rest stop. (Note: Part of the problem may be that Mr. Jenners programmed it to say “What did you do?” in a very accusing tone every time I deviated from the route. Very annoying.)
O is for Opening the Sliding Door to Our Hotel Balcony … and having the handle fall apart in our hands. Is it just me or do you think you shouldn’t have to screw in a door handle with a pair of nail clippers when you’re paying over a hundred dollars a night for a hotel room?
P is for Peanuts, which you are allowed to throw on the floor at the River City Cafe. You can also write on the walls and tables. The Little One thought this was the COOLEST THING EVER! (Note to self: You may be raising a slobby graffiti artist … beware.)
Q is for a Quick Stop at J.R.s–the “Wall Drug” of Route 95 in North Carolina. After seeing what seemed liked 150 signs touting the many benefits of J.R.s (Squeaky Clean Restrooms! Cheap Cigars! Cheap Cigarettes! 1000s of Porcelain Dolls! Toys! Books!), I felt like we HAD to stop there. It turned out that J.R.s is a big outlet store that wasn’t anything all that special. Mr. Jenners had a smug “told you so” look the entire time we were there. Our only purchase? An octopus grow toy that is supposed to grow 600% bigger after being in water.
R is for Ripley’s Aquarium. Believe it or not (haha!), the aquarium is pretty good.
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| The Little One At Ripley Aquarium |
S is for Spongebob, whose DVDs kept the Little One occupied almost all the way down and back (except for the brief car sickness incident outside of Richmond). God Bless You, Spongebob!
T is for Ten O’Clock, which is the time that the free breakfast stopped being served and which I never got to eat because I was allowed to sleep in!!!!!! Thank you, Mr. Jenners!!
U is for Underwater Camera, which allowed us to get really neat shots like this.
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| The Little One At The Bottom of the Pool |
V is for Vomit, which the Little One produced in frightening quantities after getting car sick. Thank goodness I had a little container of grapes for him to throw up in. Though after he was done, he said “Don’t anyone eat these grapes.” Um, yeah, Little One, thanks for the advice. Daddy and I were going to pick through your vomit to pick out the grapes and wash them off and eat them but we won’t now!
W is for Woo Woos, a cheerleading group that was meeting at the hotel we stayed at one the way down. Let me tell you, those Woo Woos know how to sing and dress fancy.
X is for Xlerator hand dryers–the only hot air hand dryers I’ve ever seen that actually work. (Plus they make your skin look like it is going to fall off. Really cool.) In visiting a fair amount of public bathrooms in the past week, I know what I’m talking about.
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| If You Ever Use One, Watch Your Skin Blow Underneath It |
Y is for Yellow Butterflies that were everywhere in North and South Carolina.
Z is for Zip Line, which I got to ride across the lake at Broadway at the Beach (a lake that a worker–who may or may not be trustworthy–said has two freshwater alligators and 100,000,000 fish and is 80 feet deep. Seems a bit unbelievable to me.) The video below is only 16 seconds and shows me going and coming across the lake. Another thing to cross off my bucket list!
Happy to be home again,
What a fun way to read about your vacation. Don't think I'll be eating the grapes sitting on my counter for breakfast!
Fantastic post, what fun. I'm surprised you didn't stop at South of the Border. Jr's is no great shakes is right. Your video is fantastic – good job!
J is for jealous of all your fun especially that hour you spent in lens crafters.
I love those hand dryers. The ones at Euston station in London are cool like that except you move your hands in and out of them and work in like 3 seconds. AWESOME. Doesn't take much to keep me happy.
Oh and now I want a donut. DAMMIT.
oh my this was a fun and informative post!!! great photos
I hope you haven't ruined grapes for me. there's a whole whack of them on my counter.
Looks like you had a fun vacation.
I'm SURE Mr. Jenners isn't bragging too much! Love all the stories, except that you had to deal with vomit. You know that there is some sea creature trying on your glasses right now. LOL.
I bet those donuts were good…
Cool A to Z list about your trip! Sounds like it was quite an adventure
I hate crappy hotel computers too. It's like they make it extra slow on purpose so that people can see you using it and whisper to each other that you're the person without your own computer or iPad. I think all husbands should buy their wives who blog an iPad (hint, hint)
Sucks that your eyeglasses got stolen by the ocean. Well, at least you found a lenscrafter that saved the day!
That is one nasty looking jellyfish they found. Well better to have found it on shore than to discover it after it had stung them, right?
Zip Line! Cool! You got to ride on one of those! I am incredibly jealous right now
I'm going to have to find a place and go try this one day!
I've never had much success trying to blog while traveling, either. It's nearly impossible to load photos. Maybe in the future I'll just write and save them in Word to post later.
That sounds like such a fun vacation! Well…working trip for you, I guess. I also liked that you did it as an alphabet list. I like lists.
Welcome back!
Awesome recap! And so impresses you could do it with the alphabet. FYI- blogging on the iPad is a bit weird as blogger is stupid and you can only type in the HTML mode, but shh just don't tell that part. It is so worth it and the best most enjoyable way to read blogs and browse the Internet, so hint hard.
Oh! I forgot to say, glad you had a great time, overall!
All except V sounds pretty darn good. Well, maybe not the screwing the handle back on part, lol. Love the jellyfish!! And hand dryers, I love those! I also love the dyson ones that you stick your hands in, they are amazing!
The family is thinking about doing a vacay to Myrtle Beach next summer. Sounds good…
The hole-in-one celebratory photos are priceless.
Ah, more stories of car sickness! Love that video at the end – it looks wild!
And I've seen those hand dryers over here too.. Crazy loud!
My parents had a condo in Myrtle Beach so we used to visit every year on Spring break. Now I am remembering what I loved about it.
Mr. Jenners revels in his wins, doesn't he?
Those hair dryers make me feel so old!!!
I can't believe the ocean made off with your glasses!
Can you believe my stomach is so sensitive I get queasy at the sight of the "v" word?
Sorry you guys had to sacrifice the grape container – hope he felt better quickly!
Nice that you were able to get replacement glasses so quickly. I can't see without mine either, but I wear contacts most of the time instead. If they ever were to fall out in a place without my backup glasses it wouldn't be fun.
Zip-lining is so much fun! I hope I get to do it again someday.
Sounds like an AWESOME vacation! I'm jealous! I need one last hurrah before cooler weather sets in… Glad y'all had fun!
The Costco near my house has these Dyson Blade hand dryers that are super awesome. Except they're loud and my girl has to cover her ears. But they work really well too.
Sounds like a lovely vacation in spite of vomit and losing eye glasses. Love the A-Z list!
YEAH YOU!! MB is our vacation destination every year and I learned some things from you. Teehee!
You are the vacation family extraordinaire! It seems like you had a great time despite the setbacks of vomit and lost glasses. Too bad it's back to school time.
I need to go on vacay with you guys!! Well minus the barf and the zip line. I'm still cringing thinking about picking through vomit to get to the grapes!!
I loved this! I HAVE to go on a vacation, this totally seals the deal.
And for the record, The Little One can already swim better than I can. Flailing for the win!
hahahahahaha…the woo woos….hahahaha And who says a bellyflop isn't just an artful dive?
Nice ziplining! And that jellyfish is cool.
Oh, and I call those xcellerator hand dryers jet engines – they are amazing! Kind of scary, too.
Glad you're back and had a good time – way to go on the sleeping in!
Some guy sued a GPS company because the voice said "Turn here"…and he turned right onto a railroad track…a little common sense would have helped.
I'd flip if I lost my glasses – I am not sure I could find my way to The Mister.
Glad you had a great time – and glad that you're back!
Another incredibly creative post – and so much fun to read!
I have had an experience with the incorrigible GPS. Every time we didn't follow the directions to a T she would say, in a rather perturbed voice, "Recalculating" I almost through the machine out the window by the end of the trip.
Glad it was fun and everyone is back safe and sound.
I don't see your zip line video:(
Sound like you had a great/fun family vacation. Some great memories to cherish.
Now that is what I call a vacation!
Sounds like a pretty fun trip, not counting the detour to Lenscrafters. Very impressive post!
Margaret
Excellent way to condense a vacation, and a most amusing post. Sounds like a great vacation. Seems you're making steady progress on the bucket list. What happens if you get through the whole thing? The B List Addenda?
Wow, that was a lot of work to put together. Go Jenners. That sounds like a great time. Other than the glasses. That part had to suck.
you had a lovely vacation jenners. i am looking forward to doing that with my own little one.
btw, it has been awhile since i have been here. i think that i was still pregnant. lol and i have a 1 year old daughter now. i am not sure if you remember me. but i have a new blog about my motherhood, you may also want to check it out. cheers to a great and beautiful mom!
i will try to read all your entries. very interesting!
So aside from a very large jellyfish, losing your glasses and copious amounts of projectile vomit you had a good time
I'd love to hear more about Myrtle Beach as I am trying to find a new destination spot for our next beach visit. Glad to hear it was a great vacation.
Great stories! I love the picture of the gross jellyfish, and the bit about the grapes! And congrats to Mr. J. on TWO holes in one!