I remember that as we entered into the Summer of 2001, my first with Carolyn, she remarked as we assembled our ‘fun drawer’ in the kitchen that it was “going to be a great summer!” Our fun drawer included gift certificates and coupons for places and events that we could enjoy over the coming months. We also had our Florida vacation ahead of us - and indeed we did have lots of fun. Unfortunately, things began to sour a little bit by the time we headed out for our vacation to Myrtle Beach on July 28, 2001.
After several years have passed, you begin to formulate an idea in your mind as to what kind of time you had on any given vacation. I know for a fact that we had some good times when we went to Myrtle Beach in 2001, but overall the picture painted regarding this trip was that it was one of the worst I ever had. At least in the top five.
The plan was that Carolyn, Ashleigh, Briana, and I would travel down to Myrtle Beach with Bev and Ed in their van. Chris and Sarah would be driving Grandma and Grandpa Murphy, and Cathy and Debby would be meeting us separately. Grandma and Grandpa would stay in the Windy Shores condo with Bev and Ed and the rest of us would all share the Links condo - room 19. We had it all planned out and it had all of the ingredients for a wonderful trip.
Clockwise - Briana, Cathy, Sarah (in the long hair days), Chris, Bev, and Ed gather for fun in the Links
Yaht, Chris, Sarah, and Briana play speed or some other card game - I fiddle with my favorite thing in Myrtle Beach, the TV
Cathy and Carolyn in the kitchen
Cathy, Debby, Carolyn, and me
The many faces of Grandpa Murphy
The one face of Ed
But once we got there we discovered a few problems with the arrangement. First of all, since Bev and Ed graciously allowed us to ride down with them, we were the only ‘group’ that didn’t have a car, so there was no way for us to pick up and go when we needed to get out. Secondly, Carolyn and I shared the downstairs family room area with Ashleigh and Briana. This was a ‘common area’ to the condo, so while Chris and Sarah had the master bedroom and Cathy and Debby had their own room, we had no privacy whatsoever. And as you know, I love to watch TV and movies on my vacations and it was difficult to do that at any point with so much commotion in the condo.
Pool fun with Briana, Sarah, Ashleigh, and Chris
Bev and Briana in the pool
Pool gymnatics at Windy Shores
Brian squashes Sarah, while Ashleigh is flung aside by Chris
Carolyn in the hula contest at the Maritime, a condo neighboring Windy Shores
Ashleigh gives it her all
In addition, I was looking forward to some ‘party’ time with my cousins where we could throw back some beer, listen to some music, and sit outside sucking down cigarettes. And as you also know, Carolyn was adamantly against alcohol, so the one night we tried this, she took off for a long walk around the condo. Carolyn was more interested in swimming and shopping, which I was not. And not having a car made it worse, because it stranded her at the condo if we didn’t jump at the chance to leave when everybody (or anybody) else decided to. By mid-week she was actually talking about getting a plane ticket and flying home. We had had disagreements in the past, but never at this level.
Stuffed
So this was the overall feeling about this trip. Now having said all that, there are certainly many great memories I have of the week as well: spending time with my family namely. I remember that we watched the Back to the Future trilogy (which Grandpa had never heard of - he had heard of the three Back to the Future movies…but not the trilogy), going bookstore shopping with Ed and Chris, listening to CD’s of the Guess Who, The Zombies, and Lazy (”everwhere, everybody is the misery”), Bev taking Ashleigh and Briana to play miniature golf, going out to the Japanese steakhouse and Chris getting hit by a flying shrimp, the numerous references throughout the week to “ooh la la” (the name of a local business, a line from Back to the Future II, and at least one other), everyone getting together to have homemade tacos, Ashleigh eating lots of Debby’s candy, and going over to Windy Shores to hang out at the other condo.
Grandma and Grandpa at the Links
This was sadly my last vacation with Grandma Murphy
So yes, we did all of the typical Myrtle Beach family things and had lots of fun, but there was an overall layer of tension surrounding the entire week. Carolyn and I took nary a photo of this trip, so thanks to Bev for her tireless searching to come up with these.
2001 will continue…
That was my first time at a Japanese Steakhouse. Chris also got hit with the bowl after the shrimp, remember that? We all got together at our condo for a spaghetti dinner that Cathy and I cooked. Ashleigh won the hula contest that year if I remember correctly.
Carolyn Gelm
March 18th, 2008