A Trip to the Beach

Last week was the annual judges' conference. Which meant that there was no court for me. And no court means... beach week! Well, okay, beach extended weekend. But still, nice and relaxing! Mom and Dad have a time share in North Myrtle Beach, and, fortunately, they were more than willing to let me use the second bedroom for a few days. While it wasn't directly on the beach, it was across the road. You could still open the balcony door and listen to the surf. And here's our view of the ocean:

One of the great things about North Myrtle Beach is that the beachfront road area is soooo much calmer and quieter than Myrtle Beach itself (and it's maybe 5 miles up the shore, with much of the shopping and dining located on the king's highway). If our hotel had been on the shore road in Myrtle Beach, we would have had to deal with things like stoplights and cruising and inching forward a car's length at a time in the evenings. Instead, our road looks like this:

And that is probably why I could enjoy the sound of the ocean from our balcony despite being across the road!

Other things that I love about beach 'extended weekend':
1- visiting with my parents (of course!) and any other family members who happen to make it down. This year, my sister was there for two days, but my brother and sil were not able to make it.
2- yummy, yummy dining! If you visit the area and have never been to the Chesapeake House. YOU MUST GO. Seriously. Go.
3- outlet shopping. Wheee! I scored a new travel purse, and four (yes, I said 4) new pairs of shoes, all desperately needed. Oh yeah, and a new dress, some candles, my semi-annual stash of pantyhose (ick), and a few new shirts and a sweater. Love it, love it, love it!
4- walks on the beach. I didn't make it out early enough to get the freshest pickings, but I thought what I did find was pretty enough:

5- finally, there's the chance to get in some major stitch time, using the fabulous natural light coming in from the balcony window. I know, I know, this part would be much better with progress photos! Sorry. It's too dark to take the photos now, and I wanted to post while the mood was on me. I ended up taking Jenny Bean's Creation Sampler with me. It's about half finished. I'll post a photo next time around. I've also been inspired by all the patriotic pieces everyone has been sharing in blog world. I found a cute little freebie from The Sampler Girl over the weekend, and have almost finished stitching it. Ideally, I would do the finishing this weekend, but I think that I'm going to need to pay a visit to my favorite 'shop' (aka, Mom's house) before I can do that. I could back it with red felt, but I want some trim, and that, I do not have.

Til next time, keep creating and stay cool!