Day 8 -- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Thursday 7/5/2001

Excursions: Aquarium and Go-cart race track

We had a slow start this morning. A few drops of rain came in the morning, but it did not last for more than a few minutes. Vincent came over around 8am and we prepared breakfast. We tried to decide what to do based on the weather and did not feel like we were in a big rush. We had talked about visiting the go-cart place nearby, but we wanted the weather to be dry enough that the tracks would be open while the kids were there. Vincent overheard Erik talk about us never going there. So we decided to go. We prepared a sandwich picnic to bring with us for lunch and headed out around 11am.

We lost Vincent in my turn off to the go-cart place. He just continued down the highway. We parked on front of the building which looked like nobody was there. Per walked up to the entrance and found a note saying that they open at 1pm. So now we have all the kids loaded up in the car(s) and two hours to spend on something.. Vincent eventually came by the parking lot. He had been distracted from making his turn because Paule had blown this huge bubble with her bubble gum that then exploded, covering her entire face with sticky stuff!!

We decided to visit the Aquarium instead. Our kids liked that the last time. Of course, there were not many happy faces amongst our five kids when we told them we were going there. But it is almost always like that. As soon as we got out on Highway 17, the road was packed with people. Bumper to bumper traffic. It took a while to make it all the way down to the aquarium. Lilly wanted to go out shopping for a new bikini without the kids so Vincent and I took the kids with us. One of the first things the kids wanted to do was to stop by the smaller pool in the center of the aquarium where you can play, hands on, with horse-shoe crabs.

Watching fish from within .. riding a moving walkway inside a large fish tank

There are many things to see at this aquarium and several hands-on areas. There are many displays of fish and sea creatures, including bigger pools with rays and sharks. There is even an area where you step up on a moving walkway and ride around inside a tunnel of a large pool. There you can see all sorts of bigger fish, such as several 6ft sharks, big sea turtles, saw fish, etc. At the end of one of the walks you can lay by the edge of the pool and touch rays and smaller hooded sharks; the latter look like baby hammer head sharks. Isabella was glued to that pool. On a second visit to it, they had a show where a diver would go into a deeper pool and then come back over to the area where you could lay by the edge. He brought food with him and allowed the kids near the rim to feed the rays and the sharks. Isabella was almost sliding into the pool. I could see water dripping from her face.

A few pictures from the aquarium -- click on pictures above to enlarge

We finally had to drag the kids out of the aquarium to see if we could hook up with Lilly. I found Lilly outside, waiting by a bench, reading a Harry Potter book. We all moved over to the thin front lawn of the aquarium and brought out our big cooler which was loaded with drinks and sandwiches. It was quite warm outside, especially when you compare it to the air conditioned aquarium.

By now the little race track would be open. We stopped to get some drinks from Target on our way to the race track. Vincent bought a second hat, having lost the one he bought a few days ago. The race track is nice in that there is no entrance fee. So you can walk in and out as you like. That suited us because we had water and things in the truck that we did not want to drag back and forth. It was hot and sunny. We bought the kids all-day passes to all rides. At first we thought we had made a mistake because some of the rides were shut down. Later, it turned out to be a really good deal. The kids rode some of the race cars over and over. In fact, the instant they were allowed to get out of the cars they ran back into line. Later on the afternoon the regular line got shorter so the kids were able to race the go-carts time after time without having to wait in between.

Erik, Pascal, Paule and Isabella waiting in line at the racetrack

The kids also got a chance to race the bumper boats. These are round boats with what looks like an inner tube around them. They have a very small outboard motor mounted in them, allowing the driver to move the boat in the rather shallow but big pool. The kids bumped into each other a lot and laughed each time.

Erik and Pascal bumping into each other in laughter

Karl got a chance to ride some of the go-carts this time. Last time we were down here (4 years ago) he was barely old enough to even ride the smallest electrical cars for toddlers, much to his frustration. This time all the kids got a chance to ride.

Karl giving instructions to a young kid: Have you driven this before? Here is the pedal,...

We got back to the campground and prepared dinner. The original plan was to get fish for dinner, but the traffic was so bad that we could not go south on 17B in a reasonable amount of time to get to the fish market. Not even Food Lion had any fish so Lilly got us some pork chops instead. That was a good choice. We ate outside. She also found a good white wine that worked well with the pork chops. The kids watched Mars Attacks on video after dinner. We went to bed late.

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