SISSY VACATION 2009

(My sister told me that since I write so well, I needed to write about our Sissy Vacation. This is my attempt at putting all the fun we had into a well written document.)

I believe it was either in March or April one morning when I e-mailed my sister, Teresa, and wanted to get her thoughts on maybe a “mini Sissy Vacation”. It would only be for a few days because not having worked a full year at my present job; I had not built up enough time to be off for a full week. She e-mailed me back and really liked the idea. (The last time we tried to do this it was in August of 2006. The day we were scheduled to leave I was put in the hospital with heart problems.) It wasn’t long before we nailed down a date—that afternoon I think. Then came the what-seemed-like-forever wait. After months of e-mailing, texting, phone calling, etc. it was the day for Sissy to come to my house so we could get up and go to the beach to start our mini Sissy Vacation in the morning. My sissy arrived at my house around 7:15pm. We went out to Firehouse Subs, Wal-Mart, the One Dollar Store, and then back to my house. I believe we went to bed that night around 1 or 1:30AM. (We were both exhausted, but she had been up for approximately 29 hours!)

Day One (July 30): The day to go to the beach for our vacation had arrived!!!!! I got up at 7AM. We packed the car, including Baxley, and left the house at 8:30. First stop was dropping Baxley off for a few days at Dogs at Play. (His home away from home!) Next, we stopped to fuel up the car. Then, on our way to Myrtle Beach we stopped for a biscuit. First stop…Myrtle Waves. This was the first time we had been there. We found a nice spot right in front of the wave pool. It wasn’t too crowded, and there was a nice breeze blowing. After dropping most of my magazines in the water and being laughed at by my sissy, we decided to seek out what rides we could get on. The first ride we got on was Snake Mountain. We were able to get a raft that we could ride in together. It was fun except for the raft turning us both over at the end of the ride and ending up with a mouth full of water. Then, we went over and got on Arooba Tooba. I thought it was fun, but the whole time we were swirling around the bowl my sissy kept saying “I’m gonna kill you, I’m gonna kill you.” I thought it was fun. She said it was ok. Next, we got on the Layzee River. (That was more her speed.) It was nice to just relax and float around. Except for some rambunctious children and some teens that wanted to go faster than the norm, it was really nice. We started to get hungry so we decided to get out and go find a bite to eat. We ordered our food, and after receiving it decided to seek out a table where we could sit, talk, and rest. The first table we chose had ants. We moved to another table; it had ants, too. We moved to yet another table. No ants at this table, however, as I was about to sit down, I looked down and saw a lizard. (I don’t do reptiles of any kind!) I screamed, and told my sissy. She moved, but not very fast—reptiles apparently don’t bother her. She said I scared it away. We finally sat at another table without ants or reptiles, but it was in the hot sun. (The others were shaded.) Oh well, I’ll take a table out in the sun before I dine with a reptile! After eating we made our way back to the wave pool. It was nice and cool, refreshing. We would go sit in our chairs and rest a little, and then we would go back in the wave pool when we got hot. At one point, I was getting kinda bored and restless. Being the adventurous person that I am, I wanted to ride a more challenging ride. I picked the Turbo Twister. It’s a 10 story high ride that sends you spiraling through black tubes at 50 feet per second. I asked my sister if she would watch, and take a picture. She agreed. I started climbing the stairs. As I neared the top, I felt like I couldn’t hardly breathe, but I knew I was okay, because I was still standing..ha ha. My time to ride was next. As I got seated staring into this dark tube, I said a quick prayer…”Lord, help me make it out alive.” Off I go…………………………………………………………………………next thing I know, I’m at the bottom of the tube laying in water. As I try to get my bearings, I finally get up and find my way out of the riding zone. I told my sister that it was “quite an experience”…a little more challenging than I made it out to be at first. (I still think I lost some brain cells somewhere between the beginning of the ride and the end.) We spent a little more time at the wave pool, and then decided it was time to head to the hotel. We checked in at the hotel with no problem. We parked, got our luggage, loaded it up on the dolly, along with some groceries we had brought, and headed to the room. It was a nice oceanfront room with a balcony. We spent some time unpacking, and relaxing. Then we got cleaned up and went out for the evening. We went shopping, and then we went to Fuddrucker’s to eat. (There’s not a Fuddrucker’s where I live so I was kinda excited because I love to eat there.) Next, we went to the grocery store to buy some refrigerated items for the room. Finally, we went to Painter’s Ice Cream. (Painter’s is a MUST when they are open!!) With our bellies full, and tiredness slowly sneaking up on us, we headed back to the room, and eventually fell asleep.

Day Two (July 31): We woke up around 6:15AM to watch the sunrise and take pictures. After doing so we went back to bed. We woke up again around 8AM. I decided to make some coffee. WRONG! No coffee filters. Ok…I can live. Then I decided to fix my pop tart. Partly WRONG again. There were no outlets in the kitchen so I had to take the toaster in the bathroom to plug it in. (This day was not going well.) At 9:30AM we headed out to the beach. We set up our towels and sat for a little while. We got in the ocean for a few moments, and then we headed up to the pool at our hotel. It was nice and not crowded. We picked out some chairs and I got in the water. The pool was eight feet deep and I stayed in the deep part of the pool most of the time…swimming laps, doing flips and tricks, etc. It was fun, plus Sissy was there to watch me. J We headed in one time because it started to rain. It cleared up rather quickly so we headed back out. There was an ice cream truck that was circling the neighborhood several times and it always managed to wind up in the hotel parking lot that was across from ours which was right on the other side of the pool. I tell you no lie…this ice cream truck was playing Christmas music. (Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that I can listen to Christmas music any time of the year, but with an ice cream truck playing it over the speakers….it was just weird!) Around 3:30PM, we decided to leave the pool area, and change because we wanted to go shopping on The Grand Strand before we went out that night. We grabbed at bite to eat in our room, and then we headed to The Grand Strand. After finding a place to park, we headed out on our journey. I was going to get a personalized license plate with my name airbrushed on the front of it, and I think Sissy was just shopping. We visited several shops, and then saw an airbrush place. We stopped and asked about prices, and looked at some of the t-shirts, and license plates that he had displayed. I picked out my license plate. Teresa and I started looking at the really cute t-shirts that were displayed. We came up with an idea for Sissy Vacation t-shirts, and each had one made. They are really cute, and we got a great price on them, too! My sissy stopped and looked at another place when she thought about getting her son a shirt. We decided what should be put on the shirt, and the salesperson wrote up how much it would cost. When he quoted the price to my sissy, she about hit the floor---$50.00 for a t-shirt. I don’t think so!!!! See ya! We went back to where we had purchased our shirts and asked him. The quoted price from him was nearly half of what we had been quoted earlier. SOLD!!!! We shopped around some more while waiting for his shirt to be designed, picked it up, and then headed back to the car with our purchases. We got back to our room, and collapsed. We were tired. After some groaning from me, I finally got up and started to get ready for our evening out on the town. (My sissy was nearly ready by the time I got up.) I finally finished getting ready and we were going out. WE LOOKED GREAT! We went to TGI Friday’s to eat, and then, of course, we went to Painter’s Ice Cream! After a little while, we headed back to our hotel to retire.

Day Three (August 1): Once again, we got up around 6:15AM to watch the sun rise and take pictures. After doing so, we went back to bed for a little while. At 8AM, I got out of bed and decided to fix a pop tart for breakfast. I couldn’t help but laugh as I took my pop tart to the bathroom to put it in the toaster. The sight of seeing a toaster sitting on the counter in the bathroom had become quite comical to me. My sissy got up a little later and we were both a little sad because we had to leave today. After a while we began packing up, and checking out. We decided to go shopping at the Tanger Outlets. When we left there, we ate at Steak and Shake. Neither one of us had ever eaten there, but it was pretty good. Then, on the way out of Myrtle Beach, of course, we stopped at Painter’s Ice Cream. Next came the uneventful drive back to my house in Wilmington, NC. Mini Sissy Vacation 2009 may have ended, but the memories of having fun and sharing time with each other will live on in our hearts forever.

I love you, Sissy!