New Year's at Myrtle Beach

I've never done much for New Year's...and this year really isn't much of an exception.  But we did decide to switch locations to Myrtle Beach.  I picked up one of those getaway deals awhile back and we wanted to use it for this trip (those sites are addictive, by the way!).  So we drove down on Jan 30th.  A three hour drive like this one is kind of nice, because we pick a book we both want to listen to on the way.  This trip's selection was Neverwhere:

“He had noticed that events were cowards: they didn't occur singly, but instead they would run in packs and leap out at him all at once."

Our hotel was a block off the beach, on the ninth floor with a balcony and a kitchenette.  We really took advantage of that kitchenette, taking a trip to the grocery store and stocking up on snacks and such.  We also mulled wine on the stove.  We could only find cinnamon to mull it with, so it was not as good as I can make at home...

On New Year's Eve, we went for a ten mile run.  We tried to run it on the route we'd be doing for our next half-marathon but a combination of traffic and the sidewalk made it very painful.  About three miles in, we decided to try the beach for awhile...and discovered that the beach is an excellent place to run at low tide.  The sand is nicely packed (but not too hard) and there are no cars to contend with.  I could have done with a few less seashells, but otherwise it was quite a nice run.  Immediately after the run, we walked up to one of the pancake houses for lunch.  Then we tried out the hot tub in our hotel.  Cody also tried out the pool and found that it was not heated (big surprise) and quickly rejoined me in the hot tub.

Fireworks are not permitted on Myrtle Beach, so there was a show that night at a tourist attraction inland.  We window shopped a bit and then watched the show.  There were these creepy catfish in the lake that we fed.  Seriously, eww...

We went back to the room and watched football (Cody was in heaven) and ate snacks and mulled wine until midnight.  Then we headed out to the beach and were treated to a second, equally impressive and illegal fireworks show.

The next morning we did our speedwork on the beach at high tide (so not as fun as running at low tide) but fortunately the distance was much less.  After the run, I'd noticed a blister on the bottom of my feet and decided to soak my feet in the ocean.  Who needs an ice bath when you're near a nice big ocean?