Alone At Last!

It's a daily fantasy, of mine, to be ALONE with my hubby.  I daydream about it often. It doesn't mean I am wishing my kiddies away, but for me, I cherish Darren even MORE than they, because he came FIRST (and that's actually the way God would want it). If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have those children! Ok, not really, God gave me them, but you know what I mean. 

We were blessed with "FREE" childcare in exchange for a week at our beach condo, so Darren and I saved up the hours and used them for a getaway to Myrtle Beach.

Here's how we spent our time... Just the two of us....

We left Thursday morning at 7 am to attend a funeral in Richmond, VA.  After the funeral, we traveled to Myrtle Beach.  The car ride, alone, was peaceful, enjoyable, and FUN! We talked, "danced", sang, and laughed for 5 hours. There was even a few moments of comfortable silence. 

We arrived into Myrtle Beach around 6:00 pm.  Our first dinner date was at the Melting Pot!  We have never been there before. We always assumed it wasn't the best atmosphere for children.  We were right.  The Melting Pot is a FONDUE restaurant.  Everything is dipped in either cheese or chocolate (or special marinades). YUM!  My two favorite "sauces".  

Here's what the Melting Pot has to say about their restaurant,

"At The Melting Pot of Myrtle Beach, fondue truly becomes a memorable four-course dining experience where our guests can dip into something different. We offer a very unique and interactive dining experience, with a heavy focus on personal service. Our Wait staff has been hand picked and extensively trained to have the ability to provide you, our guest, with nothing less than a "Perfect Night Out." Every visit will be customized to fit your wants and needs during your fondue experience  We offer a stunning variety of creamy, perfectly balanced cheeses that our servers hand craft table side for your dining pleasure. We have a selection of cold, crisp and fresh salads, paired with house made dressings. Our entrées are as beautiful as they are delicious. We offer a wide range of premium meats and seafoods with a variety of sophisticated marinades and sauces for dipping. We offer a full bar and have an extensive wine list. We look forward to fonduing with you tonite!!!"

It truly was a romantic experience.  Quiet, personal, intimate, and yummy.

The entire dinner centered around this fondue pot.

Everything was great.  Even our waitress.

Our appetizer was focused around cheese dip.

We were served bread, apples, and seasonal vegetables to dip into the cheese.

Darren waisted NO time dipping away!

Our dinner was incredible.  We each designed our own dinner.

Darren chose the "Steak Lovers".

I chose the "Land and Sea".
We were responsible for "cooking" our own food in the fondue pot.

 After that, it was dessert time.  
We could barely breath, but we didn't pass up the tasty treats.

It was up to us to choose our dipping sauce.

The Melting Pot serves the same dessert foods:

Cheesecake, strawberries, brownies, bananas, 

Rice krispie treats, and marshmallows.

We chose the "original" dessert, which was milk chocolate swirled with crunchy peanut butter, but we asked them to also add oreo cookies to the fondue, Darren's FAVORITE.

We loved the experience at the melting pot.  We really should have been escorted out of there in a wheel chair.  

 How sweet it is to be loved by HIM!

Friday, we spent the day on the beach.  I'm pretty sure we were there for a good 4 or 5 hours. It was so relaxing.  We giggled and joked as we witnessed other couples' dealings with their children.  It was lovely to watch children from afar and not have to deal with temper tantrums and sand getting all over everything.  We took a nice walk on the beach, did one of our favorite things... people watching, and sun bathed.  I also read a few chapters from the book above titled, "The Power of a Praying Wife!"  I thought that was an appropriate book fit for the occasion.

We came in around 3:00 pm and got ready for an early dinner.  Darren joked when we arrived to the restaurant and it wasn't quite open yet... he said, "Oh if Brett caught wind of this he would never let this one go!"  He always makes fun of us for eating dinner so early.  We ate at a seafood, beach front restaurant called Sea Captain.  YUMMY! And again romantic.

After dinner we chose to head to South Myrtle to ride the Sky Wheel.  It's something we (even our children) have always wanted to do, but have never fulfilled the request.  We felt this would be fun, scenically beautiful, and romantic. Hmmm, notice how that word keeps popping up.  Loads of romance :)

What is the sky wheel? The SkyWheel is situated as a centerpiece of the 1.2 mile-long Oceanfront Boardwalk.  It is an 187 foot tall ferris wheel which contains 42 glass, temperature controlled gondolas.  The SkyWheel is surrounded by some tasty eats, great shopping and pristine sands of the Atlantic.  The view from up top, takes your breath away!

We parked a few blocks away, so we could enjoy a small walk on the boardwalk.

See the sky wheel far off in the distance?

 While waiting in line, I snapped away! (My camera that is.)

 The line wasn't that long! 

 We loaded into the SkyWheel.  We had our own "car".  

 Here's some of the sites we were able to view from our "car".

 The size of the people below tells you how high up we were.

 This is a photo of the human sling shot from our gondala.  

Maybe next time, we will brave that ride!

 Forget the view, that guy takes my breath away!

I was thankful the gondolas were air conditioned.

 These two photos make me really love and appreciate my camera!

I captured this video with my iPhone!

The next day was an all day shopping day at TANGER Outlets.  

I think we spent 6 hours shopping!!!

I am so thankful my man loves to shop with me,
Because dragging him into each store would NOT have been fun! 

We immediately left Tanger Outlets, showered, and headed over to our all time FAVORITE Myrtle Beach Restaurant (well RIOZ is also our favorite) called Villa Romana.  For a TRUE Italian dining experience you MUST visit this restaurant the next time you venture to Myrtle Beach!  ALL of the dishes are prepared FRESH, from scratch (even the pasta).

Finally, we ended our last night, at Myrtle Beach, racing each other at the Nascar Cafe race track.  We are both very competitive and had the up most confidence in ourselves.  Darren was beating me for the first few laps, but then, even after "spinning out", I beat him fair and square.  It was the perfect ending to a wonderful few day with my honey!!!!! 

As usual, the ending to any trip is always difficult, 

But the beauty of our trip ending was we got to return home to our children.

We are thankful to God's faithfulness to return us home together,

AND safely, as a family of 5.