Goodbye, Summer!

It's officially Fall. My favorite time of the year. While most people think Spring is a time of renewal, I oddly feel that way about fall. I think it has to do with school starting. For more than 20 years of my life that as the time when I was always starting something new, getting a chance for a change. It's all the season of my birthday and the birthdays of some of my favorite people. But overall there is just something about leaves changing, cool, crisp weather that makes me happy.

That being said, I took full advantage of summer and Greg and I ended the wonderful season with our last trip of the year. He has to take one week of vacation time and I had three furlough days to use, so we decided to head down to Myrtle Beach for the week.

It's a nine hour drive from Lexington, but felt like half that time. From Lexington, you drive south on 75 through Knoxville, into the Smokey Mountains, past Asheville, North Carolina and all the way through South Carolina to the beach.

I'm lucky enough to have parents who will let me borrow their condo, so we got to stay for free. We spent everyday on the beach, which I'm truly beginning to believe is our best vacation. We were a little worried about the weather, but it held out and it was sunny and warm everyday until the last when we had to leave anyway.

I got a very bad sunburn the first day. I put on sunblock but I guess I needed to reapply more than I did, so on day two we went to one of the beach stores to invest in an umbrella. We should have done that on day one.

I think Daisy enjoyed the beach more than anyone. It was the off-season so she was allowed to lay out with us. Though she hates water and insisted on walking as far away from the waves as she could when we first got there, she eventually warmed up. She loved the sand and we eventually got her to warm up to the water, though she wouldn't go in. She had quite the fan base. Every morning when we went out everyone would come and say hello to Daisy. Whenever there's people around giving her attention, she is a happy dog.

There wasn't much night life. We went out to a bar on the beach, but we were the youngest people there by a good 20 years, so we sat and watched all the "old folks" dancing for a little while before heading out.

The coolest thing we saw was the Air Force practicing dog fights at night. While we were at the bar, I noticed a bright flash in the sky that appeared to float down than disappear. When Greg looked over we saw a second. Of course Greg in his infinite wisdom figured out right away that it was probably fighter jet's setting of flares, doing drills out over the water. It was a pretty cool to watch.

When we weren't by the water we grilled steaks by the pool, played putt putt and went out to eat. Our last night we found a new outdoor shopping center with some really nice restaurants. I wish we would have stumbled upon it earlier in the week, but it made for a nice end to a nice trip.

I couldn't have asked for a better way to say goodbye to the summer travel season and hello to the best time of the year!