The Rinkers go on vacation

The Ump and I went on our longest vacation to date - five days (well, 16 hours were spent on the road).
Our honeymoon was a mere two days. We've been to Pittsburgh (two days) and Colonial Beach (four days), so this was the grandaddy of all vacations for us. No dogs, no Internet, no Woodstock.
It was nice.
We drove to Myrtle Beach where we had rented an oceanfront condo at an extremely reasonable price from a friend. My idea was for us to drive through the night so that we would get there and be able to go directly to the beach. I figured if the Ump could stay up all night driving a snow plow for VDOT that he could drive me to the beach in the middle of the night.
He did very well. It is an eight-hour trip and there was very little traffic - even on I-95.
As a show of solidarity, I stayed awake and talked and sang along with the radio to keep him alert. That worked until about 4:30 a.m. when he said he was fighting sleep too hard. So we pulled off the road and took a nap for about a half hour.
First stop - WAFFLE HOUSE in North Myrtle Beach.
Waffle House is not jut a great place to eat flat, segmented waffles. It is a microcosm of its community. That might be a little too deep - but our breakfast stop did result in some information. We got a tip on where to turn to find our condo and I was reminded that South Carolina doesn't have terribly stringent smoking laws. Of the five of us sitting in the "non-smoking" section - three were smoking.
When I was in elementary school, we went to Myrtle Beach every other year with relatives. We stayed in Litchfield which is south of Myrtle Beach. That area is now a gated-community.
We stayed in North Myrtle Beach which is a little looser with "gentleman's clubs" called things like Crazy Horse and "adult" stores and Hooters mixed right in with the family entertainment and bazillion golf courses, driving ranges and miniature golf courses.
There was a surf store on every corner along with pancake houses and Baptist churches. I am sure that this is some kind of snapshot into the southern psyche - food, religion and nakedness - but I wouldn't know where to start. We only sampled the waffles.
Our plan was to rest, lay low, eat dinner out somewhere every night, shop (my idea) and go to Broadway at the Beach to see the Ripley Aquarium (also my idea).
The aquarium was very cool. They have a moving "power walk" that pulls you into the main part of the aquarium where you can get a close look at sharks and colorful fish. There is one section where the aquarium extends overhead and you can see the bellies of the fish as they swim overhead. Creepiest the manta ray which wore an evil smile beneath its graceful wings. There was a pool where you could reach into the water to touch the manta ray, but it never got close enough for me to reach it and I wasn't about to reach out so far that I could tip right in. One of the staff told us that it happens all the time.
It was mesmerizing to watch the fish swim - sometimes in unison, sometimes narrowly missing each other like they were obeying the traffic signs on an invisible watery highway.
For me, this trip was about getting to see the ocean. I haven't been since 2002 and I was sorely missing the frothy waves and sandy shore. I don't bake in the sun anymore like I used to, but I love to sit under an umbrella and watch the changing tides of the ocean as well as the tide of people who roll by the shore.
Eventually, my parents bought an oceanfront condo in Nags Head and I came to love the solitude of that area which was not as developed as the main part of the Outer Banks. Myrtle Beach is packed. I was on the beach by 7 a.m. to stake my territory. Most folks came out late morning, so early morning was my favorite time of day.
The water in Myrtle is warmer than Nags Head and the sand is much softer. One happy bonus of this trip was smooth feet and heels. I'm thinking about getting a litter box full of sand and putting salt water in it to keep my feet in this condition.
I had a terrific time. I think the Ump did too. He had very low expectations for this trip - he wanted a change of scenery and an opportunity to rest - which he did.
In fact, he would have been just as happy to stay home with the dogs. He fretted about Peanut the entire time we were gone. He knew that Peanut's dog sitter thought that Peanut has put on a little too much weight and he was afraid she wouldn't feed him.
"We're gonna come back and he's going to look like a greyhound," the Ump said one night before we left.
The truth is we have loved Peanut with a little too much food, I told him. "Think of it like this - Peanut is going to a spa where he will be fed green beans as treats and he will get daily walks."
When Peanut returned home from his "vacation," he ignored us for a day. On the second day, when he finally jumped back up in "Daddy's" lap, the Ump told him that we would never go away again and leave him with someone else.
I guess our next vacation is going to have to be in a dog-friendly condo.