Travel: Why We Vacay in Myrtle Beach

So the reason we visit Myrtle Beach is a little different that I am sure 80% of the people heading down there.  The beach and other extra curricular activities are always secondary to the reason we “vacation” there.  I’ve mentioned in previous MB recaps, that we go to visit my grandma who lives down there in a nursing home and that is 100% why we go down to Myrtle Beach, to see her.

The goal generally when we go down and visit with my parents is to get my grandma out of that nursing home for a few days whether it’s a trip to the beach, shopping, dinner, or hanging out at the pool/condo.  But this trip wasn’t so much the case. Earlier in August she had an unexpected trip to the hospital that ended with her needing surgery which then led to longer hospital visit.  Luckily things went better than anticipated given she is 86 years old, but she was still recovering and more fragile from the surgery and her stay in the hospital when we went down there.  SO, we couldn’t take her out, meaning it was a lot of visits at the nursing home this time.

Our days at the nursing home consisted of making sure Grandma ate her lunch and dinner, occasional visits out to the patio area, cards (which she did not play), coloring (which she did not want to do either) and a few chats about the past.  She even had some photos from her wedding in 1956 – her wedding dress was amazing so I asked her what she ended up doing with her.  Her response; “I burned it.” … Yup! She burned her wedding dress when she was 24.

The reality of our trip down to the beach destination with 80-degree weather all week was that we only made it to the beach once and only went swimming once at the condo (and at 9 o’clock at night). Friday we went to lunch and did the Conway Riverwalk in between visits at the nursing home.  Saturday was all day at the nursing home with a quick shopping trip to the Tanger Outlets before dinner with the extended family.

We also got to visit with my cousin and her three boys, who are an absolute treat and love B – they were super fun to see how much they’ve grown up, their personalities and sheer sweetness they give us for only seeing them every so often! We soaked up as much time with them from jokes, to hugs, hide and seek, giggles and cuddles on top of being able to see my cousin and aunt and uncle who live down there too.

So although Myrtle Beach is often a beach retreat for many others, we go to see family who can’t travel to see us and hope to offer a little ray of sunlight to her probably lonely and long days at the nursing home.

Do you have a ‘vacation’ destination like this? Comment below!