WELL, back in July we went on a trip to Myrtle Beach for my daughter’s dance nationals trip. We were supposed to go to Myrtle Beach LAST summer, but with Covid the dance studio decided to reschedule it. Most of you know I took a bit of a blogging break over the summer with several guest posters/less posts, so these vacation posts are a little late. We were gone 6 nights and I’m going to break up the trip into 3 posts with 2 days for each post. I figure that way it won’t be too much of a photo overload and if vacation recap posts aren’t your thing, feel free to pass on reading these posts. I am going to include a few photos here and there of Autumn and her dance team, but I’m going to include mainly our family experience during the trip. I love blogging about our trips/vacations, so I can look back on them! I hope you enjoy them, too!
First up, we decided to fly to Myrtle Beach since it is quite a long drive from St. Louis. We were able to score direct flights with Southwest airlines and if I remember correctly, the flights were only 2-2.5 hours each way. We were lucky to be able to fly with a few of the other dance teammates on the way there and back.
We rented a car ahead of time, because we heard car rentals were pricey and if you waited until you landed they would more than likely be sold out. Brian rented the HUGEST vehicle ever, a Nissan Armada. It fit all of our luggage nicely, especially since we had to bring an extra wardrobe suitcase along for all of Autumn’s dance competition costumes and shoes!
We booked Myrtle’s Peak, an airbnb condo and were on the TOP floor (penthouse).
Brian gave me some choices to select from that were close to the dance venue. Of course I picked this condo, because it had a beachy farmhouse vibe! The condo had a living room, kitchen, master bedroom and two twin beds in an additional bedroom.
This photo shows the bedrooms.
After flying into Myrtle Beach, we decided to have some Mexican food! We ate at Abuelo’s Mexican, which was outside a shopping mall. I booked this place for convenience since I knew it’d be easy parking/not too busy after a long day of flying. I had a huge watermelon margarita with a watermelon wedge in it! I didn’t take a photo of my food.
After eating, we unpacked and then headed down to the beach to check it out. I had never been to Myrtle Beach before, but the beaches by our hotel had A LOT of seashells!
Shop This Post:
Here is a photo of me! I was excited to see the beach, since we vacationed in our own state last year due to Covid. My swimsuit and lace cover up are both Amazon finds.
It’s always fun to take a few photos of the fam bam by the beach! Here is my favorite guy! I wish we could have done beach photos of our family with a professional photographer, but we got Autumn’s dance schedule SO late, it just didn’t work out. Plus, I think I am the only one in my family that enjoys doing photos… boo!
The kids are hard to catch when they’re near the ocean… they are both fish! But, here is an action shot for you!
Autumn had fun taking photos of herself doing her ‘dance stuff’ with her phone. She looks so pretty and elegant here!
After we spent some time by the ocean, we were hungry since we had dinner so early. We went to Kirk’s 1890 Ice Cream parlor and they had SO many ice creams to pick from! Wow!
The next morning we were up BRIGHT and early… with full makeup and hair (for Autumn, not me!!) and headed out to the Myrtle Beach Convention Center for Autumn’s first day of dance. I think we were there 12 hours? It was a LONG day! Brian and I always joke that dance national vacations are kind of like ‘work’ vacations!
The dance national that she performed at was Starpower.
It is REALLY hard to get Autumn to stand still long enough to take a photo these days, especially with mom… But, I got one… even if she is being cheesy in it! Lol!
There is the sweetest mom that makes up little gifts for the girls each dance competition. The funny thing is that her name is Marybeth and we were joking about ‘I love MB’ being I love Marybeth and not just ‘I love Myrtle Beach’.
Autumn had two dances the first day and the first one was her duet with her duet partner Kendra. They got THIRD place!!! I was so excited for them and grateful that Kendra and her family drove, so that they could drive the trophy home with them!
Autumn had a second dance, which was her small tap group. They did really good and made it into the SECOND show with The Battle of the Stars on Thursday evening! The girls took a photo outside by the fountains and this is one of my favorite photos from the entire trip!
And, that wraps up the first two days… BUT, I wanted to share some delicious food I got to enjoy! On our second day, Brian drove us to Bojangles for lunch during a big break in-between Autumn’s dances. I had worked on an Instagram collaboration with them before Covid (see it HERE) and I had wanted to try them! Their sweet tea was DELICIOUS and the Southern chicken biscuit was yummy! Bojangles really needs to come to St. Louis!!
Then, our second night there we decided to order pizza in with one of the local places since we were tired and had been at the dance venue all day. We ordered AJ’s pizza and got the kids a cheese pizza and Brian and I tried their PIMENTO cheese pizza. Oh, YUM!
That is a wrap up on our first two days in Myrtle Beach! I’m going to try to do these posts every other week, so next week I’ll have my Friday Five post and then the next week I’ll be sharing part 2 of 3 on our Myrtle Beach trip. Stay tuned! 🙂
