Weather Hasn't Been the Greatest on the East Coast

Alex and I have gotten a ton of rain this last week. Actually, just over the entire weekend and today and forecasted for the rest of the week. Yesterday we had one sunny day, cold, but sunny. Continuous rain throughout the day is so lame; especially when you're traveling and your vehicle is an old rickety VW van. Ugh. On top of the rain, it has been really cold, as low as 32 degrees. What happened to all that warm weather we were having???? Oh yeah, we decided to head north. I forgot about that little part; silly me:/

Rain used to never really get me in a bad mood, but ever since this trip across the country, I dread the rain. It makes me really negative and grumpy. It's hard for me to look on the bright side of things when it's all gloomy and wet outside. When it rains, Alex and I are either stuck in the stuffy van or we are mooching some free wifi at the nearest coffee place. We watch a lot of movies or TV online to let the time pass. Or we rent movies at the nearest Red Box. By the way, Red box is awesome! Rent a movie for one dollar a night and you can return the movie at any Red Box in the ENTIRE COUNTRY, as long as it's returned within 24hrs. Pretty cool.

So, over the weekend we went to Columbia, SC. It's the capital of South Carolina. It seems like a town with a lot of potential. We didn't really explore it very much because the weather was sooo bad. It rained practically the entire day Saturday and stormed all night. And I mean STORMED! Lightning and thunder out the wahzoo! Then Sunday it rained all day long!

Columbia, SC State Capital

Side View of the Capital

We tried touring the State capital, but it is closed on the weekends:( The outside was pretty. Beautiful gardens and statues. We walked around the downtown area for a bit and then found a Starbucks to hangout at for the rest of the day/weekend:).

Sitting at a bench in the Capital Park

Statue of George Washington. His Cane broke when the Union army burned the city during the Civil War

Capital Gardens

One of the Statues on the Capital grounds dedicated to the Daughters of the Confederacy

On Monday we said goodbye to Columbia. Sorry I don't have much to tell you about Columbia. Bad weather can really gyp you out of a great experience. Like when Alex and I were in Laguna Beach. It rained the entire time we were there, as well. I'm sure Laguna Beach is a great town, but we didn't get to experience it's greatness, only the dreaded rain and threats of mudslides. Man, I'm sure creating a ton of memories while on this crazy adventure:)

We have spent the last two days in Myrtle Beach, SC. South Carolina's number one vacation destination in the state. I read that 13 million people come here every year to vacation. And for some reason I can't understand why. It is by far the most cheesy, gimmicky, cheap motel feel "resort" area I have ever seen. It is worse than Miami. You can find every fast-food chain in the nation here and hundreds of cheap box motels with that ugly green and blue pastel paint, and that ugly pink that men like to call "salmon color" line the streets. Some of the motels seriously made me want to vomit. Practically every motel had some cheesy ocean themed swimming pool with fountain mushrooms or dolphins spewing out water. The paint on the "sea animals" have been so incredibly sun damaged, which adds to the cheap appearance. It was not the prettiest site, to say the least.

One of the many "resort" Motels

A mushroom fountain

I do have to say that the beach was really nice. I'll have to give credit for that, but everything else about Myrtle Beach just didn't float my boat.

The beach at Myrtle Beach

I don't see myself coming back here again. I guess maybe I had a different idea of what Myrtle Beach would be like because I was thinking, "It's a resort area. That must mean the scenery is beautiful, there must be tons of fancy hotels, fine dining and expensive high-end shopping." I was wrong. I guess not every "resort" area has to meet that criteria. Maybe I'm being a little too harsh on judging the area. I just thought Myrtle Beach would be a little more picturesque and charming. Shame on me for those preconceived notions. Maybe I would have appreciated the scenery a little more if I had of expected nothing from the area. Oh yeah, and also maybe if this weather hadn't put a damper on my mood.