My housemates at Salem and I decided to take a pre-graduation beach trip since we had a week of free time between final exams and the actual graduation ceremony.  After a bit of hotel research, we decided on the Sandcastle Resort at the Pavilion.  This hotel was actually fairly nice considering they had “student rates.”  Previous experiences have shown that hotels that offer such rates are trashy and meant for certain disaster!  The hotel was right on the beach and the main strip of bars and things, so we felt good being in the middle of everything.

The drive was about 4 1/2 hours from Salem to Myrtle, and we took my Mazda3 to contain us all and save some gas costs.  Unfortunately, the weather didn’t hold very well from day 1, and it pretty much rained the entire trip until the last day.  It was also extremely cold, so we had to buy sweatshirts and jackets!  Of course since the weather was crummy and we were women (warning: I’m about to do some gender stereotyping!!), we ended up SHOPPING most of the trip!  Also, before we left we had decided on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the entire week, but the rain made us hungry for restaurant food!  I think I spent a total of $500 on the trip.  Just insane.  On the last day, we sat out in the sun and burnt to a crisp.  We weren’t upset about it, it was the one sunny day!

Also on the trip, we were joined by two other rooms of friends.  My brother and his friend also got a room at the Sandcastle where we were staying.  Of course, they HAD to get an ocean-front room (it was like $5 more a night) to rub it in.  The other room was down the street at a different hotel (I can’t remember the name).  That room was another group of Salem girls.

Places we ate were River City Cafe (though the burgers upset everyone’s tummies!), Margaritaville (a traditional family restaurant with amazing margaritas), Phillips Seafood (GREAT seafood bar), The Bagel Factory (good breakfast), and Mellow Mushroom (always good pizza).  We also visited Bummz bar, but it wasn’t really our “crowd.”

All in all it was a really fun last trip with my Salem friends, and it’ll be sad to say goodbye after graduation!