Operation Big Thunder: the Dole Whip Conspiracy COMPLETE

[declansdad]

That last picture is a great shot.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

We fought the enormous crowds to find a little square of sand to call our own.
we know this is a lie as you already said how sparce the beaches were.

6 years old and already hopelessly nerdy, just like mom and dad.
this could be as well, the nerdyness i am guessing only extends to you and not your wife

I tried to sign Scotty’s forehead, but he wouldn’t sit still for me.

im sure you would never try something like that.



the two movie quotes i knew were already guessed so i tried my luck at the lies this time around.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Two great pictures.

Not seeing any other “easy” quotes for now. I also need to start packing up for a gig this evening so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to multi-quite this one and hunt down the fib.

It’s a really great update on a first read though, but I always like to go back and read ‘em several times to find the nuances.

 

[eandesmom]

We fought the enormous crowds to find a little square of sand to call our own.

Lie but that seems too obvious. Some seriously fun quotes but I'm late to the party again thanks to spyware!

The girls, my resident artists, unveiled their latest masterpiece to rave reviews.

I must point out that this was my favorite burger of the whole trip. The Texas BBQ Burger: bacon, bourbon bbq sauce, cheddar and fried onion straws. Have I mentioned how much I love dives?

Christmas card?

We returned to the beach house and stayed up late, almost to midnight, enjoying our time with our friends. Julie and I talked about how we hoped we could pull off the Disney surprise. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. Even though we had an early morning and an 8-hour drive to Disney looming the next day, it was hard to push ourselves to go to bed. If only we were occasionally allowed a pause button for life. Come to think of it, a fast-forward button would be helpful occasionally too.

Coming Up Next: Operation Big Thunder is a go!

Love the art, both food and beach. Man does that burger look good.

The last one is my vote for Christmas Card.

What a GREAT last day!

I'd like both please, pause and fast forward.

 

[scott2997]

...

Now before you go calling the South Carolina Health Commission, I must point out that this was my favorite burger of the whole trip. The Texas BBQ Burger: bacon, bourbon bbq sauce, cheddar and fried onion straws. Have I mentioned how much I love dives?

Thanks for making me hungry!

We've eaten at River City Cafe in Murrell's many times. It's one of our favorite places to go in the Myrtle Beach area.

 

[glennbo123]

Well drat. I missed the update due to a 1 o'clock meeting. Spyware can't help that. My empty office chair was probably still spinning as you posted.

And yes, we did find a Delaware plate.

But no picture of one....very interesting.

Hey, you found the chair from my 10th grade Social Studies class!

These are great pictures!

They must have been taken during that period of time that photographers call "the magic hour"*

*When Mark looks good. (Just kidding Mark.)

 

[TarzansKat]

Hi.

I'm late to the party, can I still join in?

I just have to say that some of these posts should come with a disclaimer. "Those attempting healthful eating may want to be warned about the frequency of photographic evidence of the most delectable burgers in the world," or something along those lines.

Seriously, I'm really enjoying your trip report.

On the note so serious side, I love obscure movie quotes. Right up my alley, as it were.

I'm going to say this one was not an exact quote but more a reference to Pirates of the Caribbean. Instead of that's got to be the best pirate I've ever seen, you called your kids the worst.

If I'm wrong, ah well. Judging by my avatar, you should be able to tell how pirate obsessed I am anyway.

Looking forward to more, and love the family photo on the beach, and the one of you and your lovely wife. Awesome. :

 

[Mrs. Knowitall]

6 years old and already hopelessly nerdy, just like mom and dad.
this could be as well, the nerdyness i am guessing only extends to you and not your wife

LIE!!! I'm a nerd too!



Pawleys was gorgeous and I loved being there with our friends. I was also looking forward to the next day! Would we be able to keep the surprise for another few hours?!

 

[eandesmom]

6 years old and already hopelessly nerdy, just like mom and dad.
this could be as well, the nerdyness i am guessing only extends to you and not your wife

LIE!!! I'm a nerd too!



Pawleys was gorgeous and I loved being there with our friends. I was also looking forward to the next day! Would we be able to keep the surprise for another few hours?!

those last few hours are the hardest!!!!

 

[jecskc]

I am just getting caught up and I have just two little tidbits to add about your Charleston photos.

One - the houses were built with narrow fronts and long sides, because you used to be taxed on the linear footage of the front of your house. So the crafty southerners, just made their houses longer and not wider to avoid additional taxation. I am sure the City of Charleston has rectified that by now and tax on square footage. I would say acreage, but nobody has anything close to an acre of land in the heart of Charleston.

Two - Charleston had a very serious earthquake in 1886. I imagine the house with the crooked door settled during that disaster and they just made a new door to fit the now crooked frame.

I just love Charleston. Such a beautiful and interesting city!!

Thanks for sharing !!

 

[Poolrat]

Late on any chance of movie quotes.

Love the possible Christmas card photos. I like the second one too. I absolutely love the picture of you and Julie. You both look adorable.



Can't wait for the reveal as you make your way to Disney.

So nice that your beach time was great.

 

[jedijill]

I cannot believe I did not know about this report. I'm in now.

Fasten your seatbelts, its going to be a bumpy ride.

Jill in CO

 

[afwdwfan]

Thanks for saving your updates for days that I'm swamped. Are you trying to be my second nemesis now or something? You and Rob seem to be conspiring on something here.

If you’re a peasant like me, it gets a little tougher to be a snob about anything. I’m still a million bucks shy of being a millionaire. I guess we could try and be fast-food snobs or big-box wholesale store snobs, but that just seems like a self-defeating enterprise.

Um... burger snob?

No angry property owners calling me to complain, no legislators making unreasonable demands, no bosses ignoring successes and focusing on failures

Don't worry, the voice mails and e-mails will still be there when you get back home.

Have I mentioned how much I love dives?

Once or twice.

Can you believe someone in my family would refuse to be serious for a moment? Sheesh.

Where do your kids get that kind of behavior?

Coming Up Next: Operation Big Thunder is a go!

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

My friend Greg, a native South Carolinian who spent the week with us, describes himself as a “beach snob” regarding Pawleys Island. After spending the week there, I understood why. Of course, it helps when your family owns a home there.

Yah… that does tend to make a bit of a difference.

My family has a little place in Garden City.
Ain’t anywhere near as exclusive as Pawleys (nor as big as that house), but as long as Poppa is willing to share it with his sons, we won’t be complaining.

I’m still a million bucks shy of being a millionaire.

Counting the debts… I have even farther to go.

I guess we could try and be fast-food snobs or big-box wholesale store snobs, but that just seems like a self-defeating enterprise.

I don’t know.
Avoiding fast food in favor of dives seem like a higher purpose to me.

Our week at Pawleys Island was a much-needed respite from the real world. No angry property owners calling me to complain, no legislators making unreasonable demands, no bosses ignoring successes and focusing on failures, demanding a cover sheet on our TPS reports…

Oh, they were still quite angry and unreasonable…
You just didn’t know about it until you got back to reality.

Don’t go back too soon.

We fought the enormous crowds to find a little square of sand to call our own.

Sarcasm… just another service we offer
(and therefore… not the lie)

(crappy grainy pictures taken with our waterproof video camera)

Crappy grainy > nonexistent

The girls, my resident artists, unveiled their latest masterpiece to rave reviews.

I’d rather encounter this particular cephalopod as opposed to that Ursula chick.
I hear that one’s bad news.

And my 2 yutes, not to be outdone, constructed a working replica of the Suez Canal. I think.

Hummm…
It looks more like the headwaters of the Murderkill River to me.
You ought to have recognized that one right off.

Remember the Civil War soldiers Scotty bought at the Patriots Point gift shop? He immediately went to work when we got back to the house and accurately re-staged the battle for Burnside’s Bridge at Antietam. 6 years old and already hopelessly nerdy, just like mom and dad.

Nice!
How sad for those folks that aren’t nerds.
What ever do they do with themselves for entertainment?

Well never know…
because those folks won’t be posting on the Dis, that’s for certain.

You’ll never believe this, but we stopped at another burger joint late in the week

after we’d run out of pre-prepared dinners at the house.

Only after?

This one was called the River City Café. There are a few of them around the Myrtle Beach area, and we went to one in the town of Murrells Inlet.

And if I could have gotten away from home
(and didn’t have to drop a pile of Benjamins on a car repair that same week )…


I’d have meet you there.
drat!

It was a total dive decorated in exactly the same way I would have chosen to decorate my house if I’d never met Julie (albeit with fewer Philadelphia sports posters): wall-to-wall license plates.

Looks a lot like the DisDad’s Club House.
(albeit with fewer Philadelphia sports posters in that instance as well)

And yes, we did find a Delaware plate.

You “did” find one and yet did “not” snap a picture of it?
Or… you did snap a picture and left it out of the TR as a red herring.

Sneaky…

It was the kind of place that encouraged guests to sign their names on the walls, furniture…basically anywhere there was free space.

time!!!

You mean something like this…

And yes that is a derelict school buss being used as a dinning room. You’ll find it (and two more like it) here…

in LeSage WV.
Something we encountered on a Band Trip to Dayton OH (quite the adventure that was).

Another thing you’ll find there is grub like this…

and my favotite new discovery at that dive: mettwurst…

Yummm….

Sorry, couldn’t resist…
no one would read a TR based that trip if my current one is any guideline)

OK, we now return you to Mark’s TR already in progress.

I tried to sign Scotty’s forehead, but he wouldn’t sit still for me.

Wouldn’t have it ehhh?
Hummmm….

Now before you go calling the South Carolina Health Commission,

We have one of those?

Who’d a thunk?

I must point out that this was my favorite burger of the whole trip. The Texas BBQ Burger: bacon, bourbon bbq sauce, cheddar and fried onion straws.

It would only have been two bucks more to make it a double ya’ know…

Have I mentioned how much I love dives?

I’ll have to think about that one for a bit.
Let me get back to you.

Julie tried to get a cute one of me, Sarah and David holding hands, but Sarah decided to be silly and swing her arms like crazy while Julie tried to take the picture. Can you believe someone in my family would refuse to be serious for a moment?

Coming Up Next: Operation Big Thunder is a go!

Again, the lie is not particularly obvious.
There are candidates, but nothing that stands out.
Must be time for some over thinking…

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

wow! I jumped up in the standings!



It truly was more a matter of I though that combo sounded horrible...and I wouldn't eat it...so it had to be a lie. Like her "real" choice MUCH better.

Agreed. I think she did too.

Nemo?! I'm so not a movie watcher, but I love a challenge.

+1 You're on the board!

What a beautiful beach. I wish we had beaches like that here.

Our beaches are nice. They're better in the offseason when nobody's there.

a refference to "Office Space"

+1

I'm not sure if these will count since they're not full quotes, but since I got here early, I gotta try!

Office Space

Rob got this one, but you were quicker to the rest!

I'm guessing that you're counting this as sarcasm, not a lie.

Good guess. That would have been too obvious.

Shawshank Redemption

+1

My Cousin Vinny

+1

Finding Nemo?

Yes! But Dawn got that one.

I vote for this one!

Duly noted! We usually cheat and pick several to put on the card as a montage.

Great photo!

Thanks! I'll pass your compliments on to the photographer.

Shawshank again! Excellent movie.

+1 Shawshank is one of my all-time favorites.

This was getting into Ferris Bueller territory, but I don't think you quite went there.

Nope, not this time.

Sounds like a wonderful time at the beach! I can't wait to hear about the surprise!

Julie and I were really nervous. We wanted so badly to pull it off.

 

[FreezinRafiki]

…just long stretches of sand and warm ocean water, and the pleasant conversation and company of good friends who know our quirks and shortcomings and stick with us anyway.

Well, when you put it like that it seems downright tolerable*.

*if you're using the "super awesome" definition of tolerable.

The girls, my resident artists, unveiled their latest masterpiece to rave reviews.

Excellent work, ladies. I'd like to commission your work on one of Racine's beaches. I pay in cheeseburgers.

And my 2 yutes, not to be outdone, constructed a working replica of the Suez Canal. I think.

Looks more the like Erie Canal. You can tell by that the way that one area bends just a little bit to the right. Or starboard, in nautical terms. That last sentence existed solely for the purpose of me being able to say poop deck, which is another nautical term.

Remember the Civil War soldiers Scotty bought at the Patriots Point gift shop? He immediately went to work when we got back to the house and accurately re-staged the battle for Burnside’s Bridge at Antietam. 6 years old and already hopelessly nerdy, just like mom and dad.

Would have been cooler, although slightly less historically accurate, if Darth Vader had joined the Confederate Army.

You’ll never believe this, but we stopped at another burger joint late in the week,

I don't believe this.

And yes, we did find a Delaware plate.

The one on your van doesn't count.

They also had free peanuts for customers to grab and munch on, casually tossing the shells to the floor. As opposed to formally tossing the shells to the floor, I guess.

I like to flick the shells like a paper football. That really doesn't have anything to do with your trip report, I just wanted to put it out there.

Can you believe someone in my family would refuse to be serious for a moment?

I can believe this.



As for the lie: I think it's the part about running out of pre-prepared meals. Nobody pre-prepares PB&J.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

A reference to “Shawshank Redemption”
(but it was originally talking about the Pacific).

True, but I've been known to co-opt quotes or paraphrase them to suit my purposes before.

A reference to “POTC – “Black Pearl”

+1

A reference to “My Cousin Vinny”

More "Shawshank Redemption"

[edit]
But it appears that I wasn't quick enough this time around.

Well, you still managed to squeak out a couple of points in this round.

Don't think this one got picked up yet...

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

+1

That last picture is a great shot.

Thanks, Darcy!

we know this is a lie as you already said how sparce the beaches were.

Yeah, but that was just sarcasm, as others have pointed out.

this could be as well, the nerdyness i am guessing only extends to you and not your wife

She watches Mythbusters and cruddy sci-fi movies with me all the time.

im sure you would never try something like that.

I think Scotty's used to it by now. He just starts pushing me away without even looking up.

the two movie quotes i knew were already guessed so i tried my luck at the lies this time around.

Good strategy. They're worth more than the quotes anyway.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Two great pictures.

Thanks! Obviously the rest of my family makes me look good.

Not seeing any other “easy” quotes for now. I also need to start packing up for a gig this evening so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to multi-quite this one and hunt down the fib.

This one is definitely a tricky one.

It’s a really great update on a first read though, but I always like to go back and read ‘em several times to find the nuances.

Nuances? Are you sure you're not getting your TR's confused again?

Lie but that seems too obvious.

Some seriously fun quotes but I'm late to the party again thanks to spyware!

I guess I need to update my McAfee or something.

Love the art, both food and beach. Man does that burger look good.

It tasted even better.

The last one is my vote for Christmas Card.

That seems to be the popular choice. I think it's a better photo, too.

What a GREAT last day!

I'd like both please, pause and fast forward.

As I answer this, it's Friday about lunchtime, the day before a 3-day weekend. And I'm at work. Guess which button I'd like to use?

Thanks for making me hungry!

We've eaten at River City Cafe in Murrell's many times. It's one of our favorite places to go in the Myrtle Beach area.

Man, if I'd known, I would have looked for your signature on the chair!

I'll have to get one of you guys to pick up one of their t-shirts for me next time you're down there. They had a nice white one with their logo in red--very simple. I didn't get it because I knew I'd be blowing all sorts of money on Disney souvenirs the following week.

Well drat. I missed the update due to a 1 o'clock meeting. Spyware can't help that. My empty office chair was probably still spinning as you posted.

It was. The spy camera in your office gave me a good view. But I hope the meeting was just as productive as reading this TR!

But no picture of one....very interesting.

Noticed that, did you? This means 1 of 3 things:
1) It's the lie.
2) It was across the room above another occupied table, and we didn't feel like making the effort of explaining to people why we needed a picture of the wall over their heads, or
3) I didn't post a picture as a red herring, as Rob suggested.

Hey, you found the chair from my 10th grade Social Studies class!

These are great pictures!

Thanks!

They must have been taken during that period of time that photographers call "the magic hour"*

*When Mark looks good. (Just kidding Mark.)

I know you're kidding. We both know that there is absolutely no time of day when I look good.

 

[glennbo123]

As I answer this, it's Friday about lunchtime, the day before a 3-day weekend. And I'm at work. Guess which button I'd like to use?

I'm at home, on my recliner.

I know you're kidding. We both know that there is absolutely no time of day when I look good.

Wow, you put a lot of venom in your self-effacing humor!

 

[KatMark]

Sure, I go to see the second worse team in the Major Leagues play baseball yesterday, and you go and do an update. I would have much preferred staying home and reading your great update than sit in beautiful Wrigley Field and watch the clowns that are supposedly a major league team.

My friend Greg, a native South Carolinian who spent the week with us, describes himself as a “beach snob” regarding Pawleys Island. After spending the week there, I understood why. Of course, it helps when your family owns a home there. If you’re a peasant like me, it gets a little tougher to be a snob about anything. I’m still a million bucks shy of being a millionaire. I guess we could try and be fast-food snobs or big-box wholesale store snobs, but that just seems like a self-defeating enterprise.

Hey...I'm a fast-food and big-box wholesale snob myself.

We spent the end of our week much like it began. We fought the enormous crowds to find a little square of sand to call our own.

Love how empty it is.

We braved the depths of the ocean again. They say it has no memory. Scotty got a new (bigger) boogie board and tried it out. He found it works better if you lie down on it.

Too cute!

These have got to be the worst pirates I’ve ever seen.

But the cutest pirates you'll ever see.

Christmas card?

Nice, but......

The girls, my resident artists, unveiled their latest masterpiece to rave reviews.

Great job, girls.

And my 2 yutes, not to be outdone, constructed a working replica of the Suez Canal. I think.

Remember the Civil War soldiers Scotty bought at the Patriots Point gift shop? He immediately went to work when we got back to the house and accurately re-staged the battle for Burnside’s Bridge at Antietam. 6 years old and already hopelessly nerdy, just like mom and dad.

He is your son!


Now before you go calling the South Carolina Health Commission, I must point out that this was my favorite burger of the whole trip. The Texas BBQ Burger: bacon, bourbon bbq sauce, cheddar and fried onion straws. Have I mentioned how much I love dives?

Drooling now.

On our final night at the beach, we decided to take an evening hike. There was another storm building just to the west, and like before, it somehow never materialized over the coast. But it did make for some interesting skies. Julie paused to take a few pictures along the way.

(Note: since Julie's in the next one, obviously she didn't take that picture. That's not the lie.)

Great photos!

Christmas card?

I pick THIS one for the Christmas card....but only if I'm getting one.

Sarah took this one of me and Julie together. She did a great job, don’t you think? I mean, I almost look like I belong with this beauty next to me.

All I can say is you are a lucky man, Mark.

Coming Up Next: Operation Big Thunder is a go!

Great update, and I can't wait to hear about the surprise.