Thursday, May 02, 2013

Myrtle Beach

Last week, I celebrated a rather big birthday milestone.  It's one that ends in "0" and no, I won't tell you what the first digit is.  Janis and I celebrated by jumping in the truck and heading to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  We had never been to Myrtle Beach, but we needed to get some sand between our toes, and we thought that hitting it in late April and early May would be just the ticket.  It's late enough in the spring so that the weather should be fairly warm, but not so late that all the kids get out of school and go to the beach, with or without their folks.

Janis found us a small 1-BR rental just a couple blocks off the ocean that takes pets.  Turned out to be a nice little place, certainly better than the last rental we experienced (where the only thing stopping us from falling through the rotten floor was the linoleum).  It's in a quiet residential area in North Myrtle Beach, which is far removed from the boardwalk, bars, and T-shirt shops just to the south.

We had heard that this area is cheesy and tacky.  I gotta say, those reports are accurate.  Most of this area seems to be geared towards cheap food, cheap entertainment, and cheap stuff.  I suppose it works for families with hyper-energetic kids, or college students still learning how much beer they can drink before passing out, or those who might be looking for as much as possible as cheap as possible.  But if you're looking for, say, quality food, you have to really look for it.

But (speaking of quality food), we did find some gems.  In this area, we found it at P.F. Chang's, Tommy Bahama's, and (gasp) Olive Garden.  Seems like some of the chain restaurants are more careful about their cleanliness and quality standards than most of the independents in this area.  All three of these gave us really well-prepared and well-presented meals along with first-rate service.

We did a bit of exploring and discovered that the area to the south, particularly Pawley's Island and Georgetown, were more to our liking.  There were more independent businesses, shops, and restaurants, and they generally carried more interesting, and higher-quality, stuff.  There were fewer people and everybody was moving at a slower pace.  We even found some interesting art and are heading home with a new sculpture piece.  A far cry from the "Show Us Your Hooters" attitude around here!

I don't think we'll ever come back to Myrtle Beach.  Just not our cup of tea.  But we will come back to the coast, and when we do, it'll probably be to Pawley's Island or Georgetown.  

2 comments:

  1. You're 20! Finally in your second decade, and next year you can drink with the rest of us! ;) Happy Birthday Uncle!

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  2. Happy Belated Birthday Skip!

    If you had only asked, I could have told you what you've learned by experience. But, now you know for sure and I'm sure that knowledge will stick a lot longer this way. I can remember when Myrtle Beach was much nicer than cheap T-shirt shops, miniature golf courses and cheap beer bars.

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