Myrtle Beach 2011

sign

So it’s been a good month since I was in Myrtle Beach. About time I posted about my trip. Here’s a series of photos, with stories to go along with them, that document my ten days on vacation in this beach town of South Carolina.

myrtle beack front
My view each morning for 10 days

Once we got checked into our room at the Westgate, the first place I went was out to see the beach. And this is what I did each day I was there. And seeing this awesome view often made my vacation that much better.

Westgate

This is the view from that beach area at the Westgate resort. Is it a converted Holiday Inn, which was obvious from the front, but from the back, it looks like other resorts. Our room was in the middle tower, somewhere on the 6th floor. I could never find it from the beach, unless my wife was standing on the balcony. The tower to the far right is the newer one, which we were not in (maybe next time we will stay there).

marty tanning
tanning the backside

If you are going to go on vacation to a beach area, your main goal is to get tan. And tan I got… well, not right away, but after a few days of bringing my un-tanned body from a winter state, the tan took. The magazine I’m reading is Vanity Fair.

splotchy
Red like a lobster

See, I had to get red and a bit sunburned before I got tan. Splotchy in color, this eventually become a nice brown tan all over. I even used SFP 50 on my face and SPF 30 on my body and still got red. This is from spending a good 6 hours a day out in the sun.

Beach pools
Kiddie pools are not for adults with no kids

The pools were a nice break from the sand and ocean water. I never went into the kid area for fear they would have thought a lobster made it’s way up from the ocean. So I mostly stayed near the pool bar and the larger pool pictured at the top right of the photo.

storm
east coast storm a brewin’

There was one afternoon and evening where the sun faded and dark storm clouds replaced it all into a gloomy and dimmed sky. The storm continued for a night before having the sunny skies return. I was ok with the storm because it was cool to see and experience and it only lasted one afternoon and evening.

boardwalk
Take a walk on the Boardwalk… if you pass GO, collect $200

Myrtle Beach has a recently rebuilt boardwalk with shops, places to eat and easy access to the beach. We had some awesome scallop tacos at Dirty Don’s, saw a very diverse crowd of people and found many places to just relax and enjoy the ocean and the atmosphere.

pier
Pier pressure

Two piers are lined up along the Myrtle Beach coast, which are pretty much just old wooden structures that people fish from. These piers also had restaurants and gift shops and charged a $1 to go out to see people fishing. Or at least a different view of the ocean.

river
a barge of people enjoying the river

Based on a suggestion from one of the many gift shops in town [there are 3 for every tourist], we drove the 2 hours south to Charleston, SC one afternoon. The above photo was the river from flows from the Atlantic Ocean into town. This place is filled with history and class.

charleston bridge
Awesome bridge

Driving into the city across this giant bridge was pretty cool. We want to go back here again someday to experience more of the city’s rich history and culture.

giftshop
Don’t look a gift shop in the mouth

Speaking of gift shops, these places were all over. Mostly with names like Eagles or Whales or Bargains and sometimes three of the same name within 1/2 a block apart. Some like the one above, have inviting entrances. All in the name of a t-shirt or seashell with “Myrtle Beach” on it.

wifi toilet
Here I sit all connected…

One of the only times I complained was trying to get online (as I normally do when traveling). Not only was the cell signal coverage bad inside the resort, so was the wifi the Westgate had. First off, I had to pay $25 to have it for the week. Secondly, the signal didn’t work anywhere inside the room… except in the bathroom, where full bars made me happy again. I also had full bars out on the beach front, which I obviously didn’t complain about. Complaining to the front desk also didn’t net me a refund nor an apology. Must remember this for next time I visit this Westgate location, where I will ask for a room in the newer tower. [where I did test the wifi and it worked flawlessly]

reba marty
Reba and Marty

One of the many photos my wife took of us. We are happy. How can you not be when staying next to the beach and ocean.

jellyfish
not actual size, but it was still pretty big.

Almost every night, we walked the beach. On our last night, many jelly fish had washed up on the shore. This was a close up of one of them. We made sure to avoid touching or stepping on these newly-beached sea creatures.

sunset
the final sunset

And on our last night, we enjoyed – as we had many nights before – a wonderful sunset. We’ll be back there again someday. It was a wonderful vacation.

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