The Grand Strand

WHEN: May 12-13, 2012
WHERE: Myrtle Beach, SC

"Babe, and think about it before you make a quick decision, but what do you think about spending the weekend in Myrtle Beach??"

This is the question Stacie asked when I arrived home from work two Fridays ago.  We were already planning on meeting my buddy from high school in Myrtle Beach for lunch that Sunday.  With the end of the school year fast approaching and Stacie's kids officially "checked out" for the school year, she made it clear that she just needed "to get away!"  So, given the fact that we can still go on trips like that on a whim (without kids)...and that we were already going to Myrtle Beach...and since we haven't left the city of Charleston since Christmas...and the fact that my wife was clearly about to have a meltdown if she wasn't able to "check out" herself...it was a quick and simple decision to make.

We hopped on Hotwire.com that night (which has been good to us before) and had a hotel booked Saturday morning before we left.  If you haven't used Hotwire before, the gig is that you choose the area and Hotwire provides you a list of hotels.  It provides the price and the star rating, but little else.  It's a gamble, but the result is that you usually end up with a hotel that would otherwise be outside your budget.  It is especially useful if you're booking last minute (which we often do).  You booked late and will take whatever you can get.  The hotel has vacant rooms and will take whomever they can get.  In our case, we chose a 3.5 star hotel for $116.  I'll say more about the hotel later.

A girl I work with grew up near Myrtle Beach and gave me a few ideas for our vacation getaway.  The first stop was what she referred to as "The Hammock Shops".  She said that was where the original Pawley's Island rope hammocks began, but she didn't elaborate further.  I never even looked where these shops were on a map.  We just kept our eyes peeled and followed the billboards and signs.

I told Stace to pose in front of this shop, given its name (by Three Sisters).  After I suggested going in, she was quick to state that, "There's nothing I'd want in there", and that was that.  Not even the name was enough to get her inside the door.

The first place we went in was a place we are no stranger to, The Christmas Mouse.  It is such an odd little store, but one that seems to find us wherever we go (or maybe vice versa).

There are only eight stores in the country, all in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.  Of course we've lived in all three states, and after seeing this business card at the store I came to realize that we have also visited a majority of the stores - never knowing how many there were or where they were until this trip.

We have now visited 5 of the 8 stores, not including the two in Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach.  We should have drove to those as well this trip, just to make it 7 of 8.

It's Christmas year-round, here.  Sounds like someone else I know.

We found the hammocks!

Well, Stacie did.

The smell of Jasmine in the spring...hard to beat!

Beautiful smells.  Beautiful sights. :)

It's rare, when Stacie gets sassy/goofy with complete strangers, but when she does I thoroughly enjoy it.  After this couple (laughing) passed in front of us, Stace suggested we walk behind them and laugh even louder.  She then suggested we hold hands and go skipping past them.  As you may know or guess, it is usually me (or should I say, men in general) who acts the child.  It is nice when she stoops to my level. :)

We found an Iowa Hawkeyes Tervis Tumbler® and this Packers sign for our garage.

After the shops, we checked in at our hotel, the Holiday Inn Club Vacations Resort.  This place had a conjoined indoor-outdoor pool, a lazy river, a lagoon pool, an oceanfront pool, an oceanfront reception/lounge building, and shuttle service around the complex (via golf carts/limos).  Unfortunately, because of the timing and weather, we were not able to enjoy any of these amenities. However, we joked that it was probably the nicest hotel room that we will ever stay in. More on that shortly.

And the views weren't bad either.  We could see the ocean from our front door here.  It helped that we were on the top floor.

A par-3 golf course also surrounded the hotel and just beyond that was the Myrtle Beach airport.  The latter may sound like a negative but the air traffic was minimal (especially after dark).  And besides, I love airports and aviation...another plus in my mind!

We walked across the street to have dinner on the oceanfront.  It reminded us of the Virginia Beach oceanfront...except much longer!  The high-rise hotels stretched for over 15 miles, as far as we could see.  I guess that's how Myrtle Beach gets its name, The Grand Strand.  It is a tourist town through and through, and the hotels (goofy golf courses, beach shops, cheesy restaurants/shops) are proof of that.

Damon's Grill was a short walk across the street from the hotel grounds.  It sounded simple and good enough to us (and smelled even better).

Just another one of the many pictures I enjoyed taking of her this trip. :)

We had a 30-minute wait so we took some pictures and walked down to the beach.

Our view from the outside seating deck

Myrtle Beach oceanfront

Virgina Beach oceanfront

I later realized we also spent this same weekend (May 12) at the beach in North Carolina for our first anniversary.  Guess it's tradition now, of sorts (even though this trip wasn't for our anniversary).

We ordered the onion loaf appetizer.  This was only the half loaf!  The whole loaf was more than twice this size.

Damon's on the oceanfront

This was right before I dropped Stacie's phone in the sand.  Whoops!

(She wasn't all smiles after that.  But she wasn't that mad either.  I guess she's used to my carelessness now.)

The entrance to our hotel room (suite).  It had two separate bedrooms, both with king-size beds, and was bigger than both of our previous apartments it seems.  It also had a full kitchen, with dishes, utensils, toaster, coffer maker, garbage disposal, etc.  It was really a shame we didn't have anyone to share all the space and amenities with.

The living room (with fireplace)

The master bedroom...

...and attached bathroom...

...with jacuzzi tub...

...and a private, screened-in patio.

The second bedroom (with second bath) on the other side of the suite.

The rate on one of the closet doors listed the room's normal rate at $320/night.  Not bad for $116!

Sunday morning we awoke to clouds and heavy rain.  It was a sign for the rest of the month, as the past two weeks have now included two tropical storms off the coast of South Carolina, plus many of cloudy, damp days.

We made a couple more stops Sunday morning (dodging the rain) before meeting up with Tom and Angie (and Josiah) for lunch.  We didn't have any ideas for lunch but saw Salt Water Creek on our drive up on Saturday and so we suggested meeting them there.  They were staying just over the border in North Carolina, in Sunset Beach.

Friends since high school

They spent 2009-2011 in China as missionaries.  I saw them over Christmas break but Stace has not seen them since Christmas 2008.  It was good to see them again, catch up, and (like them) just get away!

This is the odd assortment of merchandise we ended up with after our weekend in Myrtle Beach.  It's some sort of  "Coastal meets Christmas" mixed with "Packers and Pop" theme.  The Christmas albums (and blue, iron starfish) came from a vintage store we stopped at Sunday morning.  We also got some old-fashioned Coke bottles (from an old-fashioned Coke cooler, complete with the contraption on the side that pops the cap off) at a beach shop.  I had to get a couple matching Coke magnets as well, just to complete the experience.  Stace was hard to convince on those, but she gave up in the end. :)  I convinced her to get a couple magnets.  She convinced me to spend a couple days in Myrtle Beach.  That's how we roll.  It was good to get away, even if just for 24 hours.