Myrtle Beach Vacation-Part 4: Grand Strand Attractions

Myrtle Beach reminded me a lot of the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area. But its the beach instead of the mountains that attracts visitors. 

In addition to beach activities, the entire town is filled with amusements, entertainment, and dining opportunities designed, mostly, for families. 

We took in several of those attractions. I want to share those experiences with you. This will make for a pretty long post but I hope you will enjoy my recollections. 

On the Monday of our stay we decided to go to an area called "Broadway On The Beach."

This expansive venue takes up 7 blocks between 21st and 28th avenues just off Rt. 17. 

Our main reason for going there was to watch the recently released Marvel Avengers: Infinity War in their 16 screen theater.  

Because of the where the parking, in back of the buildings, we had a bit of trouble finding the the place. When we finally did it, was very close to the starting time. 

We had a bit of a problem with a Coke Freestyle machine before we went into the movie. But once we got into the theater and the film started everything turned out okay. 

After the movie we walked down from the theater across a bridge over the lake. We were both hungry and decided to go to Paula Deen's restaurant for a late lunch. 

Having been to Deen's restaurant in Pigeon Forge a couple of times, we knew what to expect. 

The interior of the building was exactly like the one in the Smokies: a retail store on the first floor and the restaurant on the 2nd. The food was okay but a couple of the entrees were disappointing. On a 1-5 scale I'd give the experience a 2.5. 

Because we were still tired from our couple of days of traveling we didn't do much of anything else in the area. We did take a selfie with Paula Deen's in the distant background. 

We left that day with the intention of going back but we never did.  

On Tuesday evening we took in a dinner show. If you've been reading this series you can probably guess which one it was: The Pirate Voyage Dinner Show. 

Our experience didn't start out very well. We arrived late for the preshow and there wasn't any place for us to sit and watch it. I was not pleased. 

But as you can see from this picture once we got into our seats for the show I was smiling. 

The menu was the same as it is at any other Dolly Parton owned show and it was pretty good. 

I liked this one a lot better than the Smokey Mountain Adventure show we saw in Pigeon Forge last September. 

The set was a lot more immersing. 

It had some pretty cool special effects. 

The story were very well paced. There was action all over. The water tank, ship sets, ropes, platforms, and runways were all involved in the show; sometimes at once.  

  
The only thing I found lacking was humor. There wasn't really any comic relief element to it. The whimsy of the trained sea lion was amusing but not funny enough. I like having all that action but there needed to be some laughs along the way too. 

On Wednesday, we went to the attractions area of the Myrtle Beach boardwalk promenade. The area encompasses 3 blocks along Oceanfront Blvd that's reminds me of the parkway through Gatlinburg than any place in town. Along the street is the touristy area filled with attractions, amusements, and shopping. 

Walk a half a block closer to the beach and you will find yourself along the boardwalk promenade. 

  
This area has the feel of a Jersey shore boardwalk. It's not upscale by any means but it is entertaining. There's your usual mix of t-shirt shops, arcades, snack food places, sit down restaurants and bars. 

We went into an arcade called "Fun Plaza". It was quite large arcade with both boardwalk and Oceanfront Blvd entrances. Just about every kind of arcade game you can think of was there. 

Paula found a replica of one our son's favorite characters from back when he was a kid. She took a picture and sent it to James.

 We played Skee Ball and video Yatzee but the thing that we'll always remember from this arcade is the old time baseball game. 

One wall of the place was lined with these old fashioned pinball type games. I remember playing these at the Bushkill Park arcade when I was growing up. 

Using marble sized metal balls, a spring-loaded pivoting bat, and ramps that represent hits and or outs you played a simulated 3 inning game for a quarter. 

I started playing one and did pretty good but not great. Then my wife decided that she wanted to try it. She killed it; scoring 20 runs or more in most her games. As competitive as she is, she didn't hesitate to claim bragging rights for the rest of the trip. 

Eventually, we turned in the coupons we earned in for a couple of toys for my granddaughter including some finger cuffs. 

The day was getting a bit warm so we decided to stop in a sports bar called "Moe's on the Boardwalk."

We each got a drink and shared a soft pretzel with cheese dip. Paula's drink had a little umbrella in it. 

The last thing I did on the boardwalk was one of my favorite things about entire vacation. I took a ride on The SkyWheel. 

Riding this attraction was a lot of fun. Paula, who isn't a fan of Ferris wheels, stayed at Moe's while I went to ride. 

I took this shot from the wheel. You can't see her but she's sitting at at the table inside the window just behind the double palm tree and last umbrella near the center. 

This wheel is the same size as the one I rode in Orlando in 2016, 400 ft. high. You get to go 4 times around. This one was a lot better than Florida though because there were things to see. Here are a couple of still shots I took while riding. 

I shot a couple of videos while riding as well. They are on my You Tube channel. Here are the links:
Myrtle Beach Sky Wheel Pt 1.

Myrtle Beach Sky Wheel Pt. 2


So there you have the attractions that my wife and I visited during our vacation. 

I know this has been a long post but there was a lot to write about. Here's a bit of a preview of what my next post is going to be about. 

Although we didn't spend a whole lot of time at the beach compared to last year's trip to Destin, we did spend a considerable amount of time walking the surf collecting shells. 

In doing so we experienced something for the very first time, a sight seeing tour aboard a boat. 

More on that in the next and final installment in this series. 

Myrtle Beach Vacation-Part 3: Setting The Scene

The last couple of posts were chronological accounts of the first couple of days of our vacation.

Rather than continue to go with a "day by day" recounting, the remainder of the entries in this series are going to focus specific activities we enjoyed over the course of the week.  

But first, there are some elements I need to share with you which were important factors throughout our time in South Carolina. 

Myrtle Beach is at the center of larger tourist area called "The Grand Strand". It covers two-counties (Horry & Georgetown). It is bordered by North Myrtle Beach, obviously, to the north and Georgetown to the south. 

There are about a dozen communities within that span. Each of them have a variety of restaurants, hotels, resorts and businesses that cater to families, and beach lovers. During our stay we visited places throughout the Grand Strand. 

Unfortunately, our visit was right at the same time as one of the Grand Strands' biggest drawls. It was "Bike Week"; a semi-annual event that brings lots of business to the area. 

Motorcycles, most with both a driver and a rider, were all over the place the entire week. This made the restaurants, attractions, and the roadways crowded during our entire stay. We didn't really have any problem with them, but just the potential for issues was an underlying concern for me all week. 

The third factor, we realized just moments after we checked into our resort. As we were unloading our car, a commercial passenger jet flew directly over our building. The noise was extremely loud. The hotel was directly in the take off path of the Myrtle Beach International Airport just 2.5 miles away. 

A variety of aircraft ranging from a single engine prop plane to large multi-jet airliners would randomly depart throughout the day. Luckily it was mostly during "normal" hours and tailed off around early evening. But in the morning they would shake our hotel room and drown out sound of the ocean while we were on the beach. 

But without a doubt, the one element that made the difference on the enjoyment side of of our vacation ledger was the our hotel room. The view from room 532 in the Palmetto building of the Double Tree Oceanside resort was amazing. 

Here's a still shot and a video of what we saw every time we looked out from the balcony. 

In addition to the view it gave us, it was only a 5-10 minute walk to the beach. 

Just below us was the resort's lazy river.

A quick trek across the "river" area and it was a 100 yards or so to the waves. This pic with our balcony railing in the foreground will give you an idea of what I mean.

With those things covered let me get into the best part of our vacation: spending time at the beach. But that's for the next post. 

In the meantime, let me whet your appetite with a video of what served as the atmosphere for our first morning in Myrtle Beach. Enjoy and I'll see you next time.