Myrtle Beach and Sunset Beach

9/16/2010

Road to Myrtle Beach

On the way to Myrtle we stopped at Sunset.. After crossing a wooden bridge on a swamp, we passed 20 white beach houses to find a 2-car parking lot (1 taken) and a sand path through the grass. On the other side was a quiet beach, covered with soft white sand and 70-degree breeze. We stayed to share the warm water with 10-12 people, and lying out to dry the salty skin.

The drive from Sunset to Myrtle was covered with discount stores ("Nothing over $5.99!! (in selected section)"), crab shacks ("I got crabs from Dirty Dick's"), adventure theme mini-golf joints with enormous pirate and sealife displays, and pancake houses.

Myrtle Beach is the place you get emails about, with $29 hotels and $89 roundtrip flights. Unsurprisingly, it looks like Miami, with a wall of hotels protecting the public beach from gawking families packed into domestic sedans with VA, NC, and SC plates. Our first thought was to get out and backtrack to the beautiful and deserted Sunset Beach, but the low rates and the oceanfront rooms drew us in to stay for the night.

9/17/2010-9/18-2010

More Sunset Beach

Nevertheless, we got the heck out in the morning and drove right back to Sunset Beach past the same discount stores and mini-golf mini-courses. Of all the pancake houses along the way we decided to go with the most obvious choice -- Plantation House of Pancakes. Aside from the preppiest male host I've ever seen, we were the only ones younger than 50 and weighing less than 220lbs. That's how they knew we were not locals. Well, that and the lack of the local tan and accent. South Carolina is truly the deepest south there is, y'all.

After ordering coffee, Abby noticed that the creamer, although in the familiar plastic cups, contains no dairy. This discovery began our search for real food in this joint. The Plantation House of Pancakes does not carry butter; instead, guests are offered '52% Vegetable Spread.' Although it was reassuring to know that the majority of that spread has been identified, the rest of the ingredients were unclear. We continued our search for food by ordering strawberries on the pancakes. By the time they reached our table, the 4 strawberries were maraschino'd in a thick layer of cough-syrup flavor glaze. The last feat of chemistry was the intractable coffee: no matter how much milk (real 2%, served upon a special request) Abby poured into the thing, it remained black. I made it; but Shova required crackers later on the road.

We finally made it back to Sunset Beach to enjoy another heavenly afternoon, with perfect temperature (much cooler than Myrtle for some reason), tall green waves (one of us body-surfed with a child's body-board), and soft sun and sand. Couldn't help but notice 4-5 guys fishing right where we were swimming. I did not believe that there were any fish in those shallow sandy waters. We talked to one and he showed us his loot: an average-size edible fish of some sort and a throwaway: a small shark, teeth intact. Spent the rest of our time on the towels.