Hello everyone! My wife and I made our annual pilgrimage to Myrtle Beach, SC yesterday for our week-long vacation. We checked into the Resort yesterday late (they are under new management and have changed the check-in time from from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM.... sigh), got settled, went grocery shopping, grabbed some dinner, and crashed. We'd been at it since 7:00 AM so we were pretty tired!

This morning we are heading to Tanger Outlets to do a little shopping. I should say that my wife is going to do some shopping.... she has a Coach coupon that expires today so she's on the hunt for a bargain. I would say something about her not needing another purse, since she already has 10+, but then she could say something about my 15 airplanes and three helicopters...

Anyway, please enjoy a few pictures from yesterday and this morning. I'll post a little later, as we're hitting the beach this afternoon and a home-made dinner in the room tonight!

We got up a little later than we wanted to today... slept surprisingly good for being in a strange bed. We didn't make it out to Nibil's for for breakfast so I hit the bagel shop and got our week-long supply of NY bagels. Yum! We hit Tangers' factory outlets after that, and Jen hit paydirt in the Coach store (see attached pics). A quick lunch at Seņor Frog's... yeah... the lunch at Seņor Frog's was definitely the low point of the day....

The staff was over-eager to please. I mean almost to the point of being a little creepy. "Just get the bigger drink! It's only $4 more!" "Can we take your picture?! You HAVE to sit in the chairs!" (see pic below). It was an exercise of "what else can we do to milk more money out of you?" Seņor Frog's is a fun atmosphere but jeez, our bill was $60 and that was before the tip! The food wasn't all that, it was overpriced, and for the money we paid for the two drinks we had (one each), the liquor bottles should have danced off the bar for us. There was hardly any liquor in the drinks and you'd think we'd bought the bottle for what they cost. Definitely not a repeat; wife was totally creeped out by the over-eagerness.

Anyway, we came back to the resort, and hit the beach for a couple of hours. It was late so it was much cooler than earlier in the day and much more pleasant. So now I sit in the room, sipping an adult beverage, listening to Sarah Bareilles, while waiting for the home-made Italian spaghetti sauce and meatballs to heat up (see pics). It's my family's generations-old recipe and Jen made it at home. More updates tomorrow!

Once we finished dinner last night, a storm rolled through and I had the opportunity to grab a few pics. It didn't really roll through... it sorta rolled around. Don't think it ever rained on us and the lightning never came directly overhead. I apologize that some of the pics are a bit blurry, but it was the best I could do with no tripod.

We're going to hit the beach this morning (assuming we ever get out of the room), grab some lunch here at the resort, catch a late-afternoon movie (think we're gonna see Splice... we're both sci-fi/horror fans), and have dinner at one of our favorite eateries at Broadway at the Beach. Off to go bake in the sun!

We went to Broadway at the Beach yesterday after laying on a beach for a few hours. It was HOT!! We didn't last long as it was close to 100F. The water was beautiful and I think we spent as much time in the ocean as we did on the beach!

We saw Splice at the Broadway theater. At first I was like "meh" but as the evening went on, I realized I liked it more than originally thought. The story was pretty good and it wasn't a gore-fest... the FX were great and like I said, it was a good story. What I didn't understand was all of the little kids in the theater... I mean I'm not all high-and-mighty or anything (who hasn't seen an R-rated movie when we were kids?), but it was rated R for a reason... nudity, blood, sex, adult themes, language, etc. I can't comprehend why a parent would bring a 7-year old into a movie like that. And it wasn't just one kid... there were a lot of young kids there.

Anyway, we went to Joe's Crab Shack afterwards and had a fantastic dinner. Jen got the biggest crab pot on the menu and the girl loves crab... she ate every bit! We walked around Broadway for a little while and parked ourselves at Fat Tuesday's for an after-dinner drink. We got back late and immediately crashed... it was a long, fun-filled day.

So now I sit, at 10:57 AM, waiting for Jen to get back from Wally World with more sunblock so we can hit the beach. We're supposed to go out to Shucker's Raw Oyster Bar tonight and Fat Tuesday's afterwards (my turn to not have to drive ) but we're a little blah today.... we may stay in tonight. Shucker's and Fat Tuesday isn't going anywhere, and if we stay in, this will give me a chance to get some aerial photography done.

Almost forgot... we woke up to news that there was an apartment fire right down the road. Thankfully no one was in the building so there was no one hurt. I realized the smoke I saw rising from the treeline was the apartment fire so I snapped a couple of pics. Check them out below.

We sat out on the beach for a good part of Tuesday afternoon. Despite all of the warnings of hot temperatures, it was actually quite pleasant on the beach. I think the mild breeze helped, because it was oppressively hot on Monday. The ocean was much calmer and the water temp was near-perfect.

At one point, one of the lifeguards held up his float device and called everyone out of the water, for about a 200-foot stretch of the beach. Being nosy, I grabbed my camera and walked up and down the beach and asked a few people what was going on; they said it was stingrays. I didn't see any but apparently there were enough that the lifeguards felt it necessary to call everyone out of the water.

There was a family near us constructing a sand castle... it was quite an operation so I snapped a few pics.

After we got cleaned up, we headed back to Broadway at the Beach (yes, again) and ate dinner at Shucker's Raw Oyster Bar. I like to go because of the atmosphere and cold beer, Jen goes for the steamed oysters. I can't eat shellfish cause I'm allergic so I'm limited to hushpuppies and chicken fingers. We played the Buzztime.com game there and Jen kicked my butt! We had a great time and headed to Fat Tuesday's to have a couple of after-dinner drinks. Tuesday night at Broadway is fireworks night and the place was packed. We got out of there before the fireworks started because we know from past experience the parking lot is a madhouse once the fireworks are over. We came back to the room and turned in early.

We're trying to decide what to do today (Wednesday). Shopping, early-bird special at Captain George's seafood buffet, and early evening beach time is what we're looking at today. As long as the predicted thunderstorms stay away, I'm hoping to finally get to fly the T-28 on the beach and get some aerial video with my keychain camera.

that last picture of you needs to be your avatar

Originally Posted by bstussie

that last picture of you needs to be your avatar

You're absolutely right... the picture says it all; we had a great time last night.

After breakfast, we hopped in the car and on the way to Market Commons, we stopped at Warbird Park (did someone say waaaaaaarbirds?!). Took a ton of pics and even had time to watch a few commercial planes and tourist helicopters take off. See pics below.

Once we left there, we went to Market Commons. It's a fairly new place here in Myrtle Beach. It's an open-air mall, with shops and plenty of places to eat. While it wasn't hot today, it's very, very humid and we were worn out in short order. We stopped at Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant for a small bite to eat... we wanted something light because we were heading to Captain George's Seafood Buffet for the "early-bird special" between 3-4 PM.

We shared a sampler appetizer that took forever to come out... it's not like they were busy... and the Kobe beef sliders came out wrong. We asked for them plain and they had pickles on them (yuck). The waitress mentioned to us that the Kobe sliders take the longest to make, but a new set of them came out very quickly. They were hot and delicious, but why did it take forever the first time?

Anyway, we left there and went to Broadway to kill some time before heading to Captain George's Seafood Buffet. As time went on, Jen's headache was getting worse - unfortunately starting to develop into a migraine. We both realized that due to the late lunch - even though it was a small amount of food - neither one of us felt up to a big late lunch/early dinner. So we came back to the resort and Jen's taking a nap, trying to stave off the headache before it worsens into a migraine. I decided to update the blog and post some pics from today.

If the weather holds up, we're gonna head to the beach around 6:00 PM for some cocktails and flying! I plan to take some aerial video with the keychain cam so check back later for some vids!

After chilling out in the room, and after Jen woke up from her nap, we packed the cooler and the T-28 and headed for the beach. The crowd was thin enough that I felt comfortable flying. Started the keychain camera and took off for about a 6-minue flight. It was a little hairy on landing but everything worked out fine. I have been trying to upload the in-flight video to YouTube all last night and most of this morning, but the Internet here at the resort sucks and it keeps timing out. Going to bring my laptop out with me today to see if I can find an WiFi hotspot and get the video uploaded.

Anyway, I felt much better after flying yesterday... it really perked me up. I think I hit my Grease Quotient much earlier in the week than I used to, as I just didn't feel good yesterday. The T-28 flight was just what the Dr. ordered. We went to Red Robin last night for dinner, and I didn't even get my onion rings or drink any beer. Had to save room for the chocolate milkshake....

We're going to hit the beach soon, as it's going to be another sweat-inducing humid day. We're also going to try to hit Captain George's again this afternoon, and hopefully have another round of early-evening flying if the weather cooperates.

Success! I finally got the first aerial video posted to YouTube. Please enjoy the video.

T-28 over Myrtle Beach, SC (6 min 8 sec)

great video mike... with as many people as I saw on the beach I thought you would be drafting the following letter:



Dear AMA,

while on vacation in Myrtle beach I needed to get my flying fix so I took the T-28 to the beach and clipped someone laying out on the beach.

Attached is the medical bill for the 5 stitches and emergency room bill.

Thanks
Mike



hahahahaha

Originally Posted by bstussie

great video mike... with as many people as I saw on the beach I thought you would be drafting the following letter:



Dear AMA,

while on vacation in Myrtle beach I needed to get my flying fix so I took the T-28 to the beach and clipped someone laying out on the beach.

Attached is the medical bill for the 5 stitches and emergency room bill.

Thanks
Mike


hahahahaha

Yeah, I thought about that.... I always think of that when I fly at the beach but I try to wait until 6:00 PM or so... the beach is a lot emptier then and if I ever had any problems I'd just ditch the airplane. Don't want to hurt anyone. Video was worth it though. The only problem I had is some kid ran across my 'runway' as I was making my final approach. You can see the kid run across right before I touched down. That's exactly the reason why I didn't bring the heli... too much liability.

Anyway, sorry for not updating the blog until now. On Thursday, we hit the beach earlier in the morning than usual. It wasn't really that hot, but boy was it humid! The water was beautiful and we baked on the beach for a couple of hours. We had packed a lunch and there's just something fun about eating lunch on the beach. We came back a bit early as we were going to try Captain George's Seafood Buffet. It's a good thing we came back when we did, because even though I slathered myself with SPF 30 sunblock several times, I got quite toasty from sitting in the sun. Just call me an out-of-shape lobster...

We went to Captain George's Seafood Buffet around 3:30 PM to catch the Early Bird Special ($5.00 off your bill). This was the largest buffet I have ever laid my eyes upon. There was every kind of crab, shrimp, scallop, etc., possible, as well as stuff for those who aren't crazy about seafood. Needless to say, we came out of there waddling like ducks.

It stormed like crazy while we were eating but by the time we got back to the resort - around 5:30 - the storm was over. We packed the cooler, I charged the T-28, and we headed to the beach for some late-day beach slugging. I flew the T-28 twice (got in-flight video the first flight) and had a rather "interesting" landing the 2nd flight due to the fact the beach suddenly got crowded and I came in too fast. Aside from the pilot ejecting, everything went fine.

Someone caught what I assume to be a shovel-nose shark while surf fishing. It was small, around 2-3 feet long, so I guess it was an adolescent. It drew quite the crowd as you don't always see someone hauling a shark out of the surf.

Finally, we went to The Quarterdeck (used to be Nassau Ned's) at the resort to catch some dinner around 9:00. It's an outdoor bar that serves your typical fare (such as fries, burgers, hot dogs, nachos, etc.) and it has a live band or DJ, depending on the night. It was packed last night and we could not get the attention of the waitress. We decided it probably wasn't worth the trouble so we went back to the room and ate leftovers.

I have pics and video of the T-28 flight, as well as pics of the shark. Since time is limited and we're trying to pack the car tonight before the crush of people tomorrow morning, I don't have time to post the pics. I will upload them once we get home on Saturday or Sunday.

Today we got up earlier than usual and went back to Tanger Outlet off Highway 17 to do some last-minute shopping... got some nice Tommy Hilfiger shirts (for work), some grill tools from the Gourmet Kitchen shop, and Jen got some dresses. That took most of the morning so we stopped at Broadway one last time to eat at Margaritaville and last-minute shopping. Margaritaville is always good and because we sat on the back patio, we sat down right away. Couldn't make up my mind about a sun hat for the flying field so I came away empty-handed.

Headed back to the resort around 3:30 and went down to the beach for a few hours. Storm clouds were coming in but we got lucky... it never rained on the beach and the lightning/thunder stayed miles away. You could barely hear it and because it was overcast, the temps were quite pleasant. That is, until a bolt of lighting hit VERY close to everyone! I was turned away, talking to Jen, and saw the flash of lightning on her, the sand, etc. I thought, "Damn, that was close" and as soon as the thought left my head... BOOM! The delay of the flash and the corresponding thunder put the lightning stroke about 1/4 mile away. That was enough to make everyone - ourselves included - call it a day and head back to the room.

So here I sit in the room, looking out over the balcony, watching the line of golf carts start to form at Ocean Lakes campground, with a full belly from pasta, meatballs, and beer, sad that my vacation is over and yet ready to be home at the same time. We're packing the car now so we can get a jump on the rush tomorrow since we have to be checked out by 10:00 AM. I will perform a final update, with videos and pictures, either tomorrow or Sunday.

We're home, safe and sound. We got up early, ate some breakfast, finished packing the car, and checked out of the resort aroune 9:30 AM Saturday. I'm very glad we took the time to pack as much as we could Friday night... carts were in short supply as I was looking for one most of the day (and evening) on Friday. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as we did. People were hoarding carts and while I didn't agree with it, we had to do the same thing - once we found one. If you didn't grab it and hold onto it, you didn't get one, simple as that. What really irritated me were people that had TWO carts... it was hard enough to find one, and it torqued me to see people with two carts. Your lazy ass can take more trips with one cart. I even asked someone with two carts (and nothing on them, I might add) if I can have one of his carts and he said, "No, sorry, still using them." How about you take a few more trips and book yourself some time on a Stairmaster, you lazy, inconsiderate jerk!

Anyway, since we had time to kill we went to the OTHER Tanger outlets on Highway 501 and yes, Jen bought herself another Coach purse. After that we headed to Barefoot Landing, did some last-minute shopping, (Jen got her Chakra stones at Black Markey Minerals, along with a very cool Himalaya salt lamp), and had lunch at California Pizza. I wanted one last love-affair with some ice cream so we stopped at Kohr's ice cream and got some so-so, VERY overpriced frozen custard. Interesting that they take cash only, an ATM just happens to be located at the cash register, and there are no prices posted anywhere in the store. We got two small cups of custard (one each) and the bill was $10-something. That will be the first and last time we stop there!

We headed to the car to leave for good and witnesed an accident right in front of Barfoot Landing just as it was happening. It was nothing more than a fender-bender (thankfully... no one was hurt) but the Isuzu Trooper fared MUCH worse than the van it hit. The van didn't seem to sustain any damage but the front of the Trooper was crushed/bent and steam was pouring out of the hood. Doesn't say much for the durability of an Isuzu Trooper, eh? It only takes a split-second of being inattentive to ruin your vacation.

We picked up the dog, stopped at my mother's house to drop off some goodies for her, and got home around 6:30 last night. Ate leftover Margaritaville, drank the last of the vacation beers to celebrate being home, and crashed. What a great trip!

So enjoy the last few pics and video, posted below. There was a young boy playing with a skimboard in the surf, and I decided to play around with the high-speed settings of the camera. Got some good action pics, and a side benefit was the nice scenery in a few of them, which I didn't realize until I looked at the pics today. Thanks very much for following my vacation blog!

T-28 over Myrtle Beach, SC video #2 (7 min 3 sec)

Nice to see Myrtle Beach is still doing great! Its been about 2 years since I have gotten to go. Nice pics of the thunder storm, there always seems to be a thunder storm every time I go at night.

Originally Posted by verticalspark

Nice to see Myrtle Beach is still doing great! Its been about 2 years since I have gotten to go. Nice pics of the thunder storm, there always seems to be a thunder storm every time I go at night.

Oh yeah, it's our favorite hangout. There's so much to do, and so much to see. We've been going for years and years on our big family vacation (since the mid 90's, actually) but my wife and I have recently been going just the two of us. We go in June and if money and time allows, we go for a long weekend in September.

I was hoping to get pics of the lightning over the ocean like I did last year, but I'm happy with what I got.