Weekend at Myrtle Beach

Our old neighbors and good friends, Tom and Karen, invited us for a weekend at Myrtle Beach. As it would be my first time there (I’d only driven through on my way home from Hilton Head last summer) I had no idea what to expect. Conversely, Tom was really looking forward to going to an old bar he went to 12 years ago during Spring Break.

We had a great time! On the way down, we stopped in Wilmington to eat at Carrabas, one of my favorite Italian places. Once we got there, we decided to hit Tom’s old bar, Mother Fletcher’s. It was WAAAY on the other side of town, so it was quite a hike—but that’s what he really wanted to do. All the way there, he kept saying “Wow, this is new. Wow, look at that. This wasn’t here before. This area has really grown.” And we just kept reminding him it was TWELVE years ago he was here! So we finally get to the bar, and…IT WAS CLOSED DOWN! Oh, did we have a good laugh over that. Well, poor Tom didn’t, but we certainly did! (I googled it when I got home, and I could find no reason for the closure.) So it was off to Broadway at the Beach to hit a bar. We ended up at Crocodile Rocks, a dueling piano bar…where we had to pay a $7 cover because we weren’t locals (argh!)…and it was soooooo crowded we could never even see the pianos! Of course, the boys decided they wanted to drink, so we spent way more money that night than we anticipated! After that, it was time for sleep so we headed back to the hotel!

The next morning, it was a bit chilly and overcast (probably 60-65) so that was somewhat disappointing—it had been 75-80 the past week at home! We decided to check out the outlet mall nearby…which led to almost an entire day of outlet-mall-shopping! We hit two separate malls, Tom got some new clothes (all on sale, of course!), and I got a few things. I really wanted to hit the QVC Outlet just to see what they had, but by the time we were driving by, we were on a mission for lunch.

Lunch was at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville at Broadway at the Beach. The food was good, although I always have a hard time paying $10 for a burger. But the margaritas were yummilicious…so yummilicious, in fact, that I had two (and just like that, I blew all my low-carb plans). And the Volcano Nachos were really quite good. And so was the Crab and Corn Chowder… After lunch, we walked around the entire Broadway at the Beach—a bunch of shops and restaurants and bars around a lake (click here to see the property map if you didn’t check it out above). We all made some small purchases and just had a fun time gallivanting. But, soon we were exhausted so we headed back to the hotel so we could all take a nap. We thought, how pathetic we are…exhausted at 6pm and wanting to sleep! All we did all day was shop and eat! So we agreed to lay down for 20 minutes. Three hours later, we finally all got up. None of us were really that hungry (we finished lunch around 2), so we thought we’d go out for appetizers and dessert. No one could decide where to go, so I made the decision: Rossi’s. My boss had suggested it so I figured it had to be good. Well, it was good. And fancy. And expensive. Which wouldn’t have been a big deal, had we not already spent a TON of money on food. So we ate cheaply and discovered we were hungrier than we thought we’d been… and all enjoyed really great desserts (we all wanted something different: Karen—Key Lime Pie, Tom T—Cannoli, Tom H—Tiramisu, me—Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake). By this time, it was after 11, so we decided to just go back to the hotel!

But first, we had to take some group shots—we had brought our camera, but hadn’t carried it around all day (so we missed some great shots, of course).