Myrtle Beach - Looking for My Lost Shaker of Salt

Wednesday we left our home base and headed for Myrtle Beach SC. Myrtle Beach is an old time resort town on the ocean that reminded us of Las Vegas without the casinos. It seemed like every block contained a beachwear store offering swimwear at discount prices and miniature golf. We saw at least a dozen miniature golf places that looked like theme parks. We saw pirate ship ones, dinosaur ones, and even one called SOS with a real plane crashing into it. The neon and the billboards were everywhere. One thing we noticed was the height of the signs. In Oregon most signs seem to be the height of a 2 story building, I am sure due to our regulations. In South Carolina these signs go up 5 or 6 stories. We stayed at The Reef, and older, but updated, hotel right on the beach. Our 6th floor room gave us an amazing view of the ocean. We are still adjusting to the Atlantic Ocean. What is ironic is the number of times that we have been to the Oregon Coast around sunset and having it obscured by the clouds, or fog. Here we are at the Atlantic and having beautiful clear evenings and there is no sunset. The concept of viewing a sunrise does not interest us that much as we have seen the sun rise over Mt. Hood while driving over the Marquam Bridge way too many times. Ron did wake up one morning and take some pictures of the sunrise.
Before checking into our hotel we needed to get a bite of lunch, so what better place than the Hard Rock Café. Although there are many places with better food, we enjoy the ambiance that takes us back to our younger years. It also allows us an opportunity to visit the store and add to our growing pile of stuff. We are going to be sending stuff home since we overpacked from the beginning.
After touring Celebrity Square at Broadway on the Beach, we decided a light dinner was in order. We decided on Margaritaville of Jimmy Buffet fame. Although not qualifying of that odd American specie know as the “Parrotthead”, we have been Buffet fans since the early 70s. Margaritaville is quite an experience, and something to try if you have the chance. We decided to split a nacho since any sort of Mexican food has been in short supply on this trip. A clue should have been the Volcano Nacho name on the menu. We could have had this for a family holiday dinner and still had some left over. This thing was the size of a large pot roast. We waged a good fight but could not even finish half of it. Again we closed out a meal with a visit to the gift shop.
We had a great time wandering around Myrtle Beach and even tried our first breakfast at a Waffle House restaurant there. It is another place on our trip that would be nice to visit an d explore more completely in the future. The winter rates are great, but not everything is open during this time.