Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Myrtle Beach, SC
Travel Articles
September 2005

We escaped with two great friends to Myrtle Beach on Labor Day Monday, 2005. Our friends work at a Resort and needed a break after the busy summer. We left Beaufort around ten in the morning and sat back to enjoy the ride. Route 17 is a lovely road heading toward Charleston surrounded by marshes, sea grasses and native animals. We planned to stop in Georgetown SC for lunch. I have written about Georgetown before. It is a lovely small town gem with great southern food and no pretensions. We love the River Room overlooking the water and town marina. We were delighted with the seafood linguini in hollandaise sauce, chicken Caesar salad, Clam Chowder and tuna salad sandwich. The atmosphere was so welcoming and the Marina view so wonderful we all relaxed and looked forward to Myrtle Beach.

We continued on our way to Myrtle Beach again surrounded by rustic southern landscape in the Pawley's Island community, Murrels Inlet and Surfside Beach. We arrived at our oceanfront condo around two o'clock and settled in after our ride. All the condos have balconies facing the ocean on an angle. It was a gorgeous 85-degree day, with an ocean breeze and no humidity. Our plan was to go to the fabulous Sea Captain's House for dinner.

The next morning we had business to take care of for a couple of hours and our friends enjoyed a slow morning of walking on the beach. We returned around lunchtime and headed off to the winery, La Belle Ami another of our favorites from the first visit. Its location in Little River, across the Inter Coastal Waterway is more rural and the winery is lovely. We were a week too early for the harvest festival but harvest was imminent and the lovely vines showed it. We walked through the unique wine store finding several treasures. The different condiment sauces with their generous samplings were a hit for all. The tasting bar was full the entire time so we left to find lunch. This lovely little must see winery offers a series of monthly festivals and the schedule is available on their site. www.LaBelleAmi.com  I can't wait to go back for one of these festivals, so maybe you'll see me at Blues and Jazz in April 2006.

For dinner we decided to try the Mad Boar Brewery at Barefoot Landing North Myrtle Beach. Sadly when we arrived it was closed. Barefoot Landing is another retail area built around and on water. There is also Barefoot Resort and Golf courses. Nearby was House Of Blues so we decided to try it. We received a warm country greeting from the Hostess, our server Will, who did an excellent job, and the incredible food, which came next. I was still full from lunch so decided to go for two skillet side dishes of rosemary cornbread with maple butter and macaroni and cheese. Sounded cool to me. My side dishes came out the size of an entire meal! The others enjoyed Gumbo with Bayou Heat hot sauce, Southwestern shrimp salad and white bean soup. We had a great ole time. House of Blues has a concert schedule so check it out. Dolly Parton's concert is sold out on Sept 15 and John Mayar's performance Oct 1 is also sold out. Check out the schedule at www.hob.com.


Next we were heading to see Tribute The Concert a Calvin Gilmore Production. Our seats were great and we were curious as to just how this show might be presented. The show information read, Tribute! In North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina is Calvin Gilmore's new all live stage show featuring the world's top tribute artists portraying your favorite stars of yesterday and today, backed up by the Tribute Band and Dancers. In each show six different acts capture perfectly the unique voice and the presence of the-celebrity each portrays. With every note, every gesture and every nuance, these artists re-create the magic of the great concerts you might have missed, in an evening of pure energy and excitement.

As the announcer welcomed us to the show and announced the first Tribute artist, Garth Brooks the large screens on each side of the stage came to life with images of Garth Brooks live and intermixing with the tribute artist live. Throughout each performance these screens would show either the performer himself or actual footage of a concert or photos from his life. This blending of performances allowed the audience to see just how much these Tribute artists had mastered the mannerisms of the stars. It was very well produced with excellent choreography, costumes, and a great band. We found ourselves caught up in it all and were thoroughly entertained. Calvin Gilmore presented the show in such an intelligent refreshing manner. It was a fun evening. The next day we would head back to Beaufort, go back to work and the awful reality of Katrina once more but for two days and nights our minds were clear, our bodies very well fed and our friendship much closer to the heart.

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