The Other Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach is a big tourist town. But there’s another side to it if you look hard enough.

Is it wrong to avoid the tourist stuff in a tourist town?  These beach towns count on your out-of-state money to keep their city running smoothly. But if you look around there’s plenty of free things to do. Call me stingy, but my Shopping Mode just didn’t activate this trip.

We came to Myrtle Beach primarily to spend time with family. Free fun doesn’t get much better than that!

The early April weather was a bit nippy, but that didn’t stop me from going to the shore every day. Hey, if I’m gonna drive two and half days to get to the ocean, I’m walking the beach!

There are wonderful nature walks along the estuaries and waterways in North Myrtle Beach. Vereen Gardens was a lovely surprise. It had long boardwalks through the marshes and the inland azaleas were in bloom.

We camped at Briarcliffe Resort, where I tried out my new-fangled charcoal grill – the Everdure Cube. It’s a clever design that keeps the wind away from the coals, and it’s cool enough on the bottom it can be set on a picnic table.

We did indulge in touristy stuff by eating our weight in seafood – a must whenever we’re near the ocean. Myrtle Beach has a thousand great restaurants, including All-You-Dare-To-Eat seafood buffets and a dizzying number of pancake joints.

Next was Heritage Shores Nature Preserve to walk off all that food! This spot is a protected parcel of estuary marshland smack in the middle of pricey waterfront condo developments. We saw snowy egrets and the muddy oyster bed towers.

A few more strolls on the beach, and then it was time to head home.

Enjoyed the trip. Great to see family. Ate a lot of seafood, and didn’t waste much money on tourist stuff.
A perfect spring break!