Travel Diary		November 17, 2002 Myrtle Beach, SC < Previous     Next > Myrtle Beach has continued to be a lot of fun. This is the longest we've been parked (9 nights) since we left Seattle back in September, and it's been nice to settle down a bit. The local folks have all been very friendly. It seems to us that they enjoy this off-season time of year which must be much less busy than the spring and early fall high-season. In any case, we've enjoyed being in a place that has almost everything we like in a town: excellent food, big movie theaters for rainy days, lots of beaches and golf for sunny days, excellent food, and plenty of services (we got the oil changed in the Jeep). The only thing missing was a Starbucks. Of course, even with the rain, it's been pretty easy to enjoy living in Myrtle Beach with the swanky beach front property we've had. Here's a picture that shows how far we were from the stairs to the beach. The water's edge was about the same distance as our walk to the stairs. This past weekend was interesting. Out campground hosted the annual Heart Association Horse Walk-a-thon. Starting last Thursday, our campground became home to several hundred horses. The forecast was for nearly 1000, but we think the weather kept that number down. In any case, there were plenty of horses of all shapes and sizes. The goal was to raise more than $100,000 for the Heart Association by a trail ride on the beach. Unfortunately, it was raining on the day of the ride, so we're not sure how it went. The day before, however, we were able to get a couple of pictures of what life on the beach was like -- with horses. One of our favorite parts about Myrtle Beach has been the food. Shrimp and flounder are both local delicacies and we've eaten a fair amount of them both. One restaurant had a seafood sampler that included a flounder fillet, oysters, scallops, shrimp, a devilled crab, and a lobster tail. Not all local, but all delicious. We have also enjoyed the baskets of steamed shrimp at a place called Shucker's Raw Bar. Shrimp seem to be a very plentiful local crop -- almost as plentiful as the lobster in New England. We're told that making them at home is easy: 1 cup of water, 1 cup distilled white vinegar, as much Old Bay seasoning as you can handle. (Old Bay is a common seasoning used on the east coast -- it's pretty spicy when used in any interesting quantity.) Bring the liquid to a boil and throw in the shrimp (we ate about a pound and a half as a meal). Boil uncovered for 2 minutes, stir, then boil another 5 minutes covered. Drain, peel, and eat! We haven't tried making our own shrimp yet, but we can attest that the shrimp at Shucker's (where we were told this recipe) are delicious. On the couple of days that it wasn't raining, we did (finally) break out our golf clubs. We spent some time at a nearby driving range, and then took a lesson. After learning about how golf-club technology has changed in the last 15 years, we both took the opportunity to improve some of the equipment in our golf bags. In fact, Pete even replaced his golf bag. Most impressive is Pete's new driver which is of the extra-large titanium variety. The instructor who gave our lesson fitted Pete and made it custom for him. We're headed to Atlanta for Thanksgiving with Pete's Dad, and hope that the weather will dry out a bit so we can put our new golf gear into regular use. << Back to Travel Diary < Previous     Next >