North Carolina, Our Last Day, and More

We slept in again this morning. When we got up we hung out on the balcony again. We love spending time on the balcony. We sit out there and talk and enjoy the sights and sounds of the ocean. This morning was particularly nice because it was sunny and clear. 

We made omelets for breakfast. Alison and I have been working on our omelet making technique and we are getting pretty good. We had eggs, cheese, ham, spinach, green peppers and onions. Using these ingredients we made some tasty omelets. After we ate the clouds began rolling in. That was fine by us. We planned on to get out and do some driving today. We headed north up through North Myrtle Beach and into North Carolina.

Our first stop in North Carolina was Calabash. Calabash is known as the seafood capital of the world. It is famous for its own style of seafood - Calabash seafood. It is lightly fried. We decided to get lunch in Calabash. We went to Ella’s Seafood Restaurant. It was quite good. Alison and Dan both had flounder and shrimp, I had flounder and clam and Skylee had flounder and flounder. While the seafood was good, the hush puppies were unbelievable. They came in a large basket with a honey butter. Skylee particularly loved the hush puppies dipped in the honey butter. She told us she would dream about that honey butter. We shared two large baskets of hush puppies. 

After lunch we drove to Sunset Beach, North Carolina. I had read this was a nice beach area. When we got near the beach there were so many cars. Dan and Kristin decided to check it out before we got the kids out of the van. It was good they did because they found the beach was packed with large crowds of people. It turns out this is a favorite place for locals to visit on the weekend. We wouldn’t have been able to easily social distance and none of us felt good about that. We decided to pass on this beach.

Instead we got back into the car and drove back to the barefoot landing area of North Myrtle Beach. This is a marshy, lake area with boardwalks and lots of shopping. I wanted to visit this area to, hopefully see alligators. We walked around, did some shopping and looked for wildlife. While we did not see alligators we did see many turtles and some interesting birds. 

I liked this old-school carousel. It is very ornate. 

One of the shops at barefoot landing is owned by Doc Antle of Tiger King fame. His compound is located in the Myrtle Beach area. This location is a small storefront tucked into a strip mall. We walked by the storefront, mostly out of curiosity. It was closed, but even if it would have been open we would not have gone inside. This location offers photo packages, for a fee, with tiger cubs and monkeys. Just what we could see from the outside looked run down and inadequate for the animals they would bring to take pictures with tourists. While Doc Antle may claim their operation is to benefit animals their advertising focused almost exclusively on their personal Instagram accounts, which seemed to indicate it was really all about them (Doc Antle and crew). We walked with the impression that they are as bad as they appear to be on the Tiger King documentary.

When we were done at barefoot landing, we decided to head back to the hotel and visit the pool area. The pool is in an open air area overlooking the beach/ocean. It is a nice area. Once again there were few other people at the pool allowing us to easily social distance. Skylee made friends with a girl that looked eerily similar to her. They could have been sisters. Her friends name was, maybe, Claudia. Skylee played with her new friend the entire time we were at the pool. She got her address when we left so that they can be pen pals.

After spending time hanging out at the pool, Alison, Dan and I went down to spend some time on the beach for the last time during this trip. We floated in the ocean for 30 minutes. The waves were really big today. The deeper we went out into the ocean the gentler the waves felt. We went out to the point where we could just touch the bottom and floated. 

Back at the hotel we were getting hungry. We ordered dinner from BurgerFi. It is located a few blocks up from our hotel. We got burgers, fries, and shakes. They were good burgers. 

After dinner Alison and I headed down to sit on some chairs between the pool and the beach. All along the beach here there is a protected dune area, with grass and sand, between the hotels and the beach. We lounged near the dunes on some chairs provided by our hotel. I flew my drone and watched the sunset behind the Grand Strand area. It was beautiful.

After the sun went down Alison and I headed back to the hotel room. Dan and Skylee were watching the World’s Toughest Race on Amazon. Kristin was working on homework on the balcony. We joined Kristin for a while before catching some of the race with Dan and Skylee. Holly decided she wouldn’t go to bed and wanted to hang out with all of us. Right before we were going to bed Skylee pulled out one of her teeth. She was so excited.

 

Alison and I woke up early the next day and walked along the beach during sunrise. There were thick clouds so it wasn’t much of a sunrise, but it was fun to be out on the beach. We soaked in those final moments. 

Back at the hotel we spent our last minutes sitting out on our balcony. We absolutely loved the balcony. It was our favorite thing about the hotel room. Then we made pancakes for breakfast and packed our bags. We headed to the airport and came home. 

Honestly, this Myrtle Beach vacation was even better than I could have imagined. There were a couple of concerns we had going into the trip turned out weren't really concerns. 

We were concerned about Covid-19. Even though Horry County is in relatively good shape, there was a question about whether or not this trip was a good idea. Now that we are home I can say I have no concerns about our trip. We were able to social distance in every activity. In fact, we had less contact with people we didn’t know and were more cautious than at home. We didn't have close contact with anyone outside our group. It is unlikely we picked up or spread the virus on this trip. 

The weather was another concern. Before we left it showed a high (50-60%) probability of rain every day. This was more concerning because it showed rain during large chunks of the day. We read this is typical of Myrtle Beach and that even though it showed rain there was a good chance it wouldn’t actually rain this time of year. Still it is hard to know for sure and we were worried. We didn't want to end up sitting in the hotel all day because it was raining. Turns out the reviews were read were correct. We had ideal weather on this trip. It was mostly sunny and between 70-82 all day every day. It rained a little bit but not enough to materially impact our trip. 

We got exactly what we hoped for from this trip, and more. We had lots of time playing the water and enjoying the sun. We also spent time relaxing. The hotel was luxurious, the seafood was tasty, and the beach was beautiful. I would highly recommend a visit to the Grand Strand. We will definitely visit again.