A Week at North Myrtle Beach ~ Our Vacation

We spent last week at North Myrtle Beach sitting by a pool, watching the ocean, and basically nothing else. It was awesome! 

 

If you know me personally or have followed me online any length of time you probably know that David and usually vacation in New Orleans a couple of times a year. For the past decade we have spent 10 or 11 days at a time there in both April and October. It’s “our” city and we love it there.

 

So how did we end up in North Myrtle Beach instead? Well, it’s like this…

 

We have a time share with Wyndham Resorts. We initially bought our time share in Branson, Missouri when our kids were young. It was a fun place for family vacations and only about 6 hours away. Then we bought more time in New Orleans in August of 2005. Does that date ring any bells? Yep, we bought additional time at a new resort in New Orleans about 3 days before Hurricane Katrina hit. The resort hadn’t been built yet and needless to say, construction was significantly delayed. Eventually it was completed and that’s where we have enjoyed many vacations in the years since.

For several years following Hurricane Katrina, tourism wasn’t quite what it had been so it was easy to get reservations. That is no longer the case. We now have to book our condo close to a year in advance. And guess what we forgot to do last year?

So we considered our options. We thought about taking a train trip. We both love trains and that would have been very cool. However, the package deals weren’t exactly what we wanted to do and we simply didn’t have time to work out a complicated itinerary.

David began looking at other Wyndham resorts where we would be able to use our timeshare points. He was doing this in spare moments at work and when he mentioned North Myrtle Beach I thought that sounded fine. We both grew up in Southern California so we are, of course, quite familiar with Pacific coast beaches. My aunt has a beach house in Dana Point which she has generously lent us on several occasions. However, neither of us had ever been to an Atlantic coast beach. Plus, I’ve always wanted to see Charleston and it’s within reasonable driving distance.

And quite honestly, we just needed to make a decision!

 

This turned out to be a perfect vacation for us. We were both utterly exhausted and while New Orleans is a HUGE amount of fun, we usually come back way more tired than when we left. This time we simply needed to rest.

We strolled the beach:

 

We walked the nearby pier at Cherry Grove:

 

We enjoyed the resort amenities and the view from our balcony on the 15th floor:

 

We had a fabulous dinner at Joe’s Bar and Grill:

 

We did a day trip to Charleston where we had a delicious lunch and then took a carriage ride, admiring all the stunning architecture:

 

I read a lot and enjoyed a few adult beverages:

 

David spent a LOT of time in the lazy river:

 

I kept a close watch on him from my lounge chair:

 

We rented a golf cart for the week and had a blast driving around trying to pick out a beach house in case we win the lottery someday. Mostly, however, we got some major R&R. It was really hard to leave and we are already planning our next visit. Maybe we’ll even learn how to take a decent selfie by then!