2014-04 Myrtle Beach Boardwalk, miniature golf and the skywheel

Myrtle Beach is a tourist mecca with over 15 million visitors a year. There's a large variety of attractions, including 60 miles of white sandy beach (the "Grand Strand"), 100+ golf courses (and more than 50 miniature golf courses!) hence the nickname "seaside golf capitol of the world", several nicely designed and posh shopping malls, the seafood capitol of South Carolina at Murrells Inlet Marshwalk, lots of entertainment and shows at the Carolina Opry, Alabama Theater, Legends in Concert, Medieval Times, Pirate's Voyage, Ripley's Aquarium, plus amusement parks and waterparks. Of course, we pretty much stick to outside entertainment most of the time, so we did not do much shopping or shows (can't do much shopping when you live in less than 300 square feet anyway).

While walking the boardwalk, we stopped in at The Bowery, where Alabama played their very first concert. Call me silly, but I thought their first show would have been in Alabama...? I do love this band, saw them in concert 3 times during my "country" years (maybe 30 years ago?). They founded the Alabama Theater at Barefoot Landing in 1993, where they kicked off their 40th anniversary tour last year.

When in Rome...well I suppose you gotta see the Vatican. But when in Myrtle Beach, you gotta golf. So we played a couple rounds of miniature golf (picked the courses based on TripAdvisor reviews) and had a blast at Hawaiian Rumble and Mount Atlanticus.

We enjoyed strolling the 1.2 mile Boardwalk where we took a ride on the Skywheel. At 187 feet, it is the second tallest extant ferris wheel in the US (1st is the Star Wheel in Dallas TX), and it is the tallest east of the Mississippi. The design is similar to the 175ft Seattle Great Wheel. It is very stable, no shakiness, I felt completely comfortable, and wow what a view!