Myrtle Beach / Charleston: Labor Day Interlude

Hied off to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina over the Labor Day weekend. Been a long time coming so expected a lot.

Notes:
- Beach was not bad. Sand wasn't white but powdery. Lots of seaweed though and water not blue, and tide too strong.... In retrospect, it was not good-- would not hold a candle to Boracay.
- Sidetrip to Charleston. Nice! The city has done a great job preserving and restoring the old Southern houses. We took a ferry out to Fort Sumter and learned about the Civil War.
- Indulged in seafood. Sweet, sweet iced tea (none of that Splenda crap). Yum!
- They were kidding about the bugs in the South. Our 4WD terrain tour through a Civil War era plantation was interrupted by a giant spider crawling on the ceiling of the jeep. We saw lots more in the nature trek that followed. Cathy freaked but I was ready to swat with my stack of brochures but the guide beat me to it.
- Came (close) to an alligator as part of the swamp boat ride. OK that's exaggerating given that gator was at least 20 feet away and hiding, but no gates separated us from the eight-foot critter. I wasn't so confident my brochures would do well against this one.
- Our bedroom had a whirlpool tub inside. As in, steps from the bed itself, and not in the bathroom. An interesting choice, certainly, but kinda bordered on tacky.

All in all, an interesting trip: Very different from our usual big city trips and our first beach outing (not counting Galveston and Fort Lauderdale). The comparisons to Philippine beaches aside, it was good to see sun and surf again. Next year: Hawaii!