Myrtle Beach 2009

Giant black hat - purchased at Talbot's for $7.

One of my favorite parts of the movie, Shag, is when Pudge, Carson, LouAnn, and Melana FINALLY get to Ocean Boulevard (aka, the strip) and they are just looking around awestruck and they pass by the Pavilion and LouAnn remarks, "There's the Pavilion, Pudge!" Since the movie was actually shot in Myrtle Beach, there is, of course, a shot of the old wooden rickety roller coaster that graced the Pavilion since my mom was a kid.

Last week was the first time I had seen the Pavilion site since the park has been torn down. News flash - it's really really gone. Yes, it was just a large carnival, full of scary rednecks, dirt, bad food, and peace frog t-shirts. But it was also a huge part of not only my childhood, but my parents' as well. I overcame my fear of the pirate ship ride there with my mom. And my cousin puked on the Caterpillar ride. And my dad would always make scary noises in the haunted house. And when you rode the Rainbow, you could see the ocean's waves crashing on the shore from the very top of the ride before it swooped down, leaving your tummy at the top. To say that I miss that old place, tackiness and all, is an understatement.

Myrtle Beach has both changed and stayed the same. You can still see all the old '60's era "no tell motels", but a lot of the really skank ones have been torn down. There is no longer a board walk in front of the old Pavilion site. The food and choice of restaurants, however, has gotten even larger. Let me just tell y'all this - when hubby and I are on vacation, we eat out. A lot. And when we're on the coast, we eat seafood in copious amounts.

Our culinary week started with a visit to a community north of Cherry Grove - Calabash, NC, home of both calabash style seafood and St. Nick Nack's, one of the biggest Christmas stores I've ever been in. Calabash is a fun little place, full of restaurants that have been around since the '40's, most located on the waterfront with the fishing boats in plain view. And my dessert that night was a visit to St. Nick Nack's, where (as my mama taught me), I had to buy a Christmas ornament to commemorate our 2009 vacation. It took quite a while and I think my dear hubby was getting indigestion from both the hushpuppies and the Christmas carols being played well before Halloween.

We also ate at the largest buffet I've ever been to - the Original Captain Benjamin's, which was complete with a pirate to open the door for us and say "Ahoy matey!" Yes, that really happened. The all you can eat crab legs made up for the corniness of the pirate. If there's anything that is near and dear to my heart, it is all you can eat crab legs. It really becomes a treasure hunt (in keeping with the pirate theme of the night) to get the crab meat out of the shell. I think of it as exercising while I'm eating.

Our final seafood restaurant was on the last night and was the most hole in the wall place I could have imagined - Duffy's Seafood Shack. But I kid you not, that was the best flounder I have ever had and I'm sure that their steamed oysters were amazing, but unfortunately, I didn't get to try them.

I can't believe I just wrote a whole post on food. No wonder I feel fat.