Most impressions of Myrtle Beach are of large resort hotels and RV resorts. However, in the middle of this extremely commercial tourist area is a true gem known as Myrtle Beach State Park. The park has a beautiful beach, picnic shelters, nature center, fishing pier, and roomy wooded campsites. It’s a forest campground in the middle of a city.

We enjoyed doing our morning walks on the beach and walking to the nearby Market Common, a planned community built on the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base.

A local group, the GTS Theater, presents a performance called the Motown Tribute. Having lived in the Detroit area, we had to check it out. I wouldn’t say it was Broadway quality, but we enjoyed it.

Our daughter, Elisabeth, and her cat, Cinder, joined us on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We did Christmas shopping and planning for the Thanksgiving dinner. Pat baked a beautiful Thanksgiving turkey with all the trimmings – dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and apple pie. What a feast! We enjoyed the leftover meals almost as much as the original dinner.

It may have been November, but we had nice weather for an afternoon on the beach.

On our last night in town, Elisabeth drove us to North Myrtle Beach for their annual drive-through Lightshow. It was great and I shot pictures by standing in the sunroof of her car.

Sunday morning we were packed up and while Elisabeth drove back to Raleigh, we began our two-day drive to Jacksonville, FL and Mayport Naval Base.