My momorable mention for yesterday goes to my good old hometown of Myrtle Beach. I was reading threads in an online community and someone was asking about places to stay and things to go. One of those responding talked about how Myrtle Beach was so commercial, crowded, touristy, generally dirty, full of college kids in the summer and known mostly for bumper to bumper traffic. In her opinion, though, North Myrtle Beach was, apparently a slice of heaven.
*ahem* Excuse me? Let me first say this is not about Myrtle Beach v. North Myrtle Beach. I've been there. It's just fine. I have no issues with it other than it being quite a drive for me, so I don't go there often. Regardless, here's a quick momorable mention to North Myrtle Beach, just to make clear I mean it no disrespect.
Let me go back about six years. I was pregnant with my older daughter, happily working as the Statewide Volunteer Coordinator for a state agency in North Carolina. My husband got a call from a career head hunter talking about a job in Myrtle Beach that sounded beyond great. He brought it to my attention and I immediately shot it down.
"Myrtle Beach?? It's so touristy down there! Yuck. I don't want to live there. Vacation there, maybe. Live there? No."
Two months later, it came up again. This time the fish got bigger. There was talk of some good money at this job and other perks. I was unrelenting.
A few weeks later, another call. My husband was getting built up about this opportunity and it started to hurt my heart to be so unbending. So I gave in. "Go down there and talk to these people. Let's get all the information."
He went. He loved. I had a baby. He went down again and the talks got serious.
When Baby was 3 months old, we packed her up in the family truckster, along with my mother-in-law as help and headed south for a weekend. We sat in horrible traffic as Baby screamed her little bald head off with me in the backseat. Myrtle Beach was not getting my best review at this point. We were almost two hours late meeting with our new real estate agent due to said traffic. Lesson #1, Never EVER venture out on 501 between about 10:00 AM and noon and 4:00 - 6:00 PM on any Saturday "in season". Tourist season, that is.
We spent the next few days looking at houses, cruising the area. I accepted it a bit more once I saw more than Business 17 and the strip. There were actual people living here, quite nicely I may add.
To make this long story short, we obviously decided to relocate, hubby took the job and here I am writing about how much I love this area. There is so much to do! The beaches are beautiful! The neighbors are so enjoyable and make lovely homes for our families. I'm pleased with the school system. The weather is beautiful. I'm happy here and I'm happy to defend why.
I was just to Disney World a few weeks ago. Crowded? Yep. Trafficky? Yep. Busy? Absolutely. Commercial? Ha! I don't even need to answer that. Did I leave there wish I could stay longer? *nodding*
So give Myrtle Beach a break, lady. It's a pretty darn nice place to visit and live. :-)
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