On Thursday, March 2, We ate breakfast at Golden Egg Pancake House, located about a mile from our Airbnb rental. Breakfast was good. I ordered a Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped topping. Bob ordered scrambled eggs, home fries, bacon and French Toast. After breakfast, we returned to our rental.
We ate lunch at our rental, making use of any leftovers.
We ate dinner at River City Cafe in Surfside Beach. We walked there from our rental. Bob ordered a burger, onion rings and coleslaw. I ordered a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, French fries and coleslaw. Dinner was delicious.
After dinner, we started packing in preparation for checking out of our rental the next morning.
We finished packing the morning of Friday, March 3.
Our Airbnb rental “Nanny & Pops” Front View
Our Airbnb rental “Nanny & Pops” Back View
We sure enjoyed our stay at “Nanny & Pops”. The beach cottage was cozy and felt like home from the moment we walked inside.
Our time at “Nanny & Pops” had come to an end; however, our stay at the beach is not over. We are moving to our friends’ condo at One Ocean Place for 2 nights. Marge and Neil asked us to stay with them so that we could attend “Taste of the MarshWalk” at Murrells Inlet on Saturday.
On the morning of Monday, February 27, we drove to Broadway at the Beach, located less than 15 miles from our Surfside Beach Airbnb rental “Nannie & Pops”. Broadway at the Beach is a shopping center and entertainment complex located in Myrtle Beach. It sits on 350 acres in the heart of Myrtle Beach and features three theaters, over 20 restaurants and over 100 specialty shops as well as attractions, clubs for the night, and hotels, all surrounding the 23-acre Lake Broadway.
When we arrived at Broadway at the Beach, very few, if any, of the shops, restaurants or attractions were open. This fact was fine with us, as we came to walk, not to eat or shop. And walk we did! We walked all around Lake Broadway, which is at least a 2 mile walk. I took lots of pictures during our walk, which I share with you in the slideshow that follows.
The morning was foggy and cool. At 12:00 noon the fog still had not lifted. The temperature was only 58 degrees. Once the fog lifted, the sun came out. It warmed up to about 65 degrees.
Late in the afternoon we went for a walk on “our beach”.
We went for a walk at Surfside Beach.
I love the light at the beach, as the sun is setting behind me.
On the morning of Friday, February 24, we watched the sun rise from Surfside Beach.
We first walked to the public beach access at the end of 1st Ave S. I took a picture of the Surfside Beach Fishing Pier, under construction, before the sun had risen.
The dawning of a new day
We walked north a short distance to the next public beach access, next to River City Cafe, so that we could take sunrise pictures with an unobstructed view. The sunrise did not disappoint!
Here comes the sun!
Such a beautiful sunrise!
Bob and I enjoyed watching the sun rise.
As we walked back to our Airbnb rental “Nanny & Pops”, we stopped briefly to take a picture of a Surfside Beach art mural.
Surfside Beach SC mural
Close-up picture of me in front of the Surfside Beach SC mural
This day’s activities continue in my next blog post.
Bob made a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, brown n serve sausage and fried potatoes with onions. This breakfast got my birthday off to a good start!
We spent a few hours late morning and afternoon with our friends, Marge and Neil H, at their Garden City Beach rental oceanfront condo.
Marge and Neil’s condo is located at One Ocean Place.
We chatted with Marge and Neil for a while on their 10th floor balcony, enjoying each other’s company as well as the view of the beach and ocean at our feet. A short time later we ate lunch, prepared by their grandson Lex. Lex and his parents, Michael and Andrea, were visiting with Marge and Neil for a few days. Lunch was a salad with a sweet and spicy dressing and a rice, spam and seaweed dish as a main entree. The seaweed held together the rice and spam. It was my first experience eating seaweed. Lex did a great job with lunch … really tasty! It was great seeing Lex again. We last saw him several years ago, when he was a young boy. He is 14 years old now. We enjoyed also seeing and chatting with Lex’s parents.
Before leaving, Bob and I went for a walk on the beach with Marge and Neil.
The tall building in the background is One Ocean Place. There were lots of golf carts on the beach that day.
I love these colorful beach cottages.
Neil, Marge, Bob and I on the beach
Spending time with our friends was a great way to celebrate my birthday!
That evening, after dinner (leftovers from the previous night), Bob and I went for a walk in our neighborhood. We walked to Floral Lake, as we did the previous night.
This picturesque entrance near our rental caught my eye.
At Floral Lake we walked across the footbridge. As happened the previous night, turtles began to multiply beneath the footbridge.
There are lots of turtles in Floral Lake!
From Floral Lake we returned to “Nanny & Pops”’ our Airbnb rental.
From Brookgreen Gardens we returned to our Airbnb rental “Nanny & Pops” and ate a light lunch. Bob ate our leftovers from the previous night’s dinner and added a few grapes. I ate a tuna salad snack set, a banana and grapes. I prepared Suddenly Salad pasta salad for this evening’s dinner. I needed 1/2 cup of mayonnaise for the salad. I forgot to add mayonnaise to our shopping list, so Bob picked up a small jar at the nearby Piggly Wiggly grocery store.
During the previous day’s beach walk, we came across a small “river” that crossed the length of the beach. A man told us there is a lake about 4 blocks from us, and the lake is where the water flows from. We drove to the lake this afternoon. We did a lot of walking at Brookgreen Gardens earlier in the day, which caused my arthritic knee to ache. We could have walked to the lake, but Bob thought it best that I not overdo it. We found the small lake, Floral Lake, easily. There was a bocce game being played, when we arrived, at Martin Park. From Martin Park we walked across a bridge over Floral Lake.
A footbridge crosses over Floral Lake.
This was the view, looking left, from the footbridge.
Six turtles congregated underneath us, while we were on the footbridge.
There is a sign at Floral Lake to not feed the ducks or other wildlife. It appeared that the turtles were accustomed to being fed!
Tonight’s dinner was at “Nanny & Pops”. Dinner included sloppy joes, baked beans, Suddenly Salad pasta salad and, for dessert, cheesecake.
After dinner we went for a walk on “our beach”, just down from the Surfside Pier. It was windy and cooler than it was late morning/early afternoon. The change in weather was so refreshing!
This is the channel from which Floral Lake drains into the ocean.
This blog post concludes our activities on Wednesday, February 22.
We left home shortly after 6:30 am on Monday, February 20th, en route Surfside Beach SC via Wytheville VA.
We vacationed in Surfside Beach last year at this time, as well. Last year, when we left en route South Carolina, snow was falling, possibly mixed with sleet or freezing rain. The temperature was 19 degrees. There was snow on the ground from home and all the way past Pittsburgh. This time there was no precipitation whatsoever; there was no snow on the ground; and the temperature as we are leaving home was 42 degrees.
We stopped for breakfast in Franklin PA, at Linda Lou’s Family Restaurant. This was our first time eating here. The restaurant was recommended to us years ago. We kept saying someday we would eat there. Bob ordered a 3-egg Scrambler that contained home fries and bacon. The Scrambler filled his plate similar to a large pancake.
I ordered a light Western omelette, made with two eggs, with fruit cup and wheat toast.
Bob said he was sorry that he didn’t order the same as me, as he wasn’t able to eat his entire meal. The food was good, no better no worse than other breakfast eateries. It was noisy, though, with the majority of the noise coming from the kitchen and wait staff. This isn’t a restaurant that you go to, if looking for a peaceful meal! We were on the road again shortly before 8:45 am.
We arrived at Comfort Suites in Wytheville VA shortly before 3:30 pm. The drive there was uneventful. We did see some rain, but it was spotty. The most persistent rain occurred, as we approached Wytheville.
We checked into our room and, then, we left for dinner. We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel is located about 2 miles from the hotel and easy to drive to. Bob ordered a 1 piece catfish dinner with hash brown casserole and broccoli. I ordered grilled chicken with a smoky seasoning, accompanied by hash brown casserole and fried apples. My dinner came with two pieces of chicken, but I could eat only one piece (the smaller of the two pieces). Our meals came with biscuits or corn muffins. Bob chose biscuits; I chose corn muffins. We each ate only one of our selections. As we left the restaurant, we talked about sharing our meals in the future. We are both eating less, and it would be less expensive to share meals.
We spent the night in Wytheville and continued our drive to Surfside Beach SC the next day.
I awakened at 4:30 am on Tuesday, February 21st. We took our time getting showered and dressed. I read online newspapers and did my Bing searches. I scrolled quickly through Facebook. I checked email. We went downstairs for a complimentary breakfast. Bob had an omelette and sausage. I had a waffle and a fruit cup.
We departed Comfort Suites Wytheville around 7:15 am, en route Surfside Beach SC, after I had photographed that morning’s sunrise.
Sunrise at Comfort Suites Wytheville
We arrived at our Airbnb rental, “Nanny & Pops” around 1:15 pm. The rental was as described at the Airbnb site.
After getting settled into the Airbnb, we went for a walk on the beach. The beach is only 0.10 miles from Nanny & Pops. It was an easy and quick walk to the beach.
In the background is the Surfside Pier, which is under construction. The construction is supposed to be completed this year.
We walked only a short way on the beach. We walked south, until we encountered a small “river” running the width of the beach. A man told us there is a lake about 4 blocks from us, and the lake is where the water flows from. There is a way around the river, but we chose to end our walk on the beach at the “river”.
On Wednesday, February 16th, We “checked out” of Airbnb ”Seaside Cottage” around 6:30 am and drove to the beach, where we watched the sun rise.
Bob and I at Surfside Beach minutes before the sunrise
Watch along with us, as the sun rises!
Surfside Beach Sunrise
This was the first sunrise on the beach that I saw in the week we were in Surfside Beach. I wasn’t able to get to the beach in time for sunrise the other mornings. A prescription drug that I take with dinner rarely allows me to leave the house before 9:00 am, unless I have the availability of a close by bathroom. Bob saw a beach sunrise the first and last day.
After seeing the sunrise, we began our drive back to Pennsylvania.
We arrived at the Quality Inn New River Gorge (Fayetteville, WV) around 2:00 pm. We checked in and carried our baggage into our room. Soon afterward we walked to Elliott’s Whitewater Bar & Grill, located on the hotel grounds. There was a flurry of excitement, as we entered, I thought there was going to be a bar brawl. The guy cussing was told to “just go”. He did, after a few minutes and more cussing. Someone walked out with him to make sure that he left and didn’t hit anyone’s car! The bar quieted down after that man left. Later we learned that the unruly man had been there for several hours drinking Jägermeister and was saying things he shouldn’t be saying to the underage waitress. The waitress felt so uncomfortable that she asked the manager to come sit in the bar. A couple of the men at the bar, who had been there for only a short while, kicked out the unruly man. By the way, the food and service were excellent. Bob ordered a pork chop with onion rings. I ordered fish sticks with a loaded baked potato. Both meals included a side salad.
Soon after dinner we drove to the Canyon Rim Visitor Center, where we viewed the New River Gorge and the New River Gorge Bridge. The Canyon Rim Visitor center is about a mile north of our hotel. We had planned to stop at the visitor center the next morning, but it likely will be raining. So we visited this afternoon.
New River Gorge Bridge, as seen from Canyon Rim Visitor Center Grounds
We have stopped often at the Canyon Rim Visitor Center, but we had never seen this particular view of the bridge. As we were crossing the bridge I noticed a man and a woman standing at an overlook. When we arrived at the visitor center, the first thing we did was look for that overlook. The trail shown in the photograph displayed above leads under the bridge. Bob walked down and back up that trail (steep climb!), but was not able to walk under the bridge. The passageway was locked.
New River Gorge Bridge, as seen from Canyon Rim Visitor Center Grounds
We walked down a boardwalk to an overlook of the bridge. We could have walked farther, but neither of us felt like doing steps.
Bob and I at the overlook of the New River Gorge Bridge
We walked behind the Visitor Center, where we saw the New River Gorge.
New River Gorge (photo by Bob)
Around 6:00 pm we lost power at the hotel. We had no electricity until 8:11 pm. We never did find out what caused the outage. The power outage did not affect the hotel only. Nearby businesses lost their power as well. By the way, soon after the power went out, we lied down and fell asleep. The power coming back on awakened me. That is how I knew the time the power came back on.
We departed Quality Inn New River on Thursday, February 17th, shortly before 7:15 am. Before leaving, we enjoyed a complementary breakfast of scrambled egg patties, sausage and biscuits; orange juice and tea/coffee; and muffin/danish. The hot food was served to us. The remaining foods we were free to pick up ourselves. The server told us the way they do breakfast is not COVID related. They do breakfast this way year round.
We reached the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border around 9:30 am. We still had a 3 1/2-hour drive until we would be back home. Up to this point we had avoided the forecasted rain! Ten minutes later, at Masontown exit (exit 14 on I-79), we caught up with the rain. The rain was with us the rest of the way home.
We got off I-79 at the Slippery Rock exit. We were getting tired of interstate travel. The slower pace was welcome.
We stopped for lunch at Eat’n Park in Franklin. Bob ordered a chicken sandwich with cheesy fries. I ordered a turkey club sandwich with a fruit cup. We each ordered pie for dessert.
We were back on the road at 12:35 pm and returned home at 2:00 pm. We drove a total of 1,750.40 miles, since our departure on February 8th.
This was the first time that Bob and I had ever been to the South Carolina coast. We enjoyed our visit very much — so much, in fact, that we are already talking about going back next year.
The Beauty Around Us 