How did you spend summers when you were a kid?
Up until I was age 11, we did an annual trip to Myrtle Beach, SC, my most favorite beach in the entire world. On a scale of 1-10, Santa Cruz is about a 3, Daytona Beach is about a 5, but Myrtle Beach was and still is a 10+. I would look forward to the trip all summer, and even memorize funny landmarks along the 140 mile trip consisting of state & US highways; no interstates. The most memorable landmark on the trip was a railroad drawbridge that was permanently in the "up" position. I knew the beach was close when I saw that tall piece of old metal. We always stayed at least 4 days, first at the Driftwood motel, then the more luxurious Yachtsman Resort a few summers later, then the Ocean Dunes Resort for a few summers after that. Unlike Santa Cruz or Daytona that can be visited in a one-day trip, Myrtle Beach had so much to do you couldn't help but stay at least 4 days to see even half of the excitement there. Nowadays, there has been so much built around that area; one would have to stay two weeks to see everything. The Myrtle Beach visitor booklet is thicker than a lot of small town phone books! The beach itself one could swim in between early June and mid-September, and plenty of waves to have fun with(unlike beaches on the gulf-coast, where you might as well be swimming in a giant salty lake--boooorrring!). One place that no longer exists in Myrtle Beach was the highlight of our trip: the Hawaii-Kai. It was an exquisite Polynesian restaurant, with a tiki waterfall in the back, little streams running throughout the dining room with little bridges to walk over, and the whole restaurant was dimly lit by small lights in the ceiling, in the shape of little stars. No hula dancers; you didn't need them. They would spoil the elegant atmosphere. Sadly, the restaurant burned down in 1975. Another highlight was the amusement park (one of TWO in the area!) with the historic wooden rollercoaster, the "Swamp Fox". That thing looked terrifyingly immense as a small child, but tame in comparison to today's thrill rides. I couldn't ride it until about the 5th grade, I was so scared of it. Instead, I rode the miniature train that drove under the coaster structure, and circled the park. But when I did finally ride that coaster, I discovered the most BEAUTIFUL views of the Grand Strand(Myrtle Beach was part of this 200 mile stretch of uninterrupted beach). But it wasn't just the big flashy things that made Myrtle Beach so enjoyable for me. The little things were just as important: the smells of the vegetation growing in that part of the country, the sounds of the birds & insects, the weather, the multitude of themed restaurants--so many you can't count them all, the airplane flying up & down the beach with a long tail advertising whatever, the shooting off of fireworks on the beach(which was illegal but we did it anyway), and so on and so on. What a great time to be a kid. I was there last in summer of '97. I missed it so much I drove from Orlando, FL to be there, passing up Daytona Beach only 46 miles from where I lived. A lot of the feelings I had as a kid still came out of me as an adult when I went. You can take the man out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the man.