To My Fellow Myrtle Beach Inhabitants: Keep That Spark of the Tourist in You!

Surfside Beach sunrise 1-20-12

Whenever I'm out of the house early in the morning, and there's a beautiful sunrise on tap; I can usually be found chasing it down for a  glimpse of it over the water.

Not only is "the View" the main attraction of living in Myrtle Beach, but I like to constantly remind myself of that fact by taking quick little trips up to the beach whenever I can sneak it into my schedule.

There was a time when I lived out in Washington State just South of Seattle in the city of Puyallup (and don't try to pronounce it using conventional phonetics)

The over 14,000 foot high Mt. Rainier dominates the landscape and constantly reminds residents of its presence.

I don't think that a day went by during my 7 years there that I didn't gasp every time I saw it.

Living in Myrtle Beach does not afford me that same sort of in-your-face reminder that I live a mile from the Ocean.

I have to go to IT.

I have to make the effort. 

I have to do all the work because an Ocean doesn't dominate the landscape unless you live within view.

When I first moved here almost four years ago; I took every single opportunity I could to drive up to the Beach...sometimes to walk, sometimes to just sit and sun myself, sometimes to get away from it all to gain perspective and sometimes I'd park and sit in my car on a cold Winters day sipping my coffee...listening and looking.

It's like I wanted and needed that reminder that there really is more to this area than meets the eye.

The Ocean, after all, is what Myrtle Beach has going for it.

I know that's stating the obvious, but there are times when the people who live here need a shot in the arm of that kind of obvious-ness.

I have family who have lived here several decades now. 

Within the few months of living here; I'd gone to the beach more times than they had in the last ten years.

Older people, like my parents, tend to only bother with sand and surf when entertaining out-of-town guests. 

Somewhere along the way the joy which they once had living "at the Beach" was misplaced or lost altogether.

There are a number of factors which contribute to the crankiness of a portion of the older citizens in Myrtle Beach:

...tourists...

...bikers...

...waiting at a traffic light behind more than three cars...

...lines at the grocery store...

...other people at the beach...

...sand in the car...

...other people in local restaurants...

...annoyance at the arrival of transplanted Northerners (a group to which they too belong)...

(see a pattern developing?)

My parents could not understand why I wanted to go and walk at the beach...and so they called me a Beach Bum.

I would go to the Ocean for sometimes only 15 or 30 minutes at a time, but somehow in their minds; I was taking on the characteristics of Moon Doggie or the Big Kahuna from the Gidget movies...pitching a hut on the beach and living off handouts from friends.

This attitude just fortified my desire to never let a week go by where I haven't visited that big expansive body of water and stretch of sand just a mile up the road from my house.

Except for a few weeks here and there when I've been sick; I've remained loyal to that pledge which I made to myself back in 2008.
I don't ever want to become a cranky "local".

So, this morning, as I was driving home around 7 a.m.; I noticed that the sky was almost completely obscured by clouds, except for a strip of blue sky over the ocean, where the sunrise was putting on a brilliant show.

I drove as quickly as I could (never speeding of course) to the beach in Surfside.

I popped a wheelie it into the parking lot in my haste to get to the sun before the clouds did...only to find myself racing against three other cars whose owners seemed to have the same idea. 

I'm not sure if the others were locals or not, but it didn't matter because for that moment...all four of us were behaving as tourists from Kansas who'd never seen the Ocean in their life...never mind the sun rising over the water in such majestic beauty.

sunrise 1-20-12

So...I dedicate these pictures to my fellow Myrtle Beach-ians...

...may you always keep that spark of the tourist in you.

Remember what tourists go through to get here to soak up the view which sometimes we take for granted...and then...stop taking it for granted!

The End.

and Good Night!