Continuing where we left off, Cathie and I set aside Sunday to spend time in Myrtle Beach. A couple of the piers were damaged due to Hurricane Matthew, which hit South Carolina in October of 2016. Surfside Beach pier lost a good 50 feet from its length, and the local council has approved plans to replace it with a concrete pier. We visited the pier after breakfast, and when we got there, there were several huge pipes on the beach, and neither Cathie nor I could determine exactly what they were for. And not far offshore, there appeared to be a couple of oil drilling platforms, at least that’s what they looked like to me. But, they were too close to shore for that purpose. We learned later in the afternoon that this was all part of a beach replenishment program that they do every 5 years or so. The waves were even bigger than they were Saturday, due to a tropical cyclone that had parked off of Hilton Head Island. This would play in a role in some of the events to come on Monday.
The light was quite harsh, not conducive to good photography (especially not infrared photography). So, we left the beach and played some mini golf, continuing where we left off Friday night. Sunday turned out to be all about piers and putting. We had lunch at Sea Captain’s House, which is right on the beach. I may have made the comment, more than once, that the view did not suck. Nor did the food, the She Crab Soup was excellent, as were the crab cakes. And, as I was not driving, I decided a Bloody Mary was in order.
From there, as the light was still harsh, we played several more rounds of mini golf, and stopped to get milk shakes at Cold Stone Creamery. We were working our way toward the second of the two piers we intended to visit, and it was late afternoon, with far better light, when we arrived at Springmaid Pier. This pier was almost completely destroyed by the hurricane, and no decision apparently has been made concerning the fate of what remains. We both freshened up afterward and had dinner at a Brazilian Steak House, Rioz. Excellent food, a carnivore’s dream.
As we had not quite satisfied ourselves with mini golf, we played two more rounds that night.
Monday was my return back home, my flight was to leave Raleigh-Durham at 6 pm. Due to the approaching tropical cyclone, we left Myrtle Beach earlier than originally planned (although we managed to get in two more rounds of mini golf first). Having cleared airport security, I had a beverage at the Gardon Biersch brewery in the airport, and, arrived at the gate to do some photo editing before the flight departed. We were to start boarding at 5:30, and, we started lining up to board. Just as my group was called, I received a text from the airline that our flight was delayed for 30 minutes, and the gate attendant ran down the jetway to bring back a few people who he had sent through. That thirty minute delay became much longer, as we received successive alerts of further delays. The issue was not in Raleigh-Durham, as it turned out, but back home. There was a lot of turbulence around O’Hare, and this was causing mid-air funnel clouds. A full ground stop was called at O’Hare as a result. The airline really had no idea when the ground stop might be lifted, and even then, there were bound to be issues at O’Hare. And there were. We finally got the all clear to board 2 1/2 hours after our original scheduled departure. The main issue at O’Hare, by the time we landed, was that there were still too many planes on the ground and not enough gates. We received our gate assignment about 15 minutes after we had taxied off the runway. I finally got to my apartment around 10:45, and went right to bed. It had been a long day. But, it had also been a great trip. It’s always great spending time with Cathie, and I’m planning another, longer trip there in the spring.
