As Chicago celebrated President’s Day with another snowstorm and snow thunder, I continued my respite in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The temperature was around 45 degrees with a biting wind on Monday. Myrtle is still recovering from recent ice storms. Trees and branches litter the side of the roads. And tourism is way down. So, in an effort to boost the economy and cheer up the retailers, we headed first to the Market Commons.
Joey was in a golf tournament and shut down my plan to cheer him on with glitter covered posters. So, we gals, Jenny, Elysse, Grace, Abby, Trixie and I headed out for our self guided adventure. The Market Commons is a chic outdoor mall with a variety of upscale shoppes. It has it all: Anthropologie (where Kylie works) to an I-game store to mega fashionable boutiques. The stores are connected by Trixie-friendly walkways and benches. It looked very much like where the locals shop… well, the locals with money. 
Next, we went to Broadway at the Beach. It’s bars, restaurants, amusement rides, miniature golf all connected together by these mazes of bridges. Every possible themed restaurant is within walking distance. It looks to be a high-spirited tourist attraction. When we were there, it looked like a ghost town. That part was eerie. Within this highly commercial area, I felt like we were in a zombie movie. I kept imaging we’d be in the middle of a bridge and be attacked on both sides by zombies. It didn’t happen and we rewarded ourselves with margaritas at –where else but– Jimmy Buffet’s Margarita-ville.
As much as we loved our server yesterday, Norm wasn’t our best experience. He was completely exasperated with us from the moment we sat down. And to be fair, we were giggly but the place is over-the-top. In the middle is a huge blender with a hurricane cloud. On the hour, all the television sets go into a special weather report with a hurricane party warning. Then, a bottle drops from the hurricane cloud and spews liquid into the blender. That has to be a part of Norm’s agitation. As a server, I would hate it.
We hunker down and toast to the good life. Abs and Grace have Frozen Blender drinks with souvenir glasses. Jenny and Elysse go signature margaritas. And I get the flight of four. The margarita sampler is adorbs. We also order pretzel sticks, chips with salsa and crab cheese dip appetizers. Our intention is to have lunch at Jimmy’s. Since Norm is a buzz killer, we decide to vacate.
We have a joint called Flip Flops a couple blocks from our place. It has a friendly vibe and a juke box. We stop on the way back. At some point, we decide to just stay home for the evening. It was too chilly to go from place to place. Although we’ve only been here a couple days, we’ve lost our tolerance for cold. Joey and Kylie come over and we play a hilarious game of Apples to Apples.