We had an absolute blast... I will post reviews for TA as well...
We (my mom, my kid sister, my sisters friend and my 6 mo old baby girl) arrived at our condo (privately owned by a friend of my moms in Surfside...2 minute walk to the beach, triplex with a private pool in the backyard) early on Saturday afternoon (we stayed at the HIE in SPartanburg the night before...4 hours from the beach). After settling in and going to Bi-Lo for groceries, we decied to go to Surfside Grille for dinner. Let me tell you, this was the absolute BEST cheeseburger I%26#39;ve ever had. Huge, full of flavor, very affordable. It%26#39;s a small place, looks like a hole in the wall from the outside. Family owned and operated. The owners were there working that night. The family matriarch gave us complimentary freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in addition to the homemade (she makes all the desserts) mint chocolate chip cheese cake we had. The owners are from Pittsburgh and the dining area (which is small, not a place for huge parties) has a Burgh theme.
Sunday was our beach day. We headed for the beach loaded with towels, blankets, umbrella, stroller, chairs etc. I personally was there for about 20 minutes. I took my 1 official swim in the ocean (I didn%26#39;t know it was going to be my only swim) to come out and find my daughter screaming. She did not like the beach. It was very early, like 8:30 but I guess still too warm and the sun too bright (despite the umbrella, the stroller shade and her hat and baby sunglasses). So she and I went back to the condo and spent the rest of the day at the pool and in the air conditioning. Baby loved the pool on the contrary. Go figure. We ate a dinner in the condo that night.
Monday the 2 girls and I went to Huntington Beach State Park early. $5 for adults, $3 for kids 3-15. Just a note, I have my BS in biology, have worked as a field biologist... I saw the most amazing thing while we were there. We made a beeline for the beach near the jetty (north side of the park away from Atalaya and the campgrounds, when going over the causeway we saw several medium sized gators sunbathing off on the right) to look for shells as the tide was going out. I had my binoculars checking out the gulls and terns. Maybe 10-12 people within eyesight, that%26#39;s it. When I saw what looked liek a piece of driftwood in the surf about 20 yards in front of us. Then the driftwood moved. It was about a 7-8 foot alligator...IN THE OCEAN! I have never even heard of such a thing. Crocs yes, gators no. They prefer freshwater. We followed him for about a half mile or so. He would swim towards the beach, then turn around and swim back out under the waves. I approached a fisherman who said he had lived on Pawleys Island for years and has been fishing this beach for years and he has never seen a gator in the ocean. He said he%26#39;s seen them sunning themselves on the beach, but never in the water. We figured he maybe was confused but the outgoing high tide? I don%26#39;t know, I%26#39;m going to have to consult a herpatologist friend. The girls named him Stewert. and of course I forgot the camera. So if you go to HSP and you see a gator on the beach, tell Stewert we said hi (but keep a safe distance of course, they%26#39;re not tame, it%26#39;s not like a gator farm). We also saw an osprey (with fish in his talons), lots of gulls and terns and herons and pelicans and black necked stilts (pretty shore birds), several skinks and anoles (lizards) and a black rat snake in the Atalaya castle building. Atalaya is beautiful...I can%26#39;t imagine living there. Spent the majority of the morning there. Rest of the day was spent in the pool. We went to the Murrels Inlet River City Cafe. Good good and good service. We had the bloomin onion thing (very HOT at first, couldn%26#39;t even pull the petals off), mom and sis%26#39;s friend had a burger, I had the mahi-mahi sandwich, My sis had a pulled pork sandwich. Mom and the friend both agreed that the burgers were good, but the ones at Surfside grill were better. I had a Yuengling beer or 3, which is my favorite beer and not sold in this part of ohio. We bought t-shirts as well. I drove the teens into Myrtle Proper to cruize the strip... girls loved yelling out the windows at boys (at 14, still a little too young to be doing it on their own). We then did mini golf and Jurrasic Golf...$6.75 for adults.
Tuesday was cooler and partly rainy thanks to Tropical Storm Alberto. So we headed for Broadway at the Beach. GREAT SHOPPING. We got fudge at The Fudgery, christmas ornaments at the Christmas Shop, custom picture frames at Anything Joes, an embroidered baby blanket and handbag, and the girls got imitation perfume (very close to accurate though) (can%26#39;t remember the name of those stores)walked all over the place. The one thing I did NOT want to do was eat at HardRock. I%26#39;ve eaten at lots of them, and have never been impressed. Well my sister and her friend were dying to eat there. So we waited for about 45 minutes for a table (the girls waited in the rain, mom and i waited for them to get to the hostess stand while waited inside with baby). friend got wings, sister got chicken fingers, mom got salad. said they were good. i got the interesting quesidilla. hot spicey bbq sauce, chicken, pinapple, onion and dusted with chili powder outside. i was impressed. mom and i also bought large drinks from the bar (we got to keep the hurricane glasses)...$12 with $6 refills. some tequilla drinks made with cabo wabo. i don%26#39;t normally like tequilla, but these were good. bill was about $100. and we didn%26#39;t eat until after 5. on the way out we saw and petted a miniature horse which was part of a promo for Dixie Stampede. very cute, i want one. PS, baby loves shopping. was tough having to wait out the rain though. OH YEAH. went into the General Store... I knocked over and broke a vase. i felt terrible. they were happy i offered to pay for it and only made me pay half price for it. i may try to glue it back together... We were going to do Build a Bear for the baby. but the line was out the door and the wait was over and hour... maybe next time.
Wednesday was cool in the morning, windy and cloudy. perfect for a walk on the beach. the surfers were out! fun to watch, and the babe didn%26#39;t mind the beach since it was cloudy. weather got nice in the mid afternoon and we spent the rest of the day around the pool and had dinner there.
Thursday was beach day for mom and the girls, baby and I hung at the condo. We ended up heading to the Surfside Pier in the early afternoon. Ate at Nibles and got ice cream afterwards. I had the crabcake sandwich. Very good, very fresh and affordable, great view of the beach as well. Key lime pie was delish. We walked the peir afterwards ($1 and the admission was good for the rest of the day). sat in the shaded area on the end for a while, girls ate icecream and we watched the fishermen and women. i%26#39;ve never seen fishing with nets before. pretty cool. saw only 1 big fish come up, a bluefish (?)...neat. Saw several little sharks come up though. The girls were grossed out. The beaches were pack by then, but we got some great, very colorful pictures of the beach from the pier. We went shopping at the Hammock Shops in Pawleys Island in the late afternoon. the shops all closes at like 5 or 6, just a note. I bought my hubby a hammock as his fathers day gift. Mom and I left the baby with the teens and headed to Latitude 22 for martini%26#39;s that night. Very yummy, good size and only $6! We had several... yummy! The strawberry cheesecake martini was my fave.
Friday was our last day...SO SAD! We had walked on the beach pretty much every night of the week after dinner...baby enjoyed the beach at night. But I never made it back into the ocean for another swim, just lots of wading. Spent Friday in and by the pool. Went out to eat at Villa Romana in MB. This was some of the best Italian I%26#39;ve ever had. Several courses... bruschetta, soup, salad then entre%26#39;s. The dressing was so good I bought a bottle of it to take home to my hubby, who is an academically trained chef...I%26#39;m hoping he can figure what%26#39;s in it because I will never eat another dressing on my salads if he can figure it out (secret family recipe, so they obviously dont tell you whats in it). I had the cheese and spinach cannelloni in an orange sauce (tomato based, but no meat and not marinara)and it was very good.
We left on Saturday (yesterday) morning for our drive back to the Cinci area. I%26#39;m still recovering. But I had so much fun, enjoyed so much. Let me know if anyone has questions about the places we went!!!! I can%26#39;t wait to take my hubby there, maybe next fall. I%26#39;ll miss you MB! The week just flew by!
I'm home and I can't wait to go back!Great post and very helpful. I%26#39;m glad you had such a terrific vacation. It definately sounds like everyone had a great time. I, as well, have never heard of a gator in the ocean and I have lived in MB all my life. Let us know what your herpatologist friend says about that. I love Huntington Beach State Park. I was in my best friends wedding last April at the Atalaya Castle and it was absolutely beautiful! Build-A-Bear at Broadway is a great store and the stuffed animals you can make are so cute! You can even put a recorded message of your childs voice inside the bear so on your next visit when your daughter is a little older maybe you can do that. I love both Nibils and Latitude 22 also. I have never had (or even heard of for that matter) of a strawberry cheesecake martini but it sounds delicious. I will definately have to try one of those. Ooooohhhhh and Villa Romana...my FAVORITE restaurant! Their food is WONDERFUL (everything homemade), great atmosphere and yes, LOTS of food! Their website is www.villaromanamb.com. My favorite entree there is the fettuccine alfredo with grilled jumbo shrimp. Mmmmmm! Was Mike there that night playing the accordian? Again, glad you all had such a great trip! Come back soon! :-)
I'm home and I can't wait to go back!Thanks for the great review. More people who ask for advice should follow up with a review like yours.
What a wonderful trip report.. even better the 2nd time ;)
Glad you all had a great time...
See ya later..
yeah Bob, the guy playing the accordian was there. He serenaded my daughter with a lulaby... he was fawning over her for 10 minutes about how cute she is. said we shoulkd contact michelin tires because she looks just like the old michelin baby. baby was fascinated with the accordian.
Irish, sounds like a perfect vacation! So glad you had a great time and that Alberto didn%26#39;t ruin it. I was checking weather.com and prayed that you didn%26#39;t get rained out too much.
Glad you%26#39;re back, BTW ;)
thanks BL! i have to admit, i went through a little bit of internet withdrawl... glad to be back though!
just brought to my attention that it should be Southside Grille, noit Surfside Grille... oops! it was very very good though!
Thanks for the great trip report. I have seen an alligator in the ocean. It was about 8 or 9 years ago and I am trying to remember which beach. Maybe Long or Holden Beach in NC. It was at the pier. We were headed out on the pier to watch the fisherman and right where the waves were breaking under the pier was an 6 -8 ft long alligator. We watched it for a long time and we do have pictures of it. One more unusual thing was that we had never seen an alligator anywhere in that area. You know some places like Kiawah or Hilton Head you see lots of alligators on the golf courses and stuff, but not in this area. We guessed that it had swam around the point of the island from the inland waterway. Very strange.
Also wanted to mention that I have had Southside Grill highly recommended to me by a local. I haven%26#39;t tried it yet, but will for sure now. It is right near Surfside Drive (the main street in Surfside that goes from 17 Bus to ocean) on the ocean side of 17 Business in a little strip shopping center. Looks like a dive.
Hi Irish! We got back yesterday too. You weren%26#39;t the lady in front of me at the outlet mall from Fairfield, were you? Had a great time in NMB. Stayed at Ocean Creek Resort in a privately owned condo we got on vrbo. The man renting it could not have been more accomodating, and the condo was great and a good price. We left cincy on Monday last week, and were due to get into NMB on Tuesday, but delayed our arrival because of the storms. ----- Want to guess----where we stayed an extra night??? Wasn%26#39;t a disapointment for me!!! :)
Anyway we got to the beach on Wednesday instead and had a great time. Our condo was about 1/4 mile from the beach, we could have walked, but my mom is 80 and her legs were bothering her, so we drove. Got a warning the first day because we parked in the wrong spot - the resort also has a tram/extended golf cart that will take you to and from the beach, but that took to long so we did not use it. We sat up at the bar and at 11:00am had our Pina Coladas. Like they say - it was 5:00 some where! The beach at the resort was nice, but way to crowded. More so than I have ever seen in any of the beaches we have been to in Florida. They had the rental beach umbrellas, but they were stacked on top of each other. The resort has a neat inlet where you can swim too. Funny about Stewart - we wondered if the gators were in the area with the inlet - people were swimming there, fishing and shelling. I fell in love with the beach on our last night when we went for the first time in the evening. The crowd was gone and there were just a few people enjoying the low tide and setting sun. I was shocked at how far out the tide went. The resort inlet would drain too. It was really cool. One thing we thought was kind of odd though, was there did not seem to be much life in the water - no crabs, no little coccina shells digging into the sand, and as a result - so sea gulls, and only a stray pellican or two.
We went to Barefoot Landing which was right accross the street from our resort. Fun place, seems similar to the Boardwalk only smaller. We shopped at the Tanger outlets and found some good deals. We ate at the Springhouse in NMB and did not like it. We ate another time at Red Lobster and Cracker Barrel.
All and all we liked NMB, and may try it again with the rest of the family. Did not see my daughter (remember the she was the whole reason we went), but she had lots of stories to tell me when I got home yesterday. Quite an eye-opener for her! Was Surfside near the teenage crowd?
I will go into more detail over on the Smokies/Gatlinburg forum about our unexpected stay. We stayed in Maggie Valley, NC for the first time - and loved it. It is part of the smokies too. :)
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