Great music, dancing and fun were once a regular occurrence at Charlie’s Place in Myrtle Beach. Even in the puzzling days of Jim Crow-era segregation, both whites and blacks enjoyed each other’s company and reveled in the unifying sounds of jazz, Motown and beach music while they danced away. Today, an annual event is held to celebrate the music and the culture that thrived in the area in bygone days. The fourth annual Myrtle Beach Jazz Festival returns October 4-6, 2019 on historic Carver Street in Myrtle Beach! Charlie’s Place was an…

Fall is a great time to take a break from our hectic lives for a relaxing vacation in Myrtle Beach. And while you may want to spend the day blissfully resting along the area’s beautiful beaches, you don’t want to pass up the many activities in Myrtle Beach that stretch your mind and awaken your senses. From taking in beautiful art and natural beauty, to learning a new skill or watching amazing performers, there are many ways to stretch your mind in Myrtle Beach this fall. Here are just a few: Franklin G. Burroughs - Simeon B. Chapin Art…

Can’t You Sea? is a powerful new exhibit at the Burroughs and Chapin Art Museum running through September 8, 2019. Can’t You Sea? brings awareness to one of our world’s most immediate and biggest environmental problems--plastic ocean pollution—through artwork made from plastic found in coastal areas around the world. Six artists/activists, Dianna Cohen, Alejandro Duran, Sayaka Ganz, Pam Longobardi, Aurora Robson, and Kirkland Smith, employ discarded plastic as both an artistic medium and as subject matter. One of my favorite pieces was composed…

The Myrtle Beach area is known for its 60-mile long beach and a plethora of amazing attractions, but like most places, the region also has an interesting history. Most of the Grand Strand area resides within Horry County (pronounced O-ree), and residents and visitors are lucky enough to have the Horry County Museum at their disposal, so they can learn about the area’s rich history and partake in many educational programs. Did you know that Horry County was once home to Native American tribes, or that events from both the Revolutionary and…

Last weekend we caught a wonderful ‘Pops in the Park’ performance by the Long Bay Symphony at Marina Park at Grande Dunes. Beyond the perfect weather and setting (Marina Park is situated along the waterway), the music was phenomenal. The Long Bay Symphony is the Myrtle Beach area’s professional orchestra and while they usually perform at the Myrtle Beach High School Music and Arts Center, they can be heard at other special events and locations throughout the year. I’ve talked to many visitors and new residents to the area who are often…

Festival brings another artistic dimension to the Grand Strand. Lights, camera, action! Tickets are now on sale for the fourteenth annual Myrtle Beach International Film Festival (MBIFF), which takes place April 23-27, 2019 at the Grand 14 Theater in the Market Common. You can join film enthusiasts from all over the country and enjoy an outstanding line up of 67 films and five events! Jerry Dalton, founder and director of the MBIFF, combed through submissions from 128 countries to find what he feels are the best films in the world. There are…

Myrtle Beach, SC – March 15, 2019 — Grande Dunes is excited to announce the 2019 Marina Park events lineup. Marina Park is an outdoor music and event lawn located along the Intracoastal Waterway and next to the Grande Dunes Marina in Myrtle Beach, SC. The event season will begin on Saturday, April 6 with a Long Bay Symphony Pops Concert from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. To kick off the 20 th anniversary of Grande Dunes, the Long Bay Symphony will perform music ranging from Broadway to Hollywood. Tickets are on sale now. On Saturday, May 4 Grande Dunes…

This past Valentine’s Day--instead of our usual fancy dinner out--my husband and I took a couple’s pottery class at the recently opened Lineta Pritchard Pottery Studio. The pottery studio is located downstairs at the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach (it’s a lot easier just to call it the Myrtle Beach Art Museum) and offers a combination of different classes for all levels of experience. We took the class with two other couples, and we were all beginners. It was such a fun change of pace from a normal date night,…

Hopsewee Plantation-while just about 30 miles south of central Myrtle Beach-feels worlds away. This National Historic Landmark was built about 40 years before the American Revolutionary War, and is the birthplace of Thomas Lynch, Jr., one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. This private residence is open from January 30 through December 15 in 2018, Tuesday through Saturday, with tours on the hour from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This historically significant local landmark is by far one of my favorite places to take visiting friends and…

This coming weekend, October 19 and 20, packs a lot of exciting events in the Myrtle Beach area. From the Loris Bog-Off in northern Horry County to the 29th Annual Wooden Boat Show on the southern end of the Grand Strand in Georgetown, South Carolina… there is a lot going on. The Georgetown Wooden Boat show is always held on the third weekend in October and features one of the Southeast’s best wooden boat exhibits. More than 140 classic wooden boats are displayed both on land and in water, and the festival features everything from knot tying…