Day 8 Murrells Inlet revisited and Barefoot Landing, North Myrtle Beach

Day 8 Murrells Inlet and Barefoot Landing

Thanks to an error entering our destination into the Garmin, we over shot our destination, Barefoot landing in North Myrtle Beach, by about 20 miles.  I know, that sounds like a lot but this is such an interesting place that it didn't occur to us that there was a problem until we had traveled completely through Myrtle beach and nearly reached Murrells Inlet, the subject of an earlier post.  Like so much of the South Carolina Coast, Murrells Inlet can be visited multiple times and something new found with every visit.  We arrived at the marsh boardwalk that starts behind the pier in the picture below a little before noon.

It seems that it's always time to eat or drink down here, so we gave in to custom and stopped in at a place on the marsh called the Dead Dog Saloon. We had checked it out on Trip Advisor while walking around and knew it was pretty good. Despite the unsavory name, the place was clean and comfortable.

Gloria found the she-crab soup to be excellent as was the shrimp in garlic butter sauce.  My fish was okay, fresh and flaky, but fried with more coating than I like.  The Coleslaw was tasty but watery.  The hush puppies and honey butter were sinfully good. The staff were friendly and helpful.

Above is a picture of the Dead Dog Saloon taken from the end of the pier in the first photo. You can see the boardwalk that connects about a half dozen restaurants, bars, boat concessions and the like.  As mentioned previously, this very flat coast line consists of miles of salt marshes and navigable canals, the Inter Coastal Waterway. Fish and wildlife abound.  Here is a real, live pelican posing. In the distance, across the ICW is Pawleys Island where we spent a few hours on another excursion.

Apparently fishing charters are easy to book here but I resisted the urge and instead got up close to a tuna statue on the board walk.

We left Murrells Inlet and headed back to Barefoot Landing, having figured out that RT 17 South  needed to be entered in Garmin as South Highway 17, North MyrtleBeach, South Carolina.  Barefoot Landing is another boardwalk on the ICW, but this one is just north of all the Myrtle Beach action in North Myrtle Beach.  This attraction is a conveniently located collection of shops and restaurants connected by piers and bridges.  We've been here before and find it very relaxing.  The shops run from inexpensive to pricey, as do the eateries.  You can see from the pictures that this was a sunny day and the temperature topped out in the low seventies, with a warm sun and brisk wind. All that weather and walking dried us out and a Johnny Rockets ice cream place turned out to be a good choice to have something cool and meet up with Ernie who had been out doing errands all morning.  The ICW around Barefoot landing was filled with giant carp, around six feet long , turtles the size of garbage can lids (small ones) begging for treats purchased from feeding stations located around the pier, and sea birds like the heron below.

 I am inclined at this point to engage in a discussion of navigation.  When we travel we rely on a combination of paper maps, directions on our computer, smart phone searches, and of course asking strangers for directions.  While my personal goal is to get from one place to the next independently, the accidents and subsequent detours and conversations with tolerant locals often make for the best travel experiences. Think Columbus. We hope that, like us, you will learn to see navigational challenges as adventures along the way.