Oh, Dear Readers, this place was beautiful! If you have a chance to go, you must!
I’m not a beach person. I was born a redhead, so the sun turns me into a lobster far too quickly. I’m also pale enough to blind you. And my memory of the beach (a sandy one, not a rocky one like in Maine) is from a visit to California when I was seventeen. My younger sister was born in San Francisco, but I don’t remember much, as we are only fifteen months apart and moved shortly after her birth. I went at seventeen to see my oldest brother, who was at UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), and then on to California with a friend who worked for Universal Studios when they had offices in Denver, Colorado. As we stopped short of stepping onto the beach, a little boy was running with his friends, stopped in front of us, dropped his pants, pooped, and then ran on to play. That was it for me. YUCK! I had no desire after that, although we went to the beach in Galveston, Texas, a muddy, ugly mess, when our child was around three years old. That allowed our child to experience a beach, and then I was done…until Myrtle Beach.
We stayed at Apache Family Campground featuring Apache Pier. It is right on the beach with just the sand dunes separating you from the ocean. When we pulled into our site, I immediately found these two shells:
They were sitting right by the picnic table area. After we set up, we took the dogs for a walk and then on to the beach to check everything out. There were plenty of clamshell pieces all over the place:
I’m sure if I’d gotten up really early, I’d have found more. Once you’re retired, why get up at the crack of dawn? LOL. But I did get lucky one day and found this guy – I put a soda can beside it for size comparison:
It’s cracked at the top, so the regulars didn’t want it. I don’t care. I was excited to find it!
The dogs enjoyed it, but Sophie wouldn’t go near the water:
Tristan, on the other hand, was not afraid of the water at all. But his big interest was in getting near the crows and seagulls:
Our two pups sure add a lot to life. I loved this late morning photo of the sun pouring onto the water:
And these little bird footprints in the sand:
This is a photo of Apache Pier – and the birds Tristan wanted to go after:
We went for a walk on the pier (no dogs allowed) where many people were fishing. We walked to the end and simply listened to the waves while we looked out to the horizon. It was so peaceful.
I grabbed a couple of photos of the rolling waves coming in:
And the foam left when the tide rolled out:
More waves. Can’t you hear them coming in and smell the salty sea?:
I found a new appreciation for the beach. Even though there were hotels on either side of the campground, it was so easy to block them out and simply be there, on the beach, in the midst of everything, without noticing anything else. This is definitely a place I want to return to soon.
Next Up: Traveling Back To Utah
On Hummingbirds Wings 