You have to be somewhere all the time... why not here?

Friday Ryan, David (the boss), and I left work a little early and swung through Macungie to pick up Jenelle before boarding a regional jet at ABE and flying south to Charlotte. There, after spending our layover in the USAirway's lounge, we took advantage of USAir's rebooking policies and scored a roundtrip ticket each by switching from Wilmington, NC, to Myrtle Beach, SC and delaying our arrival by an hour. On the ground at the beach, we hit Italiano delite ristorante Carrabba's before heading to David's house to settle in. Afterwards, we found the House of Blues Cafe for a nightcap before turning in.

Saturday was a sort of lazy old day, with beach time and swimming time and frisbee in the surf time. We explored North Myrtle Beach's beach/cool downtown and then got cleaned up for an orchestra concert at incredible Brookgreen Gardens. On the way south we picked up picnic boxes - then spread a blanket on the grass and toasted a great day. In the interval between last bites of sandwich and first sounds of strings we walked the impressive garden and sculpture gallery, noting the gathering darkness overhead to the west. As distant rumbling whipped clouds and sent incredible bolts of lightning landward, the concert was delayed. Instead of the Charleston Symphony in the garden we had wine in the car while the storm roiled overhead, then heard official word of cancellation and drove north to Crocodile Rocks dueling piano bar at Broadway at the Beach, where we joined a group of revellers in out-partying the storm.