As many of you know, I’m a big fan of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I travel to this not-so-distant beach destination year round, and each season, there is always a good time for the active traveler, the sand and foam enthusiast.

    As I have previously reported, I spend many 4-day weekends away at the beach in the autumn and winter, when the rates are lower and the folks are sparse in company. This last trip, I spent 3 days in Myrtle Beach. In the very late spring of early June, and it was the best of both worlds: Sunny and warm enough to swim, and the heavy summer crowds had not shown up as of yet.

    Our stay at the South Beach timeshare anchored this short trip. I booked a week in a comfortable studio, with me and my wife staying 3 days, with my two youngest children filling out the week in our stead. I would have loved to stay, but I do have my work.

    The Breezes Beach Club giving their guests access to the Beach, with swimming pool: Above. From atop the South Beach Breezes Club, we look southeast toward the jet ski competition component of the Sun Fun Festival.



    On this short trip, we stayed close to our temporary domicile, and partook of the activities that were within walking distance. Our beach respite began June 4, in which we found ourselves smack in the middle of the Myrtle Beach sponsored Sun Fun Festival.

    From atop the Breezes club, we take a zoomed in look at the Jet Ski Competition near the Springmaid Pier: Above. The competitors readying their craft for the competition: Below #1, the racing roar of the jet ski - below #2.





    Those rowdy riders of the waves: Above and below.



    The Sun Fun Festival buffeted the South Beach resort on two sides, both within walking distances, and occasional earshot. On the Beach, just a few hundred paces from the South Beach Breezes Club - the beach access point for the guests of the resort - there the Jet Ski competition segment of the Sun Fun Festival was held. About two miles from the resort up Farrow Parkway, located at the Crabtree Gym and Recreation area just across the parkway from Market Commons (mixed used development), was the ground version of the festival at sea. Here, set up on the expansive green-space next to the manmade lake was the stage for the long list of acts, the concession vendors, and the children’s play stations.



    While the children enjoyed their social interaction with those of their own diminutive community, and close by their congregated horde, stood the stage, where the regional and national acts played that Friday night, June 4th, and all evening June 5th. Friday evening, before a sparse crowd upon that green-space, there played upon that stage: The Castaways, a shagging and beach music band; and Too Much Sylvia, mostly a Four Seasons cover band.

    The crowd waits for the Uncle Kracker show upon the green-space of the Crabtree Gym Recreation Area: Above. Uncle Kracker: Below.



    Saturday’s musical lineup was a bit more serious in elevating the level of talent to that of national act Uncle Kracker from Detroit. Kracker played tunes from Kenny Rogers’s anthem, “The Gambler” to the mischievous Uncle’s own most current “Good to be me.” It was a good show until the rain, which also cut short the fire works which was to punctuate the Sun Fun Festival.