A post in which it is the beach!*

I was up early this morning, and started chatting.  I knew I was too excited to go back to sleep.  As it turns out, that was a good call, and I had a buddy visit.

Since Rhonda had exhorted us to send her plenty of pictures, I sent her this from the balcony of my room.

Afterwards I took a little nap while I waited for the boys to get up. We went out for a very nice (and late) breakfast when they did, and then went to the Piggly Wiggly for groceries, which has become kind of a

tradition on this trip.  Billy collects their t-shirts, which amusingly say "I'm Big on the Pig".  I tried not to buy too much because we had so much left over last year, but we planned for me to make breakfast tomorrow morning, which has also become kind of a tradition. 

Afterwards we took the groceries back to the room and then got registered.

By this time, it was almost time for me to go to my photo shoot with Sean and Eddie.  I met them last year.  They took my celebratory pictures when my hair had grown back in and all.  They are super nice guys.  By this time the boys had decided they might want their picture made too, so we all went up to the BIG suite on top of the hotel.  It was really nice - markedly nicer than the regular rooms.  Soon things were underway with Douglas-Hensley Photography.  I think they got some pretty good shots.

Afterwards, I was pretty wiped.  I went back to my room and had a sandwich.  I fooled around online for a bit, but I was tired.  I lay down for a little nap, and the next thing I knew, the boys were calling me about dinner.

There was still no consensus on where we would go, so Russ asked for a recommendation from the desk clerk.  We found the place, but it looked pretty sketchy to me.  The boys were still game, but when we went in there were two guys from the run there.  They said they had just had an over-priced and terrible appetizer, and warned us off.  We left.

Since they wanted seafood, and didn't want to drive down to Murrell's Inlet (we were starving) I was out of recommendations.  I had suggested the Sea Captain's House, but I didn't think we'd be able to get in.  After some discussion, we decided to go over just to see.  As it happened, Russ's luck held and they had just gone off a wait when we got there. 

I love the Sea Captain's House.  It's been there since 1930, and is one of two ocean front restaurants in Myrtle Beach.  The atmosphere is relaxed, but upscale.  The Sea Captain's House has nothing to prove.  Their food is excellent, they know it, and so does everyone else.  They have expanded twice, and you usually still can't get a table without waiting an hour or so.  It was astonishing to walk in tonight (as late as it was) and be seated immediately. 

Our waitress was very nice, the she-crab soup (repeatedly voted the best on the Grand Strand) was completely up to par.  The salad dressing was homemade gorgeously delicious.  The guys were very impressed with their food, and if my entree was the worst at the table, it was still significantly better than I would have had anywhere else around.  The desserts were divoon. 

Completely sated, we waddled back to the hotel contentedly.  There were after hours parties every night, and tonight's was the underwear party.  Now I had planned just to wear a pair of boxer shorts (I don't really do the gay underwear - it isn't designed for my body, it's expensive, and it's uncomfortable), but the boys insisted, and I tried on several pair in their room before deciding on a banana hammock.  I haven't worn one in years, but Logan was very encouraging, and with a t-shirt it didn't look too bad. 

We laid around their room til it was time to go, and then I went to my room to don my borrowed feathers.  I was a little apprehensive about getting in the elevator in my skivvies, but we had the whole hotel booked, and it was midnight at that point, so I thought "What the hay?" and just did it. 

I have to say that the underwear party was a good bit more exciting in my mind than it was in real life.  Most of the guys had clothes on.  It was chilly.  The room they had the party in was really too small for all the guys, and no one wanted to be outside because of the temperature (shrinkage = death for gay men when it comes to attracting guys).  Since you couldn't move inside, I wandered around outside (the room gave onto the pool deck) for a bit and talked to the guys before deciding I'd had enough.  Then I went to bed.  There's plenty o' vacation left, no reason to try to do it all in one day, right?