Our first night there, Mom and I had carefully planned out the events for our week in Myrtle Beach. Although the ultimate goal is always to just relax, there are always a number of things we like to do and places we like to visit – and we didn’t want to waste precious time sitting around saying “What do we want to do today?” We decided that Monday would be our day for Broadway at the Beach, a giant shopping and attractions complex. I was especially interested in seeing the KISS Coffeehouse that had recently opened in Myrtle Beach.
So following our morning of intense pool competitions, we loaded up and headed to Broadway at the Beach, where the Coffeehouse was located. On the way there, we stopped at a local indoor flea market to browse. There wasn’t much that I was interested in, but there were a number of book stalls that I browsed through. I ended up buying a few cheap Whitman boys series books from the fifties including Hot Rod Road and The Mystery of the Double Kidnapping – a Power Boys Adventure. These are always fun. I grew up reading The Three Investigators and Brains Benton, and these type of books make light, nostalgic reading. For no earthly reason that I can come up with, we snapped the two photos above of the girls with a giant gumball machine and me with a tiny ball-bearing puzzle. We also swung by Best Buy where I picked up a few DVD’s and Grandpa bought Basic Instinct 2, which we watched later that week.
After we located the KISS Coffehouse, we all had dinner at Johnny Rocket’s, a retro burger joint that emulates those of the 1950’s. At any given time, the waiters and waitresses would break out into a dance to one of the era’s songs. Unfortunately, the nickel jukebox on our table didn’t work – so it was pointless that the waitress gave us each a nickel to play a song. The food was decent and we all decided to cap off the meal with a milkshake.
Rocket exhaustion.
The KISS Coffeehouse itself was one of the world’s worst disappointments. While the outside was rather cool-looking, it was difficult to believe that this one-off location, which could have potentially been a worthwhile tourist attraction, was essentially just a coffeehouse with a neat exterior. They sold nothing but coffee, frozen drinks, and sweets, so eating lunch there wasn’t even an option. Souvineers consisted of “KISS Coffeehouse” t-shirts, caps, and mugs (no magnets!!). And even the memorabilia which sparsely lined the walls was unimpressive.
Among the relics were more-recently-worn concert garb, very rough sketches of the Dynasty album cover (I mean really, it was a drawing of four circles), and Gene Simmons’ original concept art (poorly drawn) of the Coffeehouse itself. Originally he had wanted the entrance to be through four doors inside the mouths of giant KISS heads. It stands to reason that KISS music was playing throughout the cafe, but honestly I can barely remember the three minutes I spent inside of it. Oh well, at least I got my picture in front of it.
As you can see, crowds were hardly beating down their door.
Next: Ripley’s Aquarium…
That was a really fun adventure we took that August. :]. we all need to go again.
briana
January 14th, 2007