Gordon: Oh, baby, baby, gator!
- Renata: Oh, yeah, I see!
Wow, it's big!
- I didn't know gators came all the way up here.
- Well, guess what?
They do.
We're in South Carolina, United States East Coast.
And here you can also see alligators in certain lakes.
Nothing is a surprise today anymore.
Earlier we've already seen sharks at the beach.
Oh, my God, there's a shark!
That's in the previous video.
Now keep watching to discover more about this area here
called Grand Strand.
We're visiting beach communities south of Myrtle Beach.
In the last video, we showed Surfside Beach and Garden City Beach.
Now it's time for Murrells Inlet.
We started at beautiful park,
Huntington Beach State Park.
- $8 for two or 8...
- $8 each.
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
- Thank you.
Wow, that was easy. - Yeah.
- Yeah, didn't even ask for anything else.
That's really good.
We bought the ticket online, we just showed the order number,
and that was it.
- Ah! Feeding alligators, prohibited.
- Yes, there are alligators here.
- It says by law, but I would just think by safety.
Alligators all the way up here. Who knew?
Gator, gator, gator, where are you?
Come on, gator. Gator!
- Wow, this is beautiful.
- Is that them over there? - It could be.
- Gator, where are you?
- Yeah, there's an alligator right there.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
- Do you see him? - Yeah.
- We'll be back later.
Oh, we can have our picnic right here.
The beach is right over there.
We got some sandwiches on the way to the park.
We got some leftover donuts,
and the taffies from the first day.
Good for a picnic.
Okay, baby. This is our allowance for today.
This is it. Okay?
Two for each.
Mmm. Still good.
Oh, some other people picnicking here, too.
I guess we had the same idea.
Oh, look at that!
Between May and October,
sea turtles may come here to the beach
to lay their eggs.
So they ask everyone not to use lights at the beach.
Look at this, how interesting.
There's something similar to a carpet here
leading to the beach,
and that's to make the beach accessible.
You could come in a wheelchair, for example,
it makes it much easier.
Look at this one coming, as an example.
So it's cool if you have an RV, right?
You camp here, have your beach.
You don't need to go anywhere for the beach.
-Exactly.
- And they have all this structure here for showers.
There is also a castle in a park. Look at this.
It's not exactly an authentic medieval castle,
but it's one inspired by the Moorish style in Europe.
If you watched my videos in Portugal,
you'll remember that I talked a lot about the Moors in Lisbon, right?
They were North African Muslims
that occupied Portugal and Spain for centuries.
And it turns out that the couple who built this
came in contact with this culture in Spain,
and they loved it so much that they decided to build
their winter home just like those that they saw overseas.
The name of the castle is Atalaya.
This is a word in Spanish that means watchtower.
[music]
Can I get two tickets, please?
- Guide: Yes. Have you been here before?
- No. - It's a self-guided tour.
- And it's $2 a person for everybody over six.
They have plaques on the walls in each one of the room
to give you much more history.
One and a half years to build this place,
and there's over 2 million bricks used in this place.
[music]
Oh, baby, imagine living in a house and you have all this outdoor space.
- Yeah. - How amazing.
One thing that is very interesting,
all this was built during the 1930s depression
here in the U.S.
And they wanted to contribute somehow to the local economy here.
So all this was built by local workforce.
They trained them, so this is the result.
-They came down and paid them $2 a day
if they were single,
and $5 a day if they had a family
which, I'm from Detroit,
and Henry Ford was doing the same thing
at the Ford Motor Company.
So it helped during the Depression.
And all the bricks were made also locally
about three hours away where the clay was better.
And so it helped that community also.
Oh, look at how big,
47 rooms here.
[music]
He was 6'5".
Wow.
So he needed a custom-built shower.
- He needed everything custom built.
- Wow, this is really high.
Look at the size of the laundry room, baby.
It's huge, huh?
- Grande.
The couple who built this was obviously rich.
He was a philanthropist and a poet.
She was a sculptor.
And after he passed, they took all the furniture
back to their hometown.
[music]
They also had a lot of animals here.
There's a bunch of outdoor space.
The couple also built a beautiful botanical garden,
it's just across the highway from here.
It's called Brookgreen Gardens.
But it's actually much bigger than this entire park here.
There's a zoo there inside,
there are boat tours.
Some of Anna's sculptures are there,
so we would need another day to be able to visit.
So this is Huntington Beach State Park.
We're looking at the map here on my phone because...
At least we didn't get a map here when we arrived.
Luckily, I saved this one.
It's really big here, right?
It's hard to know where to go.
Where to, baby?
- You want to go to the campground?
Go to south and we just do...
Can zip through there, and then up there.
- Yeah, good idea.
- Look at all these people.
- Wow, totally full.
- Everybody gets a picnic table on the back.
Did you see that?
- No, the... Oh, yeah?
- Yeah. - How cool.
- This must be the showers here.
The toilets and the showers.
[music]
- This park is famous for the wildlife, especially bird watching.
It's considered one of the best bird watching habitats
on the east coast.
Just listen to it.
- Do you hear all the birds? - Yeah.
Oh, look at that white one over there.
There's a white and a black one there.
You see? - Yes.
More than 300 species of birds have been recorded here.
- Oh, baby, baby, gator!
- Oh, wow!
- Right at the end of the... kind of island right at that dark...
- Oh, yeah, I see.
Wow, it's big!
Wow, it's a gator right there
Nice.
[music]
- ♪ Come on, I saw a gator, gator, gator ♪
I saw a gator. - Yeah.
- I didn't know gators came all the way up here.
- Oh, look at you, Gordon.
Rushing, rushing... [laughs]
Looking for gators.
This is really beautiful. look at all this.
[music]
I think this area here is more for birds, right?
Because it's too shallow for the gators?
- I have no idea.
[music]
Now, what?
Let's go to that other place see if we see more gators.
Oh, there's one right there.
- Yeah.
- Is it? - I think so.
Oh, wow.
You see them right here.
Now, it's better if you have a camera with a zoom
to be able to film them
because they are not necessarily close to the observation decks.
[music]
Oh, he got it. [laughs]
Oh, wow.
This was the day of the animals.
We saw two sharks, two gators.
It's a draw.
- Nature. - Nature, and countless birds, too.
- Bumblebees. - Yes.
- Dragonflies. - Yeah.
This next place we're going is probably the best place
in the entire area for a happy hour
and to enjoy the sunset.
Ouch!
[music]
Murrells Inlet is another very charming beach community,
very laid-back, very quiet.
This is probably the busiest avenue in town.
It's not as commercial as Myrtle Beach.
Free parking everywhere here in the downtown area.
I love it.
Oh, this is so lovely.
Murrells Inlet has an interesting history related to pirates.
Real pirates.
In the 1700s, there were pirates here along the South Carolina coast
because they were very interested in all the goods
being transported by the vessels.
And here, these pirates could find some really good hiding places.
Look at this, how cool, baby.
You can rent, take to the ocean,
use the slide in the middle of the ocean.
- Yeah. - That is so creative.
[music]
There is something very unique about Murrells Inlet
compared to all the other beach communities.
Look at this. It's this boardwalk right here.
It's called MarshWalk.
Half-a-mile long boardwalk where you see a lot of nature,
wildlife, people having a good time,
but also, look at that,
some restaurants over there for later.
[music]
A lot of these boats here are available to rent,
and you find information like this of how to rent them.
See? Fishing charters...
Very cool.
[music]
Cheers!
- Cheers. - Cheers.
What is this? [laughs]
Such a lovely area, isn't it?
- Yeah, it's a great area. - Very, very nice.
A lot of restaurants with outdoor seating.
Here we found a bar that you can just buy
whatever you want inside, and come sit outdoors.
It is amazing. I'm loving it.
- Guess how much? - What? For the drinks?
- Yeah. - How much?
$3.50.
- For what, for your beer?
- No, for both. - No, way.
- No way. - No way.
- No.
- In Myrtle Beach, we paid that for one iced tea.
- Yeah
So, baby, this is salt water.
- Connected to the ocean.
- Connected to the ocean. Yeah.
Really cool, huh?
I guess the ocean is that way, right?
- Yeah. - Ahead?
[music]
Posing for a picture?
[laughs]
You know that there's a real pirate history here in town, right?
- Yeah.
Pirates everywhere. - Yeah.
- Even in Pittsburgh.
[music]
This is so much bigger and better than I thought.
You should definitely come here when you come to Myrtle Beach.
- That was close.
- Did you get it? - Yeah.
- He's coming for me. - Yeah.
- He doesn't like me on this pier.
[laughs]
- It is his pier. - Yeah.
[music]
Back to the hotel
- Almost every night or every other night
you see fireworks here at the beach,
just random people throwing fireworks.
They're not organized by the city.
I'm not even sure that it's allowed here at the beach.
But it's really interesting.
And for us, as we're so high, we see them basically at eye level.
You can come to the balcony at any time, day or night,
and you see people at the beach treasure hunting.
You know, at night, you just see the flashlights all over.
They're looking for seashells or metals,
precious metals, I guess.
Seriously, I've seen them at 2, 3 in the morning.
That's a whole other business in Myrtle Beach.