Beach lovers looking for A place to relax as summer winds down may want to check out Myrtle Beach, S.C.

My wife, Patrice, and I recently took our 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son and nephew to Myrtle Beach to find out what makes that city among the most popular beach destinations in the country.

It was a bit of a drive from my home in Birmingham, Alabama ( about 500 miles or a nine hour drive) but it was worth the trip. The beach, called the Grand Strand, was not as crowded as I expected and offers some of the most striking views of the Atlantic Ocean I've ever seen.

It is also one of the most commercialized cities I've ever visited, making it obvious that tourism is the economic engine that makes Myrtle Beach go. The city, which has only 24,500 residents, attracts nearly 14 million visitors a year, largely because of its beaches and golf courses.

According to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, the 60-mile stretch of Carolina coastline centered by Myrtle Beach has 120 golf courses where golf fans play a total of 4.2 million rounds a year.

Horry County, where Myrtle Beach is located, has more than 1,700 full-service restaurants, 460 hotels with 72,400 rooms in peak seasons and 300 outlet shopping stores.

Though Myrtle Beach wasn't incorporated until 1938, the city's chamber traces its beginnings to 1900 when Burroughs & Collins Co., a timber firm with extensive beach-front holdings, began developing the area's resort potential by constructing a railroad to the Grand Strand beach.

The company built the first hotel, the Seaside Inn, in 1901 and began selling oceanfront lots. F.E. Burroughs, wife of Burroughs & Collins' founder, hosted a contest to name the town. Myrtle Beach was chosen because of the many wax myrtle trees growing wild along the shore.

In the 1920s, developers began building upscale resorts and hotels. By 1936, an inter- coastal waterway was opened to pleasure boats and commercial shipping. The area's appeal to families and tourists led to Myrtle Beach's incorporation two years later.

Resorts began to crop up, including Sea Mist, a nine-unit hotel opened in 1954 by Jason and Tena Ammons. Today known as Sea Mist Oceanfront Resort, the complex now has expanded to 800 units on 14 acres including a water park and amusement park, making it one of the largest resorts in Myrtle Beach.

My family stayed at Sea Mist, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The resort is now run by Leigh Ammons Meese, whose grandparents founded the resort. What I liked most about Sea Mist was the fact that it has a water park, amusement park and miniature golf course on its 14-acre campus along with a video game room and a corner grocery. Joined with the fact that the beach is within walking distance, we could have spent our entire vacation at Sea Mist without having to drive anywhere.

What to see and do in Myrtle Beach

If you do make it to Myrtle Beach, here are some things you can't afford to miss:

* Golf - Myrtle Beach is famous for its golf and claims to have some of the world's greatest collection of public access courses. The area became a Mecca for golf beginning in the 1960s, when developers began building many new courses a year.

Today, the Myrtle Beach area is home to 120 different golf courses. "Though family reunions, church groups and beach lovers account for a large bulk of their business, Sea Mist is among many resorts that cater heavily to golf enthusiasts each year, especially in the busy spring and fall months. Golf packages ranging on simple courses for novices to world-class professional courses designed by such big names as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Robert Trent Jones are available," said Lutricia Goodwin, Sea Mist's director of golf.

* Broadway at the Beach - What sets Myrtle Beach apart from other beaches we've visited, such as Gulf Shores and Destin, is the wide variety of attractions appealing to families of all ages. One can't-miss attraction is Broadway at the Beach, a 350-acre $250 million entertainment and retail destination.

It includes an aquarium, a live-action theater that hosts plays and music shows, a NASCAR Speed Park, an IMAX Theater and 16-screen Carmike Cinema, a Pirates of the Caroli­ nas family center and a putt- putt golf course with a dragon/ castle theme. Broadway at the Beach also features 100 specialty shops and restaurants such as Hard Rock Café, Planet Hollywood and NASCAR Café around a 23-acre lake stocked with hundreds of huge catfish begging to be fed by tourists who plunk quarters into fish food machines on the pier.

The NASCAR Speed Park is a can't miss, especially for die- hard race fans wanting to experience driving miniature race cars. It has race tracks ranging from toddler-sized cars that my 5-year-old daughter, Naja, could drive alone to a complex course called The Intimidator in honor of the late Dale Earnhardt. My favorite was the Thunder Road, a road course that requires drivers to have a valid driver's license before getting behind the wheel.

The only drawback to NASCAR Speed Park: none of the rides were appropriate for my 2-year-old son, Royce.

* Family Kingdom Amusement Park and Water Park, Sea Mist Oceanfront Resort (Telephone 800-200-8687, Web site - www.seamist.com) - The amusement park isn't big, but has 35 rides with a variety appealing to families including a carousel, roller coaster, go karts, bumper cars and a Ferris Wheel. Family Kingdom Water Park, located across the street, has Myrtle Beach's largest adult water slide, a lazy river ride, kiddie pools and other activities for adults and young toddlers.

The greatest appeal of Sea Mist is that its family packages include free daily passes to both the water park and amusement park. Plus I liked the fact that our complex was a few yards from Sea Mist's smaller on-site water park, a large game room and outside playground, giving the kids enjoyable activities just a few yards away.

While we were there, Sea Mist's Family Kingdom Amusement Park and Water Park were being filmed by the Turner South cable channel, which is featuring some of the nation's top family-owned amusement parks across the country. A week before we arrived, the resort hosted hundreds of black bikers in the area for an annual bike gathering, one of two held annually in Myrtle Beach that attract thousands of motorcyclists from across the country.

* Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament (888-935-6878, www.medievaltimes.com) - The Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament was incredible, enabling you to experience how kings and queens in the medieval era entertained their guests with knights battling it out on horseback or in hand-to-hand combat, sometimes to the death. Patrons walk through the courtyard of a Medieval castle designed to parallel those of the 11th century.

Guests are given paper crowns bearing the color of the knight they will cheer for during the competition. They are then led to one of eight sections (we were placed in an area where several hundred people bearing red and black hats cheered for the knight wearing red and black). Details such as pewter serving plates, no silverware and lavish costumes for the king, princes and knights are true to the era, along with the magnificent Andalusian stallions that steal the spotlight of every show.

Medieval Times officials claim the horses are direct de­ scendants of the steeds European kings and knights rode into battle. Noble guests feasting and cheering for a new champion in the Grand Ceremonial Arena are no more than a few rows from the action unfolding be­ fore them. Trumpeters herald the start of the contests and knights on horseback battle with lances clanging loudly.

The action is so close you can see sparks fly whenever the knights' swords collide. Diners need to be prepared though: with no silverware, your hands can get kind of messy. And you won't leave hungry: be prepared for some big healthy portions.

* The Original Benjamin's Calabash Seafood Restaurant, 9593 N. Kings Highway - Telephone 843-449-0821, www.original­ benjamins.com - The Original Benjamin's offers 170 items to choose from and bills itself as offering the world's largest seafood buffet.

The food is wonderful and the atmosphere is appealing to families with children. Have your camera ready for some wonderful photo opportunities both inside and outside the restaurant. Entering Original Benjamins, you see what the owners claim are the largest model ships in the world. One is a 30-foot model of the famous Queen Elizabeth ocean liner, used during World War II to transport troops.

Also in the lobby is the Mayflower, a 35-foot model used in the 1952 movie "Plymouth Adventure," starring Spencer Tracey and Lloyd Bridges. That picture won an Academy Award for special effects. One good plus is the restau­ rant's location: it is only two miles from a Tanger Outlet mall with more than 100 brand- name stores and one-fourth mile north of the Carolina Opry.

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