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Birthplace of Wheel of Fortune star Vanna White, MYRTLE BEACH is a brazen splurge of seaside fun, an unmitigated stretch of commercial development twenty miles down the coast from the North Carolina border at the center of the sixty-mile ''Grand Strand.'' Predominantly a family resort, it's packed fit to burst during mid-term vacations with leering, jeering students in fluorescent beachwear if you've seen the movie Shag , you'll know what to expect. Fans of crazy golf, water parks, factory outlet malls, funfairs and parasailing will be in heaven, and the beach itself isn't bad. The widest stretch is at North Myrtle Beach, a chain of small communities among which Ocean Drive is the center. South of Myrtle Beach lie Murells Inlet , a fishing port with lots of good fish restaurants, and Pawleys Island , a secluded resort once favored by plantation-owners and today retaining a far slower pace than its neighbors. Between the two on Hwy-17 is the beautifully landscaped Brookgreen Gardens (summer daily 9.30am9.30pm; rest of the year 9.30am5pm; $8.50; tel 1-800/849-1931), a former rice and indigo plantation with an outdoor display of American figurative sculpture, and the setting for many of Julia Peterkin's novels of gullah life. There's also a wildlife sanctuary, where you're likely to spot alligator and deer, and an hour-and-a-half boat tour around the area.
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