Build-An-Empire
Every mall in America, including the Mall of America, has a Build-A-Bear Workshop. For those that don't feel like building a bear, you can hop into a Friends 2B Made store, which is basically a Build-A-Doll for little girls (and no, I'm not being sexist; there were forty-seven (slight exaggeration) female dolls and two male dolls to choose from). In addition to these stores, Myrtle Beach also sports Build-A-Dino, a store where kids can create (you guessed it!) stuffed dinosaurs. There are only a handful of these nationwide and if the response at Myrtle Beach is any indication, this store will soon be extinct. Ha!Myrtle Beach is also currently the sole location of the newest entry in the Build-A-Bear empire, RideMakerz. This place is going to be H-U-G-E. First of all, anything that substitutes an S with a Z is automatically Extreme. Secondly, this is a place where kids can create their own cars by picking a body style and customizing it with different sounds, rims, spoilers, and decals (please replace every S with a Z in the preceding sentence to get the full RideMakerz effect).
You're probably thinking, "They can build their own cars? Big deal."
It is a big deal. I live in the heart of NASCAR country. Myrtle Beach is in the heart of NASCAR country. And let me tell you, that place was packed every time we passed by it. And I think there were more men building cars than little boys or girls.
Seriously, buy stock in Build-A-Bear now. If they put a RideMakerz in every mall in the South, they will be printing their own money soon.
And in case you're curious, Zoey built a doll which she named Princess (yeah, my girl's got tons of originality oozing from her pores). Zed built a crocodile named Ducka Ducka Ducka. Ducka^3 rocks the Yankees pinstripes.
Change Is Good. Everyone Hates Change.
I know I slag Myrtle Beach, but I really love it. That's who I am, it's what I do. I'm a bitch. I'm a cynic.I've been vacationing at Myrtle Beach forever (at least twenty-five years). In that time, I've seen many attractions come and go:
- The Rocky And Bullwinkle theme restaurant. I loved this show and I made sure I ate at this place. I think I was the only one.
- The campgrounds near my in-laws' condo were recently sold (52 acres at $1 million/acre!!!) and are being turned into high-priced luxury condos (a one-bedroom job will set you back half a million).
- The Pavilion, an amusement park and home of the Magic Attic (a little teenybopper club where a boy in the 1950s could kiss his first girl and marry her two months later), was razed this past fall. No one knows what's going to go in its place, but based on its location (beachfront and at the heart of Myrtle Beach), it'll probably be something expensive. But for everyone wishing to reconnect with their childhood, they moved some of the rides from The Pavilion to a popular shopping center and renamed it Nostalgia Park. And every ride costs $3. So it would cost my family $12 to ride the carousel once. Nostalgia bites.
I am a major music lover. I am a major rollercoaster lover. I should probably be buried there.
They had a Backstage Tour where you could see models of some of the rides and attractions that will be in the park. Here are some of the more interesting ones:
- Led Zeppelin: The Ride -- a two-loop steel rollercoaster that plays Whole Lotta Love the entire time you're on the ride. The actual cart you ride in is shaped like a zeppelin.
- Slippery When Wet -- a "splashy" suspended rollercoaster.
- Shake Rattle And Rollercoaster -- An old-timey wooden coaster.
- Bump N Slam -- Punk vs. Disco bumper cars.
- Punk Pit -- "A bounce house for Anarchists of all ages." A large punk-themed inflatable bounce house.
- Roadies Stunt Show -- this is a show where roadies demonstrate what they do.
- Magic Mushroom Garden -- The world's largest turning black light poster. I looked at this and still have no idea what it does. But it sounds interesting.
Inside, there were tons of rock memorabilia, free video games (Pong! Galaga! Ms. Pac-Man!), and an ungodly amount of merchandise (t-shirts, pins, bumper stickers, etc., etc., etc.). But the best part was the Fish Display.
The Hard Rock Park logo was projected on the floor. The projection had fish swimming around the logo. But when you walked on the logo, it would ripple. If you walked really fast, you would create a lot of waves and totally distort the logo. But if you stayed still, the water would become calm again.
Zed quickly figured this out. He would stand back, wait for it to become calm, then run into the middle, and then run back off the projected image. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. He did this for about ten minutes as an audience grew around him, giggling and cooing at him. He had a blast splashing the fake water.
The park is scheduled to open next August, but I have my doubts. It doesn't really look like they've done that much work from what I can tell. They had just begun laying the track for the Zeppelin ride the week before we got there.
Whenever it opens, I'll be there within the first month. Who's coming with me? Road trip!
Song of the day: Rock And Roll Heaven by The Righteous Brothers
