Not all museums are serious. Explore these five kooky, whimsical museums on your next South Carolina vacation. Behind each are charming stories of people who loved something unusual, and spent their lives pursuing their love.
Myrtle Beach Pinball Museum
You don't have to be a pinball wizard to delight in this '70s and '80s pop culture throwback featuring those old school arcade games you grew up with. The museum features more than two dozen classic pinball machines -- and you can play them all without dropping a single quarter! Once you pay the admission, you have a full hour to flip the silver ball around the table and get those lights flashing and bells ringing.
South Carolina Railroad Museum
Housed in the old Rockton depot in Winnsboro, this train lovers museum features an assortment of rolling stock, including freight and passengers cars, a steam locomotive, cabooses and diesel engines from CSX, Norfolk Southern and other railroads. But the big attraction here is the hour-long train ride you can take on an abandoned spur line. Ride in style in the 1924 dining car or get a seat by the window in the historic 1954 passenger car. Two cabooses with limited seating also are available.
Kazoobie Kazoo Museum and Factory Tour
The kazoo is a distinctly American instrument, invented in Macon, Ga., but the only kazoos still manufactured in the US today are made in gorgeous Beaufort by Kazoobie Kazoos. You can take a tour of the kazoo factory and make your own, custom kazoo there, and also learn everything you could want about this quirky instrument at the Kazoo Museum.
Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium
For most of his adult life, Robert Ripley traveled the world looking for the strange, the odd, the amazing and the breathtaking. He collected it all and sent it back the US. Some of his remarkable collection can be seen right on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach. From a two-headed goat to paintings on spider webs and a shrunken head Ripley himself collected on a trip to South America, the Odditorium is a museum like no other.
World of Energy
A museum at a nuclear power plant? Why, yes! World of Energy, a free museum dedicated to electricity and nuclear power is located right at the Oconee Nuclear Station in Seneca. You can even step right outside to the viewing platforms to watch the three nuclear reactors.
