My flight layover was in Charlotte, N.C., which the next few shots were taken at. I was really impressed with the beauty of their airport.

When we landed in Myrtle Beach, S.C., there were 3 charter buses ready to load all of our bags and take us to our resort destination.

Second stop in the same room was waiting in line (as shown here) to sign up for the departure time the following day for the tour of TW's huge manufacturing plant in Hemingway (about 1.5 hours' drive away). They had buses departing every 15 minutes from 7:45 - 10:00, with you choosing which one you wanted to be on.

The Front Desk.

Front lobby area. They had nice, cool & refreshing fruit-flavored iced water, made the old-fashioned way.

Adjacent to the front lobby area, in an inner court-yard area that faced the pool area and beach beyond that.

My room was right next to the opened window on the second level from the bottom in this photo. Our view faced right over this covered lower part of the resort but we could look sideways and see the pool and ocean area.

Their inside pool & jacuzzi. I never saw anyone IN any of the pools or IN the ocean, but keep in mind that it WAS December that we were there. Temps during our 4 day/3 night stay were in the 40's - 60's.

Beautiful pool(s) so I got lots of pictures of them from different directions. (sorry, but I couldn't resist!)

Look beyond the closed, blue table umbrella's and you'll see in the background their "hammock park". First time I'd ever seen such a park but it sure waa pretty.

Beyond the hammock park was their private wooden bridge to take you out to the beach area.

Picture of the Atlantic ocean.

Kathi (on the right) recruited me into TW and is now a Director. Susie, (on the left) recruited Kathi and is now a 3-star Director. They were pouring over papers showing what would be on sale during the next day's tour of the TW plant for all of us, deciding what they were going to buy and how many of each item (every item had a limit as to how many any one person could order).

View from our room's open doorway looking out over the open patio area that has those great, wooden rocking chairs around under the covered areas.

All the stuff I accumulated just during my check-in process. The bright green object is a "purge" item, created when they need to change the color of hot plastic in the machines to a different color. They "purge" the remaining color out and make something out of it just for fun, not to be sold. I'd say this could hold either pens/pencils, some dried flowers, a tall & slender beverage glass, or ...???

Kanwar is TW's President for North America, so I was to be seated at his table for the most formal of our 3 evening dinners. (As it turned out, he and I were seated right next to one another that night.)

Each person was given a Visa credit card, loaded with $40.00. There was an accompanying letter saying that they realized that our schedule would have everyone be "on their own" for about two meals and they didn't want anyone to go hungry. So, we were given enough funds to ensure we wouldn't go hungry.

As we were walking in the front doors, the President and all of his Regional Vice President's made 2 lines and continually clapped as we came through (Imagine the clapping they did while 9 charter buses unloaded about 550 people!!) They had rented an entire restaurant for this meal.

We had a wonderful Deluxe, Southern BBQ dinner with all the trimmings.

Susie and I. She is SUCH an inspiration to all of her "down-line", which is several hundred people in just 5.5 years she's been in TW. She is also one of only 5 people in the U.S. currently serving as a 3-star Director level.

After dinner, we celebrated two hours of recognition of people who had climbed to the top during the 3 month period that this trip contest was going on, right after a comedy show with the "Blues Brothers' comedy act".

TW's North America VP's plus some of Kanwar's main players at his Corp headquarters who all played major parts in putting on this trip for us.

My Director, Kathi was one of those who made it on stage that night. Go Kathi!!!!! During the 3 month contest, her team (that I'm a part of) ranked 3rd in overall team sales. This photo shows Kathi's back just after being called up to the stage and walked towards the growing group on stage.

Kathi & Susie right after Kathi came off the stage.

Kathi and I.

Each female who had earned this trip was given a super-soft & warm shawl. Men who had earned this trip (or their wives had earned enough for them to accompany them) were given similar red-crocheted neck scarves. This was my roommate for the trip, (another consultant under Kathi's group), modeling her shawl.

Getting our group started to be lined up for our group shot.

Just inside the doors, is this ancient TW machine (probably one of the first-ever designed).

Across the entryway from that TW machine was this huge plaque, with all the names of people who had earned this particular trip. I later asked and found out they haven't had a TW consultant tour like ours at this plant since 2001.

Susie made sure I (thought) to look for my name and have her get a picture of me pointing to it. I would have never thought to do such a thing had she not prompted me to.

Just past the area where the plaque was, there was a jr/sr high school band that played continual Christmas music for our pleasure. Keep in mind that they had buses unloading tour groups for about 2.5 hours straight, and each group got the same musical reception!

Hemingway's town population is only about 800 residents. This big plant employes 184 full-time personnel and it runs 24/7/365. I guess they want their employees to have just about everything possible available from the vending machine area.

The group of us from the Houston-area team.

Kathi & Percy.

Having these informative boards along the way of the main plant was helpful and easy to understand.

These two guys are showing us what the actual "molds" look like for two of their current products. The molds slide in to the huge machine(s), so when changing products, all they have to do is change the mold inside, not the entire machine. Each of their 15 large machines cost an average of $250,000. Hemingway has 1,500 molds on-site but TW world-wide has 9,500 molds in all. Wow!!!

Another mold & product it produces.

These big bright green machines in the background are what these molds fit into to produce the various products.

An conveyor belt that the (very hot) pieces of TW just turned out of the molds rolls along to shipping, allowing the pieces to cool as they go. These off-white pieces are the inside steamer to the tortilla keeper.

This machine is about to "drop down" and release 4 more of those steamer baskets onto the conveyer belt.

After watching a time or two, I noticed that each time the claw dropped down a batch, this sign flipped down, welcoming our group!

Machines that make products that are sold in different countries. In all, TW has plants in 19 different countries around the world. Wow!

The top 12 people who earned this trip each had one of the 15 large machines "dedicated" to them. I only happened to notice this one photo, but there were 11 others I missed. I ended up meeting this lady during the lunch that followed, only didn't put 2 & 2 together until I saw my pictures back at home.

Keith Haggerty was celebrating his 33rd anniversary with TW the day we toured. Unbeknowingst to Keith, a few months before, each person who earned the trip was sent a yellow "seal", a Sharpie pen and a return-addressed stamped envelope. We were asked to write a message to Keith and it would be displayed on a 33-foot "wave" wall. I couldn't picture what they were talking about until this day when I SAW the wall. Above the wall are framed photos of Keith at various times during his career with TW. He is the Chief Operating Officer at this plant. I took a few of a couple that seemed to stand out in their design. No, I never took the time to try and find the one I'd written and sent him.

Susie didn't have to look long or hard for the one she had created and sent - such a unique person you are, Susie!!!

Several display shelves outside the Quality Assurance room, showing many of the products made here.

Inside the QA room and being explained how their first test is done on the plastic raw material "pellets" they receive by the trainload outside and put into their huge silo's. Each silo can hold 200,000 pounds of these plastic pieces. The test is conducted first to see if each batch of pellets is equal to the high quality that TW requires.

Another part of the QA team, explaining that they weigh the products to ensure they are the exact weight.

They fill those that are supposed to be water-tight with water and stand upright to ensure they ARE water-tight.

Microwaves allow products to be microwaved many times, ensuring still they work properly afterwards.

This machine takes one of the "expandable" bowls and repeatedly flattens and expands it, over and over, to ensure the creases will not wear and it will retain its integrity.

This Flash machine is like a scanner of sorts, and it slides the object under the blue canister area camera, which then feeds to the computer that is being manned. This part of the QA area is to ensure the product is the exact size & dimensions that it is described to be.

Kathi & Percy, headed across the "bridge" to a different part of the plant.

I'm telling you, you just didn't see employees who weren't all smiles that day!!!-

Each person on the tour got to take one of these snack cups, that was filled with the multi-colored "pellets", as a momento of our tour.

An employee explaining to us how the shipping is performed; much of it is now automated but there's still the human side too as they are still in the testing phase of automating their shipping.

Another gentlemen further down explaining more about the shipping process.

More extra replacement parts stored. This facility lost an entire building to fire 2.5 years ago, losing all of its contents, which were luckily storage of extra parts and not the manufacturing machines themselves. So, they re-built and everything is currently stored in this one HUGE building that is 1.2 MILLION square feet in size.

The line to see the sale items and then check out.

A few of the items we could purchase that day.

Wow, TW has always been a "green" company but take a look at some of these statistics!!!

Those 12 honored trip guests who made it to the "top" were given a private tour today, in the two limos shown here. Kanwar told us that night at dinner that they had arranged for the 3 (total) police men of Hemingway to have a roadblock set up that a.m. as the limos were due to arrive at the city's limits. Then they proceeded to give them a "police escort" to the plant, which lights flashing.

They even had very nice, luxury port-a-potties this day, to help out with the large crowd being onsite. This blue building is where we were walking to go have the BBQ lunch.

Cute idea for the centerpieces; TW's Christmas canister sets!

They roasted an entire hog for this "pulled-pork" table, leaving the outside skin area around the edges for proof.

We stopped on the road outside the Boys & Girls' Club, but earlier in the day, the VIP group of 12 got to go inside and meet several of the children and tour that facility. TW is partnered up as a major sponsor for this particular facility, but also sponsors many other Boys and Girls clubs across the country.

The current construction will be joining the 3 buildings together so that no one needs to go outside to get from one to the other.

We get back to the resort and there are presents for everyone. Each one has a label with our name on the back side of it so we would get a specific bag.

A brand new piece of TW not yet released but will be in the Spring/Summer catalog. This is a new sports bottle with snap-off green bottom to keep dry snacks in. Check out what's written on it!

A very nice couple I sat next to on my plan right from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach. Cindy is an up & coming TW Manager and her husband Pat live in the Orange, TX area. (She was one of the 12 who had a machine dedicated to her and was on the VIP tour in the limo)

Judy Daugherty is the highest-ranking TW person over the whole Houston area and made me feel like I was standing next to a celebrity. (She also was on the conference call when I found out I'd won the new car.)

They had boys and girls from the Hemingway Boys & Girls Club standing and greeting us at each entrance to the Atlantic Ballroom where our dinner would be. I briefly spoke with this young lady and found out that her favorite thing to do at her club is she tutors others!!!

Seated at my table right next to Kanwar. He was a very engaging Host and kept the conversation pleasantly going the entire evening. He valued all of our suggestions, comments, etc. as to the trip's particulars, our TW business back home, etc.

The evening's highlights had to do with the Boys & Girls' Club. What they do, why and how.

This is the Boys & Girls Club Regional VP over the Hemingway & 6 other club locations. He, himself, was a product of growing up as a Boys and Girls Club member.

They spotlighted 3 youth from the Hemingway Club that "performed" something for us that night.

Showing everyone another brand new TW piece, not revealed until this evening, which all of us got one as we exited the ballroom's doorways.

Alex (TW's VP) and Kanwar (TW's President) clapping as they announced our morning's shopping at the plant had netted the Boys & Girls Club about $50,000!! Kanwar told our dinner table that the Orlando Corp. Hdqtrs will start construction on a new Boys & Girls Club facility right next to their manufacturing plant early next year. That Club will be able to take care of 800 Youth!!!!! totally partnered by TW and it's employees. Way to go, TW!

Either Kanwar or the VP plan to fly to Houston to present my new Hybrid car to me when it arrives.

Dessert - almost too pretty to eat, but somehow I managed to.

Myself and Kanwar.

Cindy and her gift bag from the trivia game and the green net bag holding her new piece of TW.

Their indoor pool. Notice how bubbly the jacuzzi is!

That last evening we were treated to a WONDERFUL 3-hour-long show at the Carolina Opry.

TW had the entire balcony, plus overflow seating downstairs. My group was seated in the very center of the balcony, on the second row from the bottom - best seats in the house!

Here we are, thanks to someone seated in the first row who volunteered to take our picture with our cameras.

This was a fabulous show with many, many types and styles of songs, comedy, etc.

This was a real horse & sleigh.

A humorous Christmas song sung by Tarzan, Frankenstein and Tonto.

Right after one of the solo's, they asked for all children in the audience to come up on stage and help them sing the next song. One of the little girls (in the black dress) was the daughter of the soloist standing in back of her (also wearing a black dress).

I really liked the laser light show accompanying some of the songs towards the end, but you would never have guessed that from all the photos I took trying to capture them.

This guy was quite the comedian throughout the evening, dressing up as different (hilarious) characters. Here he is, playing a one-man band, using the drum sticks pointing out from his helmet to beat the drums on his left, then right, then the symbal behind him, all while playing a guitar and singing.

A duet singing one of my very favorite Christmas songs by Kenny Rogers "Mary, Did You Know?", accompanied by a folk guitar in the background.

Our last morning and it's buffet breakfast time once again. My roommate needed to be down at the start of breakfast serving in order to catch the earliest bus leaving for the airport, so I went down with her.

Each morning we were treated to a free buffet breakfast, that menu items changed daily.

After seeing Cindy's bus off, I walked out to the beach, this time actually walking down the beach and picking up some shells and photos along the way. This was a flock of pelicans that had just taken flight.

One of the many shells I brought back with me. In all, I got 4 similar size/style to this one plus some smaller ones of different types. Boy did they weigh my carry-on luggage down!

This fresh-water waterway spilled out into the ocean.

This is where the fresh water ran into the ocean at.

My bus' turn to head to the airport (3 buses actually all at the same time). I was about the last on my bus to obtain my luggage from the luggage hold underneath so by the time I got inside, I found this huge long line ALL waiting for the same airline to check in for! Our entire flight was made up of JUST TW passengers!!!

Back at home and I laid out all the new things I brought home from my trip on my kitchen counter.

The women's watch was earned for stepping up to Star Manager; the men's watch was won in a drawing from a challenge my Director had put out to us that I met; the spotted Tupperware bag was also a gift from my Director for maintaining Manager.

The clear, plastic case sitting on top of the large green bag is like what everyone was given to wear during our stay so we could be easily recognizable as on this trip. In addition to being water-tight, it was designed so it could hold not only our ID, but a cell phone, driver's license and credit card if we desired to.

Our last night before leaving, each of us got a copy of the picture taken of our tour bus group that went thru the Hemingway plant. Only our 5x7" copy was set inside 2 sheets of acrylic, the front side clear and the back side red. Wow!!! What a trip momento they gave us!!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my trip's photos and if you were on this trip along with me, I hope you enjoyed it even 1/2 as much as I did! Love to all out there in Tupperware!!! Lisa :)

All the women received this handy, small, shoulder purse that had so MANY compartments, inside and out!