Beyond a birthday celebration
We spent many birthdays on the road, celebrating in various parts of the country. As you read in the last post, we had just as much fun spending birthdays in grand destinations as we did in hidden gems that most vacationers would never visit. Over the years, we grew to appreciate the novelty of birthdays far away from home. But now that we're transitioning into part-time travel, we found ourselves in uncharted territory. We weren't home in New England, nor were we on the road. We were in a region that we decided to call home for the time-being. Here, we had the privilege of straddling the line between tourist and local. Myrtle Beach had become familiar to us over the years, but there were still lots of activities we hadn't yet done.
This birthday was interesting for other reasons, too. All year, we had been craving rest, not excitement. My birthday wish was to just enjoy quiet time in our new cottage. I like to use my birthdays to reflect. This isn't a celebration of "being born," but rather recognizing what I've learned and how the past year shaped me. These reflections are especially important during years of challenge and growth – which, let's face it, most years on the road are! Anthony and I realized that this was not just a birthday celebration, but a celebration of our resilience and courage that brought us here. We were still basking in – and adjusting to – suddenly having a sticks-and-bricks again, and in an area that we never expected to land this year. This was enough excitement without adding a big birthday shebang on top of it! And so we decided to use my birthday as a welcome gift from Myrtle Beach. We planned ample time at home but also made sure to immerse ourselves in some of what this city has to offer.
Our big excursion was to head to the shore for a jet boat tour. Wait, didn't we just say we wanted quiet? Well, this was our one exception. We love jet boat tours and hadn't taken one in years, and there's something about the thrill of the tour that we hoped would pump some energy into us. We were still exhausted, not just from our move, but from the past 10 months of trying to get a handle on our lives. In my work, I often say that, sometimes for a body to rest, it needs to move first. It follows the notion of eliminating anxious energy through shaking. In therapeutic music, we offer steady rhythmic guidance before slowing the music and loosening the rhythm. The jet boat tour would be our steady rhythm!
But evidently my birthday wish was a little too well-received. A couple days before my birthday, we got a notice that the jet boat tour was canceled due to a repair needed on the boat. They expected the boat to be back up and running the following week, and hey, we weren't going anywhere! So we postponed. This left the day wide open for the blissful nothingness we've been searching for all along – and I wasn't mad about it.
We started the day with an activity that's become emblematic of our Myrtle Beach chapter: a coffee walk on the beach. We stopped over at Saray Bakery, a French patisserie in North Myrtle Beach, with the intention of grabbing a couple lattes to go, along with some pastries for a little at-home party that evening. I found Saray while searching for area bakeries and discovered their website before learning that their social media game is quite strong. They create frequent short-form videos for Reels and TikTok, and while they don't have a huge following yet, the quality of their videos definitely warrants one.
Social media presence or not, we knew this was the place to go. Something we've discovered about Myrtle Beach is that it's a melting pot for all different cuisines. This is a testament to the number of people who come from other regions of the country – and the world – and decide to make this place home. In fact, our story isn't even unique, as it turns out. We've had conversations with several people who said, "Yeah, I came to Myrtle Beach on vacation and then decided to just stay here." Perhaps this is the very vibe that drew us here, but we didn't consciously know it yet. We've always noticed the blend of different ethnicities, religions, and political backgrounds, but still with a coastal/southern thread connecting us.
This is why we never doubted that a French patisserie would be authentic. Evidently, they're doing quite well for themselves as a breakfast cafe, because when we got there, the place was hopping! It was a Saturday morning, so some crowds were expected, and as we waited in line we tried to determine whether they attract locals, tourists, or both. They didn't have a lot of signage or prominently-placed menus, which led us to believe that the locals just know what to do. Also, given that they're located in North Myrtle Beach, they're away from the bulk of the tourist destinations. We felt a little like fish out of water, but we got our bearings.
As far as desserts go, we expected more classic French options, but their specialty seemed to be croissants. They had a mix of sweet and savory. We didn't know what some of the desserts were because they weren't labeled, and they didn't look enticing enough to ask. We also felt pressured to keep the line moving, and asking tons of questions would have backed things up. By the time we got to the counter, the line behind us was almost out the door! I ended up choosing a couple of cupcakes to stick with a birthday theme, and Anthony got a pistachio cream croissant. For our beverages, I got an iced mocha latte and Anthony got a hot pistachio mocha latte. Clearly he was going for a theme, too. Maybe pistachios and birthdays have become synonymous in his mind.
While we were waiting for our drinks, we noticed the camera rolling. Of course, as any fairly social-media-savvy person knows, when a reel's in production, we must act inconspicuous! We must also act as though we're having a great time, despite growing impatient waiting for our coffees. Check out the reel and see if you can spot us!
The consensus? Lovely place, but tough to navigate. They should probably put down their cameras and update their display case labels once in a while. We found ourselves wishing that we had opted for a more all-American bakery, but we will say, we did get some authenticity here! Feeling pressured to move along quickly? Check! Strong coffee? Check! Delectable croissants? Check! I also noticed their coffee flavorings were a brand from France. So we give credit where it's due.
We took our coffees over to the beach for a stroll. It was on-and-off rain that morning, but we take our beach walks rain or shine. We get wet from the waves anyway, so what's a little rain? It also makes for some dramatic skies in my ocean shots.
We said Myrtle Beach is a melting pot of cuisines, demonstrated perfectly by Scotch Bonnet, a Jamaican restaurant and our choice for lunch. We ordered takeout and brought it back to the cottage. I got the jerk chicken with rice and mac & cheese for sides. Anthony got the 2 meat combo with jerk pork and curry goat with sides of plantains and rice and peas. Everything was cooked and seasoned perfectly. We could imagine eating this food at a potluck with vibrant music and conversation. Summer vibes all around.
Once we had built up enough of an appetite again, we had our mini birthday celebration with our desserts from Saray. I already mentioned that the croissants were delectable. Anthony's pistachio croissant was definitely the shining star. My cupcakes were fine, but they more checked the birthday box than satisfied my sweet tooth. If we ever go back to Saray, we'd probably go at a less crowded time so we could make less hasty decisions.
The following week, we cashed in on our jet boat tour...sort of. The company received the wrong part for the boat repair, and so they had to cancel the tour altogether. We completely understood. Marine life and RV life are similar that way. Repairs that should take days end up taking weeks or more! We had the option of getting a full refund or switching to their dolphin watch cruise, and so we chose the latter. It wasn't the thrilling "shake it off" energy, but we do like dolphins, and perhaps we could make this the year of the dolphin.
We chose Southern Shores Cruises because we had a coupon in one of our Myrtle Beach booklets that we got at one of our RV parks. That's been a rather entertaining side effect of our RV-to-home experience here. At both RV resorts we stayed, we got coupon booklets for tourist discounts – the ones that most people use maybe 1 or 2 of if they're lucky before they leave. But we ended up staying, and some of the coupons don't even expire. We now have discounts for years! But beyond the coupon, Southern Shores had great reviews, and we quickly saw why. Their customer service and communication during all the schedule changes were great. This was a big reason why we switched tours instead of cancelling altogether. They were working really hard to give their customers a good time, and we're sure they're losing a lot of money having their only jet boat be out of commission for so long.
The dolphin watch cruises are on a catamaran, which has its advantages and disadvantages. The smaller boat means less people to compete with when viewing the dolphins. It feels more communal. The catamarans are also lower to the water compared to the larger boats, so on good sighting days, the dolphins can get close to you. On the other hand, the small boat means that you're crammed together with your new friends. Communal experience indeed. There isn't much space to move around, and there's no bathroom for a 2-hour cruise. Even at the ticket booth, there is only one port-a-potty, so bathrooms are not a luxury on these excursions.
We tried our best to enjoy our experience, despite it being our second choice. We knew a dolphin watch would have big shoes to fill. Not only did we have our own private dolphin-viewing experience earlier this year, but we also had an absolutely stellar dolphin watch tour during our East Coast Road Trip in 2017. This was a small group tour, and it was what everyone hopes for when they set out to see dolphins. A whole dolphin pod ended up swimming and playing by our boat. I famously got sprayed by one of their blowholes. Obviously, we knew this wouldn't happen on a catamaran, but we hoped to get some good sightings nonetheless.
Our captain took us through the Intracoastal Waterway, where part-way down, we saw our first – and only – group of dolphins. We believe there were 3. I captured 2 on video/photo. The problem was, we were one of a handful of boats watching them, and they were scared of the crowding, and rightly so. The boats kept revving their engines to angle themselves within sight of the dolphins. Our boat was blasting loud music, which we hoped would be turned down in the vicinity of the dolphins, but it wasn't. The dolphins ended up ducking underwater for minutes at a time, and so we only had a couple brief sightings when they poked back up to the surface.
The ocean was too rough for us to venture out, so we stuck around the waterway, straddling the border between South and North Carolina. We stopped at one of the islands halfway through the tour.
The consensus? We gave the tour a C+. The guides were high-energy and knowledgeable, but they didn't readily share that knowledge unless we asked. Most of the time, we rode along listening to music. If these tours cater to tourists, which we assume they do, we're surprised there's not more narration about the area. We learned a few tidbits about the Intracoastal Waterway, but that's about it. More information on the area's history, or even on the dolphins, would have been nice. We also felt like the bulk of the tour was just getting out of the no-wake zones on the waterway. Sometimes there are dolphins all the way in those zones, but when there aren't, this is when we'd appreciate more narration or other entertainment besides blasting music. On the way back, the guides did what they could to up the energy. They offered us chances to drive the boat. But honestly, as a group, we were all kind of bored and boring. We're sure they have some tours that are like a little party. We were not. We got the feeling that most of the tour was local families dragging visiting relatives along. And who knows how many of us took this tour as a concession for the jet boat tour. Maybe we started disappointed and couldn't quite rise out of it.
Even though our celebrations were hit-or-miss, we learned something valuable: the celebration didn't need to be dictated by our external experiences. We had shifted our dispositions, going from people forced into reacting to their circumstances, to people driving them. Being here in our new home region, we feel content and at peace. We're building our adventures from a much healthier place now, and we're sure this will be reflected in our future RV travels, too.