Myrtle Beach Trip Part 2: Inspiration at the Beach

I love the beach, any beach really. I always have. As a destination It’s always been a source of inspiration and peace for me. This trip proved me right about my choice of where to go. I definitely found Inspiration at the Beach. On our first day Youngest and I agreed, we would live life as if this was our regular home, and wouldn’t discuss leaving until the week of our actual departure. That gave us more than a full week to experience this place as our home. If you’d like to read about my big adventure from the beginning start with part 1: Myrtle Beach Part 1: Getting There

 After getting chores out of the way – Beach life and endless Inspiration

I was disappointed to miss the actual sunset on our first night, but it was in an effort to get some more tedious work done for our household at home- Bills and such. I personally prefer to do them regularly and not deal with them more than twice a month. It meant other than keeping up in my bank book I wouldn’t have to worry about anything predictable at home until around the same time I had to start considering our departure. And then only because I’m personally not comfortable doing this particular task enroute. This beach condo would be our home for the time we were there with little to no distractions, and I slept really well that evening.

Pulled from my bed by the sunrise

Something completely unexpected happened early on our first morning though. Despite my intent to sleep in, or at least lay around in bed for a while, I was practically pulled from my bed by the sunrise onto the balcony, barefooted and in my P.J’s. I quickly dressed, went in pursuit of coffee, and retuned to our balcony. I sat there with my breakfast, coffee and phone camera while writing in my journal for quite a while. At one point I almost spilled my breakfast (coffee included) in my attempt to capture a group of brown pelicans on my camera.  I couldn’t not be inspired here at the beach!

Seeing Photography In a New Light With Some Renewed Inspiration From the Beach

Now, at this point I had been up for a little while. Intermittently trying to capture the everchanging colors, and enchanting view. I’d been seeing the birds fly by and trying to photograph them, but this pass was just right THERE! Like they were putting on a show just for me.

Something clicked as I sat there with my journal and camera. I realized that there’s something about the art of photography for me. I’ve always enjoyed it, but I was getting more from it than just recording my own family’s memories. I always come back to it, and am always trying to get just a bit better at it. I’ve taken a class on photography while in college too, despite not planning to use it for anything but taking nicer portraits of my daughters. After this morning’s experience I spent quite a bit of the rest of my trip playing with photography. I wound up waking with the sun almost every day while we were there and loved it!

Grocery shopping and Beachwalking

Once we got moving that first day, we decided we needed to do some beachwalking and grocery shopping. Youngest and I worked out a general meal plan, and walked to the nearest grocery store. The first grocery shop of our trip did wind up being too much to reasonably walk home though so I decided to utilize Uber for our way home.

Once we finished with the mundane things we proceeded to finally just enjoy the beach and get inspired! I say mundane, but we had really enjoyed our leisurely walk to the grocery store. Youngest and I walked a long way along the beach, with me photographing the photogenic munchkin the whole way. By the way, apparently, she hadn’t discovered the joy of a hammock until that afternoon, and I really enjoyed watching it happen. Adventure sometimes doesn’t involve anything all that complicated. That day was amazing and really it was just about the change in surroundings.

Youngest gets Inspired to cook At the beach

That evening I let Youngest cook dinner. Her sister is really skilled in the kitchen, and enjoys cooking so Youngest doesn’t get to be creative there as often as her sister was at her age. I know that isn’t possible for all kids at 13 but it does become easier with time. While we were there she cooked several meals. That evening we continued to keep it simple with roasted ranch chicken thighs, and green beans. Then we started what would become our evening routine while we were there. Youngest was clearly inspired and enjoying the beach life.

Not our usual evening routine- but still a routine

We made use of the pool and hot tub before getting ready for bed, and then enjoyed our balcony. Of course, Youngest used some free down time to watch a show she’s been enjoying. I had started a “fitness challenge” with a friend in the beginning of the year so I continued with that. I will say keeping up with it while traveling was a real challenge! By then we were ready for bed!

Morning routines on the beach are my kind of magic!

The following morning It became clear that I had a routine developing pretty naturally. Once again, I found myself on the balcony for the sunrise without even trying. I lounged on the balcony until the sun had risen with my journal listening to the ocean and the birds. I have to say these mornings were pretty magical for me. I’ve tried to replicate the idea at home, but the cold season in Vermont makes it really difficult!

After we’d had breakfast, and I’d done some planning we had a morning beach walk. This time we went in the opposite direction that we had the day before. It was just as delightful. Inspiration is easy to find on the Beach Lunch was leftovers from the night before. We explored the area some more again, and I located a liquor store. I knew they’d all be closed the next day- In S.C all the liquor stores are closed on Sunday by the way. They also close after 7pm. The part that surprised me was that Youngest would have to stay near the entrance. She chose to stay outside. I found a good bottle of wine, and something new to try. I wrote a separate post about what I was inspired to make from it here Mothers’ Day Special North Meets South (It’s delicious if I do say so myself)

The end to a pretty perfect day

That evening I enjoyed a bubble bath and then a glass of the wine on the balcony, again enjoying the view of the ocean. We had made use of the pool again. I found out Youngest had a goal of her own while we were there. She was Inspired to make it to the pool every day at the beach. That was a vacation goal I could get behind, and make happen!

Just everyday life on the beach

The days after that stayed fairly similar. I only missed two sunrises and spent midmornings working on different projects and happened to be much more active than I’ve been for years. We walked to most places we went and enjoyed beach walks at least either in the morning or the afternoon, sometimes both.

Youngest got to practice cooking, and got to be creative in it several times. I think my favorite was Shrimp alfredo! She generally made enough for us to have lunch the next day too. (We did eat out a couple times, and I cooked a couple times too) MMMM, Seafood! I was inspired to enjoy the magic of the balcony watching the waves at least twice every day. I even succeeded in finishing the fitness challenge for the month! Even our big shopping trip led to a whole lot of walking!

Even More Inspiration at the Beach

This experience inspired me. First with the photography, and then, in the first couple of days I had decided on yet another goal for myself. At this point I didn’t know if my husband would be on board or not, but I need to make this living on the beach in mid-winter a regular thing.

For next year I am already planning and putting away money for a rental for around the same time next year. I also started to look at the idea of buying. It might just be a place I can park my Yukon each year, but It’ll be near the beach, and warm. It may be worth noting that when I came home from school near there I hadn’t really intended to stay in Vermont. Everyone I love, loves it though. I love it 3 out of four seasons, but that fourth season last’s half the year.

Last day: On the boardwalk

Before we left I was determined to see the boardwalk. The trouble with that plan was that I didn’t want to Uber to get there, but our condo was about 5.5 miles away from it. I knew the bus system in Myrtle beach was simple, but wasn’t entirely sure of the best time or place to catch the bus. There are some indications that the busses stop along Ocean Blvd, but they didn’t while we were there as far as I could tell. It could have been due to being off season. They do run along Kings Highway though. Every hour they run up and down the main thoroughfare. I paid $3 for both of us. It was definitely worth it for the adventure. An Uber would have been easier, but something about using the bus to get there made it feel more authentic.

This was one of our bigger, more planned activities. While we walked the boardwalk we ate conch fritters, and fried pickles. In all honesty fried pickles aren’t one of my favorite foods, but are worth trying as a “when in Rome” kind of experience. My daughter absolutely LOVED them though. I’ve had them before this trip, and found them to be pretty good, but there’s usually something more inspiring or adventuresome on a menu near a beach that I’d prefer.  

It was our last day there. We walked toward the beach before heading “home” to the condo. As we meandered toward home we slowly decided a fun challenge would be to see if we could walk back to the condo along the beach before night fell. Both of us agreed the worst that would happen was we’d have to admit defeat and catch the bus. Boy, were we inspired! We were ready to call it a night by the time we got back, but we had made it! This was the only night we didn’t make it to the pool. We packed, and went to bed.

Leaving the beach

The one part of the trip that I might wish could have been done a bit differently was that the best method I could come up with to get to the Amtrak station from Myrtle Beach was an Uber. It was rather expensive, but it was a pretty pleasant ride, and we were able to make one more stop at a touristy “general store” to get some post cards.

A sad beginning to our ride north

Our ride back was, um, interesting. The train was delayed just before it arrived at the station we were boarding in Florence. This lead to an interesting mixture of feeling like things happen the way they are supposed to, a tiny bit of impatience, and my own thoughts of wishing I was heading south rather than north. Two other passengers and I headed to the only restaurant we could reach in a reasonable walk for lunch. The hospital cafeteria. I got Youngest and I a fried chicken dinner (with greens!) That turned out to be delicious and well-priced. Of all the strange things fried chicken has proved to be troublesome for my daughters and I to order during our few trips south, so this was actually quite special.

South Carolina Left Us With An Extra Reminder to Take Each Moment as it’s Given, and Make the Most of it

*Quick note- this paragraph deals with a difficult subject- but part of life and ultimately inspirational so I’ll include it…

All of us who had waited, and not decided to take a later train found out some sad news about why we were delayed. This news put all of us in a pensive mood, and clearly torn between wanting to get to where we wanted (or needed) to go, while also truly feeling badly for all involved. Obviously, that meant the person who had lost their life, but also those who had witnessed it without the ability to do anything to stop it.

All we can ever do is be patient with ourselves, and each other, while living each moment to it’s fullest. (Sometimes the best use of a moment is to just sit and enjoy it, sometimes it’s to work hard toward something you really want) I kept daydreaming about exchanging my ticket for one to head south, but realized I needed to go home for now at least.

Heading home

Our ride north was not nearly as long as our adventure south. Largely that was due to a shorter layover, but we arrived back in Saint Albans Vermont around a day and a half later. While we were on the train to NY Penn Station they bought us all pizza, and then comped us each a meal in the café car. I think we got off that train with more food than we had boarded with! I treated myself to a bottle of wine once we were on the Vermonter, but didn’t open it until we crossed into Vermont. It felt like a good way to finish the adventure! As we disembarked into cold winter night in the middle of another ice storm. We would have to carry our inspiration we found at the beach with us for a while!

We didn’t know what we didn’t know

As a side note the timing of the last leg of our trip was interesting in that we were just starting to really hear about the illness that has now led to all of us being stuck at home. We couldn’t know how much would change in just over a month. It feels as if our current situation was being foreshadowed by finishing with such a full train from NY Penn, and experiencing possibly the first time anyone with me, and I weren’t the only ones disembarking in Saint Albans Vermont! The inspiration we gathered on our beach trip would have to hold us for longer than we thought.

If you were inspired by this post, or just want to enjoy a peacful moment check out this video! Peaceful moment with dolphins on the beach!