Southern Hospitality

My trip has finally begun, I'm in it now! I spent my last day at home frantically packing and cleaning. I have no idea why it came as a surprise to me that this would be a difficult trip to pack for, but it was. It was about when I reached this point that I had to tell myself that I can't take it all with me...

I tried the best I could to stick to the "two of each" rule (2 pants, 2 long sleeves, 2 short sleeves, 2 dresses, etc..) and just get over the fact that I was going to be seen in the same outfits over and over again in photos... even though that is my worst Facebook nightmare. The saving grace is that due to layovers and flight routes through Dulles, I actually get 2 different opportunities over the next few months to swing by home and switch out articles of clothing. Phew! Once I got everything into my new 70L REI backpack, I loaded it up into my rental car who I named Doris the Yaris, and said "see ya later" to my snow/frost/ice covered Northern Virginia home and winter.

As I made my way down 95,the sun started to come up and the temperature got noticeably warmer. It was even nice enough for me to roll down the window a little. Yes, just one window. Doris the Yaris isn't very old but keeps it pretty old-school anyways with features such as CRANK windows! So, I could only safely roll down the one on the drivers side while zooming down the highways. The fuel efficient little Toyota doesn't stop there with "character," she also has no automatic lock system whatsoever so it's all using the key and reaching around to lock/unlock and there was nowhere for me to plug my iPhone in to play music. Luckily I still had a huge stack of CD's that Patti (aka DJ Master P, aka P Jammer) made for me in college and when we lived together and so I was able to just go down memory lane with those for the seven hour drive to my first stop, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I sang a lot of Mariah. You're all lucky you missed that.

I'm staying here in Myrtle Beach for a few days with my Grandmama, the coolest quintessential southern belle I know. The first thing I noticed when I pulled into the driveway was a shirt hanging in one of the front trees and I playfully thought, "there she goes making yard boys take their shirts off again." She taught me everything I know about flirting.

Kevin's shirt. We think...

It turns out she knew nothing about why there was a shirt in the tree but she does in fact to quite a bit of flirting with the man who does her lawn. He's Kevin, a cute waiter in his 30's from the club. She likes him so much she has come to do her yard work as well. In her sweet southern accent she has reminded me not to be too friendly with Kevin... he's hers. She then sends me up to the upstairs bedroom to get myself settled in with a vase of fresh flowers for my room... that's just southern hospitality for you!

Those smiling faces in the photo behind the flowers?
That would be Grandmama herself and her late husband,
 Don, who we all miss very much

After I'd settled in and spent some quality time with Grandmama, I went to meet my friends Alex and Michael at my favorite spot in Myrtle Beach, Bimini's Oyster Bar. It's a cute little place with beachy murals painted on the walls, picnic furniture, and lots of oysters and hushpuppies. Alex and Michael are a married couple who are both in the marketing field like me but in Myrtle Beach and I love that I get to include seeing them in my Myrtle trips now since Alex moved here after we graduated from college. They both looked so good in their work clothes, coming to meet up with me in my "I just got done driving 7 hours" clothes. Alex looks like a barbie doll like a lot of girls in the south do, but what I love about her is that she is actually one of the most down-to-earth, sweet-hearted and goofy people that I know. We picked right back up on old inside jokes, gossip catchup, and telling Michael the same "oh and this one time..." stories he's already heard.

Alex & Michael at Bimini's

Alex and I at Bimini's

They mostly wanted to ask about my trip and when my upcoming stop in Key West, Florida came up, they told me a few places they liked there for me to check out and then got on the topic of how many cats, chickens, and sunglasses there are all over Key West. "It seemed like they sold sunglasses in every store," Alex said, "they've got sunglasses there like we've got hermit crabs here in Myrtle Beach!" I thought that was a pretty hilarious comment because it's so true. Every beach shop large and small in Myrtle has a wire cage full of hermit crabs in brightly painted shells for tourists to buy as living souvenirs. I've never actually seen a hermit crab in the wild here though, and certainly not with an electric blue and neon orange polka-dotted shell. After dinner we went back to their new house, which is gorgeous, and I got to meet their new Boston Terrier puppy Beamer and reunite with Daisy the Chihuahua.... the only Chi whose company I actually enjoy. (There, I said it, I can't stand all the rest of your Chihuahuas.) I had to call it an early night though because I was so spent from the long day.

I woke up this morning around 9am and thought my Grandmama was still asleep so I tip-toed around the house, made myself a cup of green tea, and quietly crept onto the back porch with a blanket, journal and tea so that I wouldn't wake anyone up. It turns out she'd been up for hours and was out at a doctor's appointment when I went downstairs, so I was just tiptoeing around an empty house by myself like an idiot. Oh well, I've done dumber things. Even though it wasn't exactly warm outside, it was comfortable enough to sit in one of the chairs overlooking the pond that the yard backs up to with a blanket on top of me and enjoy the view and the sounds of morning. It was definitely warmer than at home. I wrote my first journal entry in one of the two journals that were gifted to me before I left for my trip. One was from my wonderful co-workers and it included nice notes from them on some of the pages inside. I plan to start using that one after I've filled up the first one, which is a gift that JayJay got for me at an Indian market in Afghanistan and brought back while home on R&R from his current deployment there.

I visited more with Grandmama then went to run some errands for her and to find some lunch. I realized I hadn't seen the ocean yet except from the balcony off of the bedroom. I can't be "at the beach" if I haven't actually gotten up close to the beach though, so I went to pay my respects.

Ahhhh! That was nice and completely worth it :) As many shops full of hermit crabs that Myrtle Beach has, it has got to have twice as many of three other things: golf courses, strippers, and chain restaurants. Not even just chain restaurants though, but chain restaurants with crazy statues and neon signs in front of them. I honestly think the amount of neon running through Myrtle Beach has got to be up there close to Las Vegas. Seriously. I did not go on this trip though to go to a bunch of chain restaurants that I could find at home, so I went in search of a lunch place that only had one location; the one I'd be eating in today. Thanks to Yelp!, I found Cannoli's Cafe just in a strip mall just off of King's Highway. Boy, I'm glad I did. 

I ordered a sandwich and since I was the only patron at the time, we started to chat. His name is Marco and he's a half Portuguese/half Itialian fella. He's originally from Brazil and got to Myrtle by way of New York City after 12 years of fine dining experience and then a few years of designing and remodeling kitchens and bathrooms. He had a dream to open his own place and the cost of living was simply better in South Carolina, so he took that dream down here and opened Cannoli's. He had a cool table in one part of the restaurant that had all kinds of trinkets and fun words and stuff under glass and on top of what looked like an old door. I think it's things like that that can give a place extra character, but it's the food that really counts to keep them open. 

If my mozzarella, prosciutto, basil and beefsteak tomato sandwich is any indication... they're going to be just fine. It came with a slice of pineapple and a little bit of potato salad drizzled in olive oil, which i've never seen before but it actually added a little flavor. 

Delicious lunch!

 

From the table

Some other patrons came in and got some cannoli. I'd already noticed all of the "world's best cannoli" signs all over the restaurant so I was curious but after they kept raving about how good this cannoli they were having was, I knew I had to take some to-go. I took some home to Grandmama and her friend Bonnie she had over for lunch and we all agreed it was pretty good. I visited with the girls some more, went up and practiced yoga for about an hour, and now I've just finished visiting with my Uncle Steve and Aunt Donna who just got into to town. I've got plans to go out with Alex, Michael and our other friend Kendal tonight. So far this is a perfect start to my trip!