Our time in GA was not all relaxing and enjoying our time off from work; I was also attempting to find my next travel assignment. I was submitted to a bunch of places in GA not too far from my mother in law since the plan was to stay with her so we could bank some money and visit with family for awhile. But the universe had other plans, after a week or two without being called for an interview I told my agency to open up the search area to include FL, NC, and SC. That way we would still be close but maybe I would have a few more options. In true travel life fashion within a few days I had two phone interviews and two job offers. That is how it works sometimes, you will either have no one call or everyone call. One was in the panhandle of FL and the other one was in Myrtle Beach SC. After a bit of discussion, Jesse was very much on board with Myrtle since it is super close to the beach and has no winter to speak of (we all know that is his least favorite season).
After accepting the position and signing my contract we started to look for housing. There was a chance I would be covering two locations; one in North Myrtle Beach and one in the area south of Myrtle Beach. Looking through AirBNB and Furnished Finder options we found a great two bedroom two bathroom place in North Myrtle. It was in a neighborhood so hopefully it would be quiet since I would be working 12 hour night shifts and would have to sleep during the day. Jesse and I had a few activities planned while in GA but we made time to take the 5 hour trip up to Myrtle to see our place. This is something we have never been able to do before; we often have to rent a place sight unseen since we are renting it from really far out of town.
The house was an adorable beachy bungalow about two blocks from the ocean! Perfect location for Jesse and it had a great porch to sit on while enjoying my morning coffee. The only catch was that it was completely torn apart! The home owners were renovating the place and promised to have it all ready for us in a few weeks so we can move in a few days before I started working. I am happy to say they did it! The place looked great when we moved in and the cats loved it. MoeJoe even had his own room. It was a very comfortable place to live for three months and the van fit perfectly in the driveway so we didn’t have to worry about that which was great. The people we rented from were awesome and have lots of other properties so if you want to visit North Myrtle Beach let us know and we will give you their info!
We started checking out what the area had since we like a place where we can walk to restaurants and other activities. Obviously we were able to walk to the beach which was awesome. There was an Irish restaurant that was beach side that we went to the first night we moved in. Further down the main street we found what would become our regular place, The Grumpy Monk. We loved it so much and went there probably once a week. The beer list was fun, the food was good, the bartender was great and we got a locals discount. Being in a tourist town during the off season rocks! I had been to Myrtle Beach many times when I was younger and it was always so jam packed full of people. We almost never had to wait for a table and it was nice to be able to walk around without a million people around. Of course we visited the places you should visit like Broadway at the Beach and Barefoot Landing. We ate at Landshark and LuLu’s (Jimmy Buffet and his sisters’ restaurants respectively). Our favorite place in Barefoot Landing, which we went to several times, was The Crooked Hammock Brewery. They had great food including a giant nacho platter that was half off during the off season! Since they brew their own beer they also did brewery tours where you get a few free beers and a flight to try. If you are ever in North Myrtle it is definitely a place you should check out. It is gigantic so it is kinda hard to miss. Much of our off time was spent running and walking on the beach and going out to eat at the many great places.
I really enjoyed my job. I was a bit weary at first since it was an ER lab and they can get kinda crazy but the nurses in the ER were so nice to me and it was a really wonderful work environment. I worked alone but I listened to audiobooks and podcasts when I felt lonely. By the way, 12 hour night shifts are my new favorite. I would even pick up an extra day during the week if they needed it since I would still be off for 3 days. I did learn a valuable lesson though, I cannot handle five 12 hour nights in a row. I know not to try that again. Jesse ended up getting a job at a pretty popular breakfast place that has three locations. It worked out really well since I would sleep while he was at work and we could be together in the evenings when I was off.
I felt like we really embraced our time in Myrtle and found a lot of great things to do. There was a wine bar that was not a wine bar that was a bit of a longer walk that we would go to on occasion. That is what Jesse called it but it was actually called 39th Ave Bar and Grill. Their fish tacos were great! We tried an upscale cocktail bar but it was not quite our crowd so we only went once. When Jesse got out of work early one day we took a beach walk to Buoys on the Boulevard for lunch which was awesome. I was kinda sad we only went once.
While we were in Myrtle Jesse even signed up for the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon. He took time to train after work (being so close to the shore really helped) and did a really good job. The weather the day of the race was perfect. It was just another thing that make our assignment in South Carolina so rewarding.
I was really torn when the assignment started to wind down and we had to figure out what to do next. I loved my job in Myrtle. The hours were great, the workload was perfect, I liked the analyzers I was using and the people I worked with were so nice. We were batting around the idea of hanging out in Myrtle for another 13 weeks and we even found an awesome house we could have rented that was available for the summer. But unfortunately the hospital didn’t end up extending a contract to me. In the meantime I got an email from the lab director in Saranac Lake, NY asking if I wanted to come back for the summer. Jesse also was asked to come back to Casa in Saranac Lake. After much debate back and forth and reaching out to our previous housing we decided to recreate our time in Saranac Lake and go back north for the summer. I was going to miss being close to the beach but the area was getting busier and starting to ramp up for the summer season. Our peaceful and quiet time was going to be coming to an end. The cats would have to adjust to a smaller space again, although we were able to get the exact same one bedroom apartment we had in Saranac Lake the first time. It really was a complete do over. This is the first time I have ever gone back to the same facility but it was nice to know we would be able to just jump right back in where we left off.
I will look back on our time in Myrtle with fond memories and if we ever go back, even for a visit, we know where we can stay and where we can eat.
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