We are those strange people who can’t sleep in while on vacation at the beach. Give me a hot cup of coffee, sandy chair, big sweatshirt, and my camera and I’m a happy beach-watcher.
This morning, the actual sunrise was behind a bank of clouds. That made for a great picture and I couldn’t complain. Not one little bit. I could have used a big flannel blanket due to the wind. However, sandy blankets are no fun. I sat and clicked my camera, watching the birds do their thing.
Watching the boats bring in their catch.
We sat for a while until I got hungry and needed a coffee refill. Breakfast was nothing fancy. When we travel, breakfasts are usually cooked at the condo. Too many breakfast restaurants are too risky with clouds of flour in the air. Besides that, I had a great view!
We decided to do some sight-seeing this morning. I found a coffee shop that I wanted to check out. I love bringing back a pound of coffee from a local roaster. The Corner Perk was a quirky place with a smooth Pumpkin Spice latte. When I first met Stephen, he introduced me to flavored coffee. Until then, I was strictly a Folders girl. When we had one of our first dates at Davis-Kidd bookstore, he bought me a hazelnut coffee. When we went to Gloria Jean’s in the Memphis Mall, he would ask for samples of the beans and eat one before buying a pound to grind at home. That was the start of my flavored-coffee obsession.
Just like many years ago, Stephen sampled the beans and I sniffed until I found the flavor I liked the best. With the holidays already here, I will stock up on seasonal favorites. But when January rolls around, these will be waiting.
The next stop was a Christmas ornament shop. Our tree this year is tiny. We are not dragging down all our decorations or ornaments because they are packed at the top of the shop. The RV tree has our ornaments from this year’s travels. I have Colorado, Montana, and New Orleans already on the tree. I needed a Hilton Head Island ornament. We did not get one 2 years ago so I was determined to hunt down one for this year. We found one at one of the shopping centers at the marina. We met Neptune at the Sundial.
Dinner was a cool experience. We both wanted a big bucket of shrimp cocktail. I can’t eat fried so I like mine boiled with hot butter and cocktail sauce. I am the designated food-finder on all our trips so I checked out a lot of places on Yelp. One place sounded exactly right. The Sea Shack was advertised as a favorite of the locals, which is almost ALWAYS better than a tourist trap. Good food, no-nonsense atmosphere.
As we were driving to the Sea Shack, we turned onto the street that winds behind the condos. As we got closer, we both said “We’ve been here!!”. We pulled up to the front door and we figured out that we came here in 2014 but it was either closed or too crowded so we left to go to another place. This time, it was no waiting lines and open for a few more hours.
The food was unbelievable! There wasn’t anything left. Stephen got some oysters and hush puppies. I got a large tray of hot buttered shrimp with cheese grits. I see why the locals keep this place a secret.
We had an early night because we had to be up early in the morning to get in line for the ferry to the race. I’m so excited to cross this one off my list. So much as changed in 2 years and most of it, for the better. We had popcorn for dinner, and we both fell asleep laughing. It was a perfect day on Hilton Head Island.