As a family, we have been travelling to Myrtle Beach four out of the last five years. I don’t know why it took me so long to actual see if there were places to either canoe or kayak. Who knew? There were a few places that offered tours and we were decided to go. Everything was set, but was it going to happen?
Before heading to Myrtle Beach this March break, I was checking online for places to get on the water. I found a company called J and L Kayaking. They has a list of tours that they were offering, and lucky us, there were some running during the time we would be visiting the area. I signed up immediately for their sunset tour, which was a lovely 2 hour tour in a local creek.
Everything was great, until Wednesday came around. The weather was cold, windy and very unpleasant. I had received an email from Laurie, and she suggested that we move the tour to the next day. So we did, and hoped for better weather. On Thursday, we drove the hour to the boat launch. Immediately I realized this wasn’t going to happen. There were 2 feet swells in the creek with whitecaps, as well as winds upwards to 30 MPH. That’s almost 50 km/h winds! We had a nice chat with the tour guide, Henry (Who is awesome BTW), we all agreed that this was a no go. He would call the office and cancel our tour. BOO!! (At this point, the plan was to head home Friday, so we were unsure if we would be around to try again)
Friday came and the weather was beautiful! Sunny, warm, low winds. We knew that we would stay the extra day, and called back the booking company booked once again for the night. Third time lucky??
We meet out tour guide for the third time, fill out necessary paperwork and also meet the other couple that is joining us. We get our kayaks ready and off we go into the creek.
The creek that we were heading into to was called House Creek, and we had to paddle across the other bigger creek against the current to find our way. Actually, we would be paddling against the current for half of the trip.
As this was a sunset tour, the sun was making it’s way down as we meandered through House Creek. We talked along the way with Henry, and also just watched and listened to the local wildlife.
Henry was telling us that this area is actually frequented by black bears. None of which we saw today, but it was neat and interesting to hear about his stories of what bugs and other animals were like during the year.
The sun was behind us for most of this trip, and when we turned at the end, we were greeted with the best sunset we had all week. The skies here have been clear of clouds, so most nights the sun goes down with just a light yellow glow on the horizon. Tonight, however, there were wispy cirrus clouds (and others) in the sky giving us this beautiful view.
Halfway through the trip we actually get to stop at Waties Island for a break, stretch our legs, and also get the lanterns that would be providing us with “some” light on our way home. These lanterns are way cool as they change color and they blow up! I need to get me one! (Side note: in March, they have this deal where if you book a trip, you get to choose an Easter egg. In this egg there was candy with stickers on it. You go to their local store and each sticker matches a prize. Since we were gone the next day, my parents went to the store to claim our prizes…. Guess what? I got a lantern!!)
For the paddle to the dock, the current was in our favour and it helped to push us along. I wasn’t able to get any more pictures at this point because it was dark. At the dock, we thanked Henry for the wonderful tour, and headed into town to find some food. We had spotted a BURGERFI (think like simplify but burgerfy), and googled their menu earlier that day and knew this was the spot to go.
I had asked the couple on the tour what they thought about that place, if they had eaten there before, and the guy suggested the BAD Burger. This is Breakfast All Day Burger. This burger had, beef patty, bacon, fried egg, maple syrup, grilled onions, and a hashbrown. Yup.. my kind of burger. We got the cry + fry which was fries with onion rings on top, and of course since they had beer, I ordered a Stella 🙂 Nothing like having a burger, fries and beer after a paddle. It was so good, and hopefully the people sitting near me didn’t think I hadn’t eaten in a while, because it was HMM HMM good.
If you ever get down to Myrtle Beach, I would highly recommend checking out J and L Kayaking! They were very accommodating and the tour was just wonderful. Ask for Henry! Who knows, maybe you will have him as your tour guide as well 🙂