Wednesday, July 3, 2013

A Place at the Beach

Fair warning!! Tons of pictures. :)
 
We have been looking forward to this trip all year!
Most excited to see our Navy Girl, recently promoted to Petty Officer 3rd Class
 (bragging on my girl).
We are ever so proud of the strong woman she continues to be!! It is a bit bittersweet to write this post about our time together as I got hit with the hardest wave of missing my girl on the road trip home. It is all part of growing up, but it stinks sometimes.

On our way down we stopped in Maryland and got to celebrate my grandmother's 81st birthday.

The weather forecast said thunderstorms everyday but we had TERRIFIC weather every day. There was a major rain storm Wednesday night but we made it back to the condo in the nick of time to watch the down pour of cats and dogs from the balcony. Our last night there the husband and I stayed up late to watch the lighting show out over the ocean. I love watching the storms that are out over the water, it was an amazing show with red and orange lighting flashes between the dark blue clouds. Sorry no pics, it was all about the moment.

We spent the week at Atlantic Beach, NC. The beach is beautiful, the waves were perfect and the water is always a blue green. They call it the Crystal Coast for a good reason.
view from the balcony

The view of the balcony 3rd floor
 
first walk on the beach

in the waves
 
beach nuts
 
the birds
 
wind whipped
 

 
last walk on the beach
 
 We spent a day at Cape Lookout, which the Navy Girl was really looking forward to. Last time she was here, ten years ago she got a 10 Gage fish hook in her foot and we had to cut the trip short with a ride to the hospital. Needless to say she was very leery on the beach this trip. She could not wait to go shell hunting though and we all had a wonderful time.
 
On the boat ride over we saw some of the Shackleford ponies.
 
look closely the one on the left is taking a sand bath

 
 
Cape Lookout
 
 
We climbed to the top; lighthouse view

 
 
crystal surf

hunting shells



 
 
 
 
 
 
 And my favorite place...Beaufort! I love the beautiful homes, the deep history and last but not least the infamous Blackbeard and his Queen Anne's Revenge. I was thrilled to learn the Beaufort Historical Association's 53rd Annual Tour of Homes was on Friday and Saturday! We always missed it when we were there in the past because we head home on Saturday. We visited ten of the twelve homes; my favorite was the Piver House, 400 years in the SAME family!!! No pictures allowed, DANG!!! There were several architectural aspects in some of the homes we wanted to document, but we followed the rules.
 



 
 

 
We visited the North Carolina Maritime Museum, I was excited about this too, to see the artifacts recovered from the wreckage of Queen Anne's Revenge. I continue to research and learn about this Pirate; to echo what the Navy Girl stated, it is fascinating that we tend to memorialize and celebrate notorious criminals in our history. Blackbeard was considered the American Robin Hood, but he was much more ruthless. There is just something intriguing about Edward Teach (Thatch).






Hope you enjoyed a peek into our beach adventure...part two Back in Time and part three Our Pride and Joy will soon follow.



I did start a fun summer stitch with the idea that I would finish this Wee Watermelon on the trip...

nope I was having too much fun!
 

Wow that was a lot of work loading all those snapshots!!!

Have a safe and Happy Independence Day!!

6 comments:

Annette-California said...

Oh I enjoyed all your photos. Especially the very first photo. Great vacation you had. thank you for sharing. love Annette

Samplings from Spring Creek said...

Looks like an awesome trip--love home tours!

Margaret said...

What a wonderful trip!! Such a precious time to be with your girl and enjoy special times!

Peggy Lee said...

Aww...So glad you had such a memorable time with your Navy Girl! Thanks for sharing a bit of it with us. Can't wait for parts 2 and 3.

Catherine said...

I'm so happy for you that you had this trip ~ looks like fun for all and wonderful weather!!

Penny said...

Sounds and looks like you were able to visit some wonderful places! I also love to learn about pirates. :)