Vacation is Over

OK we’re home from the beach and I have to say except for a small hiccup with DH we had an awesome time! The house we stayed in was really nice, and less than a half-hour away from my sister and her family in Wilmington so I got to see my nieces and nephew and spend quality family time with everyone. My mom even came up from Florida for the week to stay a few days with us and a few days with my sister. But we saw each other every day. That was nice.

Me, Mom and My Sister

We went to the beach every day except Friday.

My children's stepbrother enjoying a wave!

The Boy riding a wave!

The humidity in Carolina Beach was really just god awful! And by Friday we were all really spent! In fact I had a lovely 3-hour nap after a visit to the aquarium and Fort Fisher!

This is Luna...an albino alligator. Rare and wouldn't survive in the wild.

Reptiles were on the menu big time this trip. Perhaps it’s because we’re right on the Cape Fear River and there’s gators in them thare waters…but we visited Cape Fear Serpentarium with tons of cool and really scary snakes. It was right on the riverfront in Wilmington so we trekked down there for a few minutes. You could see the battleship The North Carolina, but we visited that once before so we passed this time (TOO HOT!)!

Eyelash snake

My mom’s a huge dolphin-lover. Who doesn’t love those creatures anyway? We saw them while we were sitting on the beach one afternoon–of course I left my camera at the house. I hate to have it on the beach…I’m so worried the sand, sea air and humidity will destroy it somehow. I was bummed. So I woke really early to try to take a photo of a sunrise on the beach when we were greeted by a jumping dolphin. The photo isn’t the sharpest but it was still super neat to see!

We also went to a Hammerheads soccer game against the Richmond Kickers (which would be our home team if we went to games)! So we rooted for Richmond–pissing off everyone around us, which was fun. And Richmond won 2-0 so woo-hoo!! But especially fun was the fact that the kids were able to go on to the field for the human tunnel where players shook their hands as they were announced. That was way cool!

Heading on the field!

The Boy and The Girl are getting older. How much do they want to spend all that time with their old mom and her hubby? Sadly, not as much as I wish. So we allowed each to bring a friend…and that worked out really well! The Boy brought his stepbrother. I very much encouraged that because of my own fear about having additional children in the ocean. I knew he’d been to the beach before and was a strong swimmer. I also knew he was a good kid and would listen well to me if I needed to lay down the law ever. And of course The Boy is really used to spending time with him when he’s at his dad’s house. Finally, I know his parents–very well–and I felt much more comfortable with the thought of him coming to the beach with us. And it worked out really well–as weird as it may be to everyone around us!

My kids, Friends and my nieces and nephew!

On the ride home we needed a pit stop. We ended up stopping at a place called Sandy Cross (my sister’s name is Sandy) and what’s hilarious is there was an entire zoo of animals beside the BP gas station!  The chicken isn’t as large as the one outside of Scottsville but I was immediately intrigued when I saw it! Too bad I hadn’t brought my geocaching gear because I found this information on the geocaching site…apparently there’s a cache there (of course there would be!)! “An interview with the lady at the counter of the BP granted us these facts: -They belong to the owner of the gas station. No particular reason for them, “He just likes them”. -He gets them ‘at some company in Sharpsburg’. -Everybody loves the chicken.”

The chicken outside the BP station!

It was a lovely time at the beach as a family–and I love that! To me, that’s what it is all about!

Yes they're fully clothed and in the water...total dorks but I love them all anyway!