North Carolina Vacation: Part 1

We are back from QUITE the vacation... we had plans for a 5 day weekend relaxing on the beach in North Carolina, but Hurricane Irene had a much different idea. We are still a bit bummed about our ironic choice of weekends to visit the east coast, but we still did our best to have a great time and managed to fit in a decent amount of relaxing.

Here is a little recap:
After a delirious drive through the night Tuesday, we arrived at Southport North Carolina at 5:30am Wednesday and prepared for the ferry ride over to Bald Head Island. The weather at this point was very perfect and we crossed our fingers that all this hurricane talk was just a bad dream :) We hopped right into vacation mode, despite being awake for more than 24 hours, but thankfully napping was allowed at the beach. Both Wednesday and Thursday were marked with afternoon trips to the beach, various forms of exercise, golf cart adventures, post beach beverages on the porch watching the sunset, large family dinners, and drinks on the top deck watching the stars. All I could tell Keith is that this was my absolute ideal vacation: no time restrictions, a beautiful house to stay in, good company, seclusion, beach, sun and fun. It was so dreamy. Here are some of my favorite photos from our two days on the island:

Sunrise Wednesday morning.

Ferry ride.

Beach Kan Jam.

Intense clouds over the dunes.

Beautiful beach.

Mom.

The view of the marsh from our porch. Ridiculous!

Post beach margarita time :)

Margarita snatcher.

Mom and dad.

View of the historic old boat house through the trees.

Dad and Nick at sunset.

Dessert Wednesday night we had the last of our year old wedding cake.

Thursday beach time with smily dad haha

Hurricane was non existent. 

Beautiful canopy of trees on our mile drive or bike to the beach.

Old Baldy the light house.

After the beach Thursday Keith and I took a golf cart and a map and set out on an island tour to see everything. 

Incredible coastal views.

Boardwalk nature trail through the marsh.

View of our house from the boardwalk.

Parents :)

Pre-dinner relaxation.

View from above.

Keith and I cooked turkey and black bean burgers for everyone Thursday night.

Friday morning boat house view, slightly more ominous. 

Mom at the front of the house Friday morning just before evacuating.

Mom and Kathy.

Bringing our stuff to the ferry to evacuate :(

Wind and rain.

Some last shots in front of the light house before we got pelted with rain.

Running from the downpour.

Headed inland on the ferry.

We spent about 50 hours total on the island, but they were some darn good hours. We drank well, ate well and had two awesome beach/adventure days. It was a bit of a tease though and left me wanting about a week more. The only solution? We MUST go back... preferably not during hurricane season haha.

I have so much more to share about our vacation, so get ready for our next installment: Leland, NC trapped inside by a hurricane, a few great stories about Keith's vacation troubles and log of our many hours of travel. Stay tuned!