The Beach Trip (Heavy on the pics)

I’m actually going to write about the beach!!! Holy crap!!!!

So….

Sunday:

We were supposed to be on the road by 8. Ok, well I told Beth 8 and I was hoping for 9. Girl takes 2 hours to do her makeup. We got on the road by 10. She was still in a towel when I got to her house at 8am. I drove…8 straight hours. Beth slept. It was mostly boring.

Here’s the insane amount of crap in the car.

The fun parts were after we got past VA Beach and got on to the highway to the beach. We stopped at the produce stand that’s on the way. I bought the first t-shirts of the trip. We got a lot of REALLY yummy fresh produce from the market. It’s kind of a tradition to stop there so…yeah. Basically a LOT of the trip was traditions I have….Beth went along with them.

Ok more like I was driving and she was sleeping so I got to make the decisions.

And I planned the trip so…yeah.

After the produce stand we stopped at a real grocery store to get the rest of the food we’d need for the week. Then we drove some more. Made a small pit-stop at Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. They were closed as it was Sunday, but the tradition is to stop, so stop in the parking lot I did.

Then we drove over the big, big, scary bridge.

See?? Does that not scare you??? It scares me.

And it was stormy.

12 South in the rain.

We finally got there around 6…and drug all our crap in. We had a LOT of crap.

Then it stormed all night…and I took a sweet video of the lightening on the beach and there was also a highly amusing conversation between Beth and I as I shot the video…and then I accidentally deleted it off my camera later in the week. I’m still pissed.

Monday:

It was cold. And stormy. And beyond windy. We had to wear sweatshirts and jeans on the beach. We got sandblasted by the wind/sand combo going on.

The ocean took out a walkway.

I let Beth sleep till almost noon that day and I got up and watched the Today show all the way through which is seriously one of the highlights of my life. So after she got up and we did our beach walk there wasn’t a whole lot of day left…but we shopped as best we could.

Monday night we used some of the yummy strawberries to make some rockin strawberry shortcake.

And by "we" I mean me. Beth…does not cook. She microwaves. Sometimes.

Tuesday:

Beth slept. It was still cold and windy. We shopped. At some point we bought these rings….I’m going to pretend it was Tuesday

They are amazing. It’s by a designer from Canada. He used to be an architect and he designs jewelry out of brass, aluminum, and rubber. It’s seriously great. The picture doesn’t do it justice.

Wednesday:

Helloooooooooooo BEACH!!!!!!!!!!! It was sunny and warm and wonderful and we camped our happy little asses out on the beach.

Beth and I accidentally bought AND packed matching swimsuits. Totally unplanned and had no idea the other one had one….yeah.

And I got a sunburn wearing SPF 60.

No lie.

Then later in the afternoon we decided to drive down to the Food Lion that was on the island.

Thus begins the tale of how Beth and Courtney almost drove off of Hatteras Island….

It was a lovely afternoon on 12 south. Beth and Courtney were headed towards the grocery store to get supplies for the rest of the week. Courtney had been to the grocery store on the island once before in her many trips to this beach. Beth happened to work at this particular chain of grocery stores so she was on the lookout for the sign incase Courtney could not remember where it was.

So they drove.

And drove.

And drove.

And Courtney started not to remember the landscape that they were passing…

And then they found a lighthouse!!!!

So they visited the Cape Hatteras Light!

<img alt="Me and the Light" src="http://inlinethumb27.webshots.com/41818/20957296100

87661543S425x425Q85.jpg” />

Twas very fun.

Upon leaving the light, they decided to continue south. The grocery store had to be close.

And so they drove.

And drove.

And drove.

And passed an odd house with a sign advertising "Jewelery, Antiques, Pottery, and Advice". This amused everyone greatly.

And then they drove some more.

By this time Courtney was convinced they had missed the grocery store.

And then they came to a sign for the Hatteras Island Ferry.

And they turned around.

And drove back.

And when they got to the first town they had passed, just after their cottage, there, on the side of the building, with the world’s smallest sign for a major grocery retailer…sat the damn store. About 10 minutes from their house…

And when they looked at a map later….they discovered they had been about 2 miles from driving OFF OF THE FREAKING ISLAND.

The End.

On the way back we went to Dirty Dick’s Crab Shack. Hooooooooooooly Cornmeal Batman. They have the best hushpuppies in the world ever. I’m salavating even now. T-shirt 6 was aquired around here.

T-shirts were also aquired at some point from the Rodanthe Surf Shop, Jo-Bob’s Convenience, and some other places.

I’ve collected t-shirts from this beach trip for years. This year I added cups and stickers to my purchasing list.

Thursday:

More of the beach type deal…

Then we had Lisa’s Pizza for dinner. SOOOOOOOOO freaking fabulous. This too, is a tradition. Twas delicious. No shirts were procured from this location because Lisa’s freaking never has my size or a good color. Yellow on a blonde? I don’t think soooooooo.

Friday:

Again with the beach. We did a lot of self-portriats, btw. Incase you hadn’t noticed. And I’m a goofball, FYI.

And sadly we packed…because we had to drive home Saturday.

Saturday:

We actually left on time…but that was because I forced Beth out of bed because we had to check out at a certain time. However once we checked out….it took us over an hour to get off the island…we got distracted.

We stopped at Bodie Island Light and the Brew Thru to name a few places.

Then we stopped in VA Beach so I could see my Momma Pat. For those of you who don’t know, that’s Erik’s mom…I’m still her daughter no matter what. 🙂

And then I got home…and drug this much crap out of my car.

And this is the amout of stuff that DIDN’T go down there with me, but DID come back.

And here’s the website for the pictures because not even a quarter of them are on here. They all are labeled and have little tidbits written below so it explains what’s goin on.

<a href="http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563536954MWl

GWU”>http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563536954MWlGWU

And that concludes the Beach Trip of 08.

Please stay tuned…or tune back in in a year as there WILL be a Beach 09 trip. We’re already booking the reservations.

BYE!!!!!