Nearing Summer's End

Well, my intention was to write this post on Labor day since that really marks the unofficial end of summer - even though as of now I think we have a couple more weeks officially. Anyway, that's not the point of this post. I wanted to use this one post to incorporate all our summer beach trips. David's family lives at Atlantic beach, so whenever we go to the beach, that's where we go.
This year we actually got to go 3 times (the most in the summer we've been since we got married). Usually we are too busy to get down there much when it's so crowded in the summer, but this year, we made the time, and it was great!

The 1st summer beach trip we took was on the 4th of July. We stayed with David's mom this time and went down to the harbor to watch fireworks. Then the day after the fourth, our friends Marty and Amanda came down to stay with us for a couple of days as well. It was so great to have them there, even though that was the weekend they broke the news to us that they were moving to Michigan in 2 weeks! (We have gotten a chance to see them since then - they came down to visit us in August) Anyway we had a wonderful time with them and since they love sailing, we went down to the harbor at Beaufort to walk around and look at all the HUGE boats. It was a very special time spent with them.

Then the next beach trip was actually just me and my family. My parents have a friend who let us stay in his beach condo (which just happens to be right down the road from David's dad at the same beach). Now staying in a condo right on the beach has a much different feel to me than staying at either one of David's parent's places since they both overlook the sound, not the ocean.
It was a really nice change to stay somewhere for a few days where you could just sit on the balcony and hear the waves crashing and watch the seagulls circling above. That was a very enjoyable time too. Kind of like when we were kids and used to take family vacations all together - My brother and I bunking in the same room on twin beds and my parents in the other room, but all sharing 1 shower. We were able to spend some precious family time together that we really haven't had in years. I'm so glad it worked out for both my brother and I to be able to go on this beach trip with my parents. Aside from the time spent on the beach, swimming, sun tanning, throwing frisbee and just walking, we also had the opportunity to do another really cool thing that none of us had ever done before. Dad chartered a boat and we took half the day on Monday to go deep sea fishing! Since we only went for half a day we just went 5 miles out, but that was far enough to catch 45 lbs of spanish and king mackerel! The boat we went on was called the Beagle because the captain breeds beagles and always brings one on board with him. We had an awesome 1st mate, Davis, who helped us catch tons of fish, and we also invited David's dad to come with us. The 5 of us had a blast! The 1st hour and half we were reeling in fish left and right, but then the rest of the time they just stopped biting. I think we only got 3 in the last 3 hours. But it was fun regardless. We brought back a lot of fish and have still been enjoying them even now a month later.

The last summer beach trip we took was a couple of weeks ago - Labor Day weekend. That wasn't as packed a trip as the one I went on with my family, so I got a lot more relaxing in then. That was really nice too. Also David had a great time because he got to get out on the golf course every day we were there. I even went with him and his dad 1 time and rode in the cart for 9 holes at a newish course in Beaufort. It was actually a really pretty course and I saw lots of wildlife while we were out there (well, mostly birds - but they were big birds, cranes and herons, I think) Anyway, I have pictures of the guys, the course and the birds.

We are going to go back in several weeks again (but that will technically not be summer anymore although it will still be warm) David is going to be playing in a golf tournament for the annual Seafood Festival in the beginning of October. It's actually the second largest festival in the state of North Carolina, and I've never been. So I am really looking forward to seeing, smelling and tasting all that this festival has to offer as well as cheering David on in the tournament.
But more on all that after the event. This post was about recapping summer beach trips only, so I guess that about wraps it up.

I really took too many pictures of all these trips to be able to put here in this one post, so I think I'll just put them into a slide show and try to make a new post with the slides soon. I've never done a photo slide show, but people do them all the time so it can't be too hard. I know you want to see the photos, so I'll work on getting it up...wish me luck :)