Outer Banks Trip - Part 2

Saturday, we headed north to Corolla to see the Currituck Beach lighthouse.


We explored the area some and went to the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education. Of all the museumy things we went to on our trip, this one was our favorite. Lee had fun looking at all of the duck decoys.

On the way back, we stopped in Duck for lunch at a pizza joint named Waves. It was a tiny shop, right on the sound. It was so nice and relaxing to eat our slices and drink our beer out on the deck overlooking the water.

Up next was Jockey's Ridge. I had never been there and have to say it was pretty cool. The pictures I took really don't do justice to the amount of SAND and the experience of being there.

On Sunday morning, we packed up and checked out of the hotel. We stopped in Manteo at the Roanoke Festival Park on our way home. They have a replica of the Elizabeth II ship and of a colonial settlement site. It was pretty neat but we were ready to get on the road and head home (and to see Sugar!).

All in all it was a great trip and the perfect way to celebrate our first year of marriage.

I'll leave you with one last shot of the beach. Wishing I were there right now...

Outer Banks Trip - Intermission

{This story deserves its own post.}

I knew as we were driving up the Outer Banks on Friday that I wanted to stop in Rodanthe and see the Serendipity House that was used in the movie Nights in Rodanthe.

Although we didn't know exactly where it was, we finally found it. You can see it from the road and there were several cars pulled off on the side of the road.

I commanded Lee to pull over.

He did.

Right into a three-foot pile of the softest sand you've ever seen.

We got stuck.

Lee was not happy.

Of course I felt terrible, being that he didn't want to pull over to see the stupid house in the first place. Not to mention the fact that I made him suffer through the movie two months ago (so that we could see the house on our Outer Banks trip) and he hated every minute of it.

Anyway, we're stuck. And cars are whizzing by and Lee is digging and letting air pressure out of the tires and putting plywood behind the tires (we weren't the first to get stuck evidently, thus the plywood lying around). And of course all I'm thinking is 'this is going to be a good blog post I better take a picture.'

Oh, and did I mention that these are Lee's THREE DAY OLD, brand spankin' new, very expensive tires?? Oh yes ma'am.

The first kind soul who stopped to help us suggested letting air out of the tires. Been there, done that buddy. She's not budging.

Then an angel in a bright yellow pickup truck stops by. "I got a chain -- ya want me to pull ya?" Bing bang boom, the truck is unstuck.

We were only out there stranded for probably 10 minutes total. It could have been much worse.

Of course after we were unstuck I marched my happy ass over that dune to the house. We did NOT just go through all of that for me to not get my pictures. Oh no sir.

So. You better enjoy these:

The house is literally falling into the ocean (this was low tide). The owners are trying to fix it up to rent it out though -- I'd be very skeptical.

To be honest, it was a little disappointing. Seeing as in the movie it looked like this:

Warner Bros. added a wrap-around porch/deck, the steps leading into the ocean, and the blue shutters, then took it all away when the filming was over.

Anywho, Lee's still unhappy about the whole incident. "Now do you see why I need a truck with 4-wheel drive?!" He can't stand the fact that he got into a situation he couldn't get himself out of and we had to rely on someone else to help us. He said the last time a truck pissed him off and left him stranded, it was up for sale the next day.

"This thing's going on Craigslist on Monday."

"Oh no sir it's not. We just put new tires on that bad boy."

He's cooled his jets for now, but you can bet his next truck will have 4-wheel drive.

Outer Banks Trip - Part 1

To celebrate our anniversary, Lee and I planned a long weekend at the Outer Banks. I hadn't been there since I was a little girl, and I don't remember much from that trip, so I was excited to go and do all of the touristy sight-seeing stuff.

(In an effort to avoid one long rambling post, I'm going to break our trip up into a few shorter posts.)

We took Friday off from work and headed to the beach on Thursday night, after dropping Sugar off with the babysitter (aka my parents). We stayed in Beaufort at Lee's family's house Thursday night. We had to leave the beach at 6am Friday morning to drive to Cedar Island to catch the ferry at 7am. We got to the ferry just as the sun was rising. If I have ever been up and outside early enough to see the sun rise, I do not remember it. It was pretty though.

The first ferry ride -- Cedar Island to Ocracoke -- was about 2.5 hours. We slept most of the time, due to the 5am wakeup, but I did get this contemplative shot of Lee:

We wandered around Ocracoke for about an hour and took some pics at the lighthouse:

We had lunch at Howard's Pub and then made our way to the end of the island to catch the ferry to Hatteras. We were trying to make the noon ferry, because there was really nothing left to see and do in Ocracoke for another whole hour. But we ran into construction on the way there and pulled up just.in.time. to see the ferry pulling away. Lee said bad words and slammed doors. I just laughed because of course that would happen to us.

But instead of running only every hour, the ferries were running every half hour because of all the construction trucks going back and forth. So within 10 minutes another ferry had arrived. All was well and we made our way over to Hatteras.

Our plan for Friday was to make our way from Beaufort to Nags Head (where our hotel was), taking our time and stopping along the way to see the sights. Just driving all the way up Highway 12 along the waterfront was one of the best parts of the experience (and the weather was perfect).

In Hatteras, we stopped at the Graveyard of the Atlantic museum and then the lighthouse.

Then I made Lee stop on the side of the road so I could take a picture of all of the kite surfers. It was so fascinating and beautiful to watch.

Next was Bodie Island lighthouse.

Finally, after a long day of ferries, driving, museums and lighthouses, our final stop before heading to the hotel was ... BREW THRU.

Going to a Brew Thru was one of the only things I remember from our family vacation to the Outer Banks so many years ago. It's basically a drive-thru convenience store, but Erin and I thought it was the coolest.thing.ever.

After stocking up on beer (they even had a lime for Lee's Coronas), we checked into our hotel in Nags Head to rest for a bit.

Then we got ready and went to dinner at Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe on the waterfront. It was off the charts good. We got the crab dip, which turned out to be the best crab dip in the history of food. I ordered the seafood pasta (shrimp, scallops, and sundried tomatoes in a wine sauce) and a wedge salad with blue cheese, tomatoes, bacon and ranch dressing. I mean COME ON. Is that not the absolute perfect meal for me?

Ok, I'll leave your mouth watering and be back tomorrow with Part 2 of our trip.

365 Days of Marital Bliss

One year ago today, we were doing this:

And this:

And this:

Overall, I think it's been a pretty awesome year. And I think year #2 is shaping up to be even better.

Lee, I'm so proud to be your wife, and can't wait to celebrate many, many, many more anniversaries together. I love you.

Weekend Loveliness

We had a great low-key, productive, enjoying-the-first-of-fall weekend this weekend that consisted of:

1. Spending Saturday morning turning this:

Into this (yay for room to open my car doors!):

2. Visiting our neighborhood's Fall Fest for some yummy cotton candy.

3. A Saturday night date night with shopping, dinner and (my favorite) a trip to Barnes & Noble.

4. A 5 mile hike at Jordan Lake this morning with Sugar.

5. A yummy dinner tonight of grilled pork tenderloin, green bean casserole and baked beans.

Yay for productive-yet-relaxing weekends! What did you do this weekend?

Friday Link Love

- I mentioned Ellen's dance-filled premiere show in the last Friday Link Love so I figured I'd give a nod to Oprah's premiere this time. I thought the huge flash mob her staff put together was cool, and the fact that it was to one of my fav songs right now doesn't hurt. Watch the video here.

- I'm loving this bridal shower and this baby shower. Makes me want to plan something asap!

- There's always some fun DIY-goodness over at There, I Fixed It.

- I've been hearing a lot about the movie Valentine's Day, due out, of course, in February. Could it have any more famous people in it? Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Jamie Foxx, Ashton Kutcher, McDreamy AND McSteamy, and Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner (who will reportedly be an item in the movie...awwww). Watch the trailer here.

- And a little horn-tooting. I'd link to this story on McKinney's intranet, but you all don't have access :-)

Ode to Fall

Am I the only one who can't believe it's OCTOBER? What the H September? Where did you go??

I love September because it's my birthday month, but this October brings our anniversary and lots of mini-trips, so I'm super-stoked for October as well.

And now that the weather has finally started to feel fall-like, I can't help but take a minute to think about all of the things I love about Fall:

1. Pretty leaves

2. TV is finally back!

3. Comfort food like chili and casseroles

4. I heart mini pumpkins (and Indian corn)

5. Jackets, scarves and my gold leaf-shaped earrings

6. Sleeping with the windows open

7. Two words: Candy. Corn.

What is your favorite thing about Fall? What are you looking forward to in October??