Ocean Isle Beach II

I wish I could say we had a wonderful night's sleep, but I can't. My husband and I aren't used to such expensive high-top mattresses that slope down the sides. The girl loved hers. I bet she did as she had the entire bed to herself. My husband said he felt like he was going to roll off the edge and get wedged between the wall and mattress so he slept "oddly." A quick trip to the jacuzzi worked out his back and he didn't complain any more, although it did become a running joke that we needed a step ladder to climb into bed.

The boy called in the morning and said he still hadn't heard from the Duke about the air conditioning. The nineties were finally starting to get to him, along with his long work hours and his friends schedules not lining up with his. Was that snippiness I detected coming through the phone? I held back saying, "You should hace come with us!" I made my husband call the Duke who informed him he had in fact fixed the air conditioner but forgot to tell the boy to switch on the thermostat. As soon as he got home from work the boy called to say it was working. Yay! I was finally able to relax...



It was much more challenging walking along the beach every morning, on a slant through broken shells, than it is by the Roanoke River greenway. Yet, I prefer sloshing through the surf...





I didn't see any ducks like I do along the Roanoke River but there were quite a few birds wading in the surf...



I even watched this one dive in and capture a fish...





Who knew flowers could grow in the sand?



Love also grows in the sand...We saw two weddings on one day.





One day we headed into Myrtle Beach. My daughter suggested we bring back a hermit crab as a souvenir for my son. When I asked him if he wanted one he said, "Yeah, just what I need, something else to take care of! If you wanna bring me back something how about some fireworks?" My husband was all for that so off we went across the border.

We decided to go to Broadway on the Beach to do some shopping (disappointed in that) and have dinner there as well. We attempted the Hard Rock Cafe, but it was an hour long wait and after looking over the menu we figured it would suck like Planet Hollywood did last time. Luckily the girl didn't care whether we stayed or not, "There's no way I'm waiting over an hour in this heat for macaroni and cheese. This place looks like a tourist trap. I expected more."



All the other restaurants had massive waits too except for a few located when you first walk in. The problem was they wouldn't let my daughter in because she was under 21. It was only 6:00pm and those places were empty. I really wanted to go to the Irish joint that advertised shepherd's pie too. We finally stumbled on one as we were leaving, and I can't remember the name of it, but it was pretty much a bar that had some really good happy hour appetizers. They didn't have a problem with her being under 21. In fact there were quite a few kids in there as well. When I remarked to her as I took this picture, "Ah, your first bar," she replied, "Uh no, I sat at the bar at 419 West when Becca's dad played there." "Ok then, your first sleazy bar."



As soon as we were done eating we wanted to leave Myrtle Beach and get back to our beach -- our nice, quiet, peaceful, and thankfully boring beach. It was night already and the pier was lit up...



I loved looking at the pier because depending when and where you gazed at it from, it always took on a different look...













Goodbye Ocean Isle Beach...thank you for providing me with the solitude I needed. I pray the oil doesn't wash up on your shores and destroy you and your wildlife as it has so many other beautiful places...