Vacation, Part 2

The Philosopher Lennon said, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

Sunday we all stayed around the house and pretty much did nothing of consequence. It was lovely. I read a lot, visited with the relatives, watched the kids play together. We threw G-ma a birthday that night. It was nice - full of memories and such.

Monday I went to the Currituck Lighthouse w/ a few relatives and climbed to the top w/ my BIL. It was really beautiful. This is the second time I've been to the top of a lighthouse - the first time I was scared to get close to the edge, but I did a little better this time. :)

Tuesday, a group went to some of the southern islands, but we skipped it. It was going to be an all-day trip (little did they know how "all-day" it would truly be) and we knew The Fuss would likely not do well. We spent the day relaxing around the house again - went to the beach in the morning, splashed in the pool, took a nap... it was very restful. The group who went to Hatteras and Ocracoke came back late - about 8 or 9, I guess. They told the story about how their trip to Ocracoke was not terribly pleasant. The ferry was over crowded and running on a weird schedule and they couldn't get back to the mainland, there are no public bathrooms other than port-o-pottys on the island, the lighthouse there is privately owned and closes at 3 and they didn't get there until later.

But they made it and came back to dinner made by a cousin and a cheesecake that had been delivered as a thank you from the owners of the house, which I thought was a really nice gesture. Their name reminded me of Huntzberger from Gilmore Girls and I kept making jokes to that effect. (It isn't Huntzberger, but sort of similar. I found it amusing none-the-less to think of Logan and his family hanging out on the balcony.)

Wednesday we did some shopping in the local tourist areas - checked out a wine shop and bought some local wine after a tasting. Delicious. I wanted to find a hoodie, but they were really pricey. It was a lot cooler there in the evenings than I had anticipated and I thought it would come in handy. Daddy Fuss talked me out of paying the really high prices that the ones I liked were asking for. We bought a lighthouse shot glass and a Moose magnet. My SIL and BIL made this dinner Wednesday night - "Low Country Boil" with potatoes and shrimp and sausage and corn - it was so good. I'm going to have to try and recreate it since they said it was actually very simple.

On Thursday, we checked out the bookstore that was associated with the blog I've been reading and The Fuss made friends with the owner's daughter who was toddling around at the age of 10 months. She had red hair and her name was The Fuss's middle name, so we thought we'd found a kindred spirit. They played for a few minutes while Daddy Fuss and I looked around. It was a great little store - books and used CDs and crafts and kids stuff. They do a kids craft activity every day during the tourist season which is really great. They were too old for The Fuss, of course, but terriffic for other tourist kids.

We took my MIL out for her birthday Thursday night to a great seafood place - had some really amazing crab cakes - and Daddy Fuss had some steamed oysters and shrimp. A really nice, traditional meal. We had homemade ice cream for dessert at a local ice cream parlor (amazing! We had butter toffee ice cream and oh my goodness was it good).

Daddy Fuss and BIL attempted to go flounder gigging that night, but the weather was all wrong for it, so they came home with no success.

More to come...