day trippers

On a full tank of gas it is 2 hours from my doorsteps to the sand. It’s hard to believe but I did it yesterday. About Sunday I saw the weather report and decided it was time for a day trip to the beach. Grace had some time she could take off and the job I was working on finished up on Tuesday, forecast was for beautiful weather, let’s go!
So after I had the oil changed on the Kia “Specka Fi”, the young Nathan, the Bride and myself kicked it old school towards the coastline. (Yep, the Crystal Coast!). Our neighbors, Chick and Janet just happened to be on their way down later that afternoon and their place at Wrightsville Beach is NIIIIIIIICE! So we borrowed a key from them that got us into their backyard where the outdoor showers were so that we’d have a place to change.
It was about 11:30 when we drug all our crap up the hot sand to set up shop for a full day of sun worship and laziness. The water was perfect!..crystal clear, and with a cool breeze blowing there was NO-where else I wanted to be. But like a dumbass, I brought my wallet (what am I gonna buy out there?.. a jellyfish?) with me and there was about $500 cash in it so Grace and I had to take turns between staying on the blanket and playing with Nathan in the water. When I got back to the blanket once though I had an epiphany! Just as I was laying down, my favorite song came blastin’ outta the radio…”Mississippi Queen! You know what I mean…!” Hell yeah, I know exactly what you mean! This is where it’s at and it don’t get no better than this!
About every 4 years Wrightsville Beach gets the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge in sand to keep from losing their beachfront. The beach there is pretty huge so there were a lot of people there as you can imagine on a perfect day like this. We brought other stuff to do, baseballs and gloves and such but all Nathan wanted to do was ride the waves on the boogie board. I baked for a little while until about 1 o’clock I decided that the cooler in the car was going to waste. So I go back to take a quick shower at Chick’s place. Except about halfway through the shower I realized that our stuff wasn’t there where we had left it before. Hmmmm….was it stolen or…SHIT! I’m at the wrong house! So I turned the shower off and threw a towel around me and ran a couple of houses down to where I was supposed to be. Whew! Nobody saw. That could’a been ugly..in a number of ways! I got my clothes on and went to the store and grabbed a 6 pack of them Tecate bellywashers and threw’m on ice. Got back to the beach and sucked down 3 of’m before I knew it. That’s when the water REALLY started to feel good. Problem by then was that we were all starting to get pretty red. So we put on shirts and carried on. The waves had gotten bigger by then and Nathan and I were having a blast taking turns riding them in.
About 4 o’clock or so Chick and Janet arrived and we hung out for a while, it was her birthday. We went out and had a great dinner before heading back to Bunn. I had my favorite, Blackened Salmon salad and a glass of Zinfindel (no! not white!). We went to a place called Dockside. We ate outside, overlooking the water as small ships rolled through, cool breeze…a beautiful end to a great day on the beach. We were back home before 10 pm. I love North Carolina!

Sorry, no pics..the camera battery was dead! But trust me, it was beautiful!