We were so blessed to be able to return to one of my most favorite places in the world the week of July 10-17. We spent the week on the coast of North Carolina in a town called Indian Beach. I feel the stress melt away as we are driving over the causeway bridge and entering Emerald Isle and the island. It is one of my most favorite places in the world and where I feel like home.
We started out our vacation leaving our house in Ohio with our 3 kids and my sister Mary in the van that we rented for the week (so we could have air conditioning) at around 12:45am on Sunday July 10. We figured it would take about 13-14 hours to get there since we would have to stop many times for the kids and to get food, etc.
Well... we arrived in North Carolina right around 7am or so and we stopped at the rest area right across the border to have breakfast. I packed yogurt, cereal bars and cereal for the kids and Bill. I packed a smoothie for me and my sister brought her own. The kids had fun running around and my sister was also spending her time playing the Pokemon Go game that everyone is playing.
After that, we got back in the van to continue on. We only made a couple of stops for gas. We arrived at the island right around noon! We made it in record time-- about 11 hours! I don't know if it was because we came in on a Sunday or what, but I will take it.
The only downside was that we couldn't check in and get the keys to our condo until 3pm. So we decided to get lunch at the Emerald Plantation shopping center and then we could go to the grocery store before heading to get our keys.
We went and looked at the turtles in the river behind the plantation and fed them first. The sea gulls also got some of the food as they stole it from the turtles. The kids LOVED seeing the turtles and it was a fun kickoff to our time on the island.
We had lunch at RuckerJohn's restaurant. I had their Deb's chicken salad for lunch and it came with a croissant that was too die for! So good!
After lunch, we headed over to Food Lion to get some groceries. We still had about half an hour until check in, so we drove around to see what was new or gone since the last time we were there. Then we finally were able to check in and get the keys to our condo. We rented from Bluewater Vacation Rentals and stayed at a condo at SummerWinds in Indian Beach, NC.
We were on the third floor in an end condo. Our ocean front views were fantastic!
After taking everything up to condo, putting our food away and getting swimsuits on we all headed out to the beach to say hello to the ocean.
The kids ALL loved the ocean this year. Ben spent much of his time running in the shallow waves and holding his ears, as the constant roar hurt his ears. Jacob never wanted to leave the water and Rebecca loved the waves and the sand!
That night, we ordered Circle Pizza for dinner which Bill went to pick up. I had a turkey sub as I didn't really want pizza. It was really good and Bill, Mary and the kids all said that the pizza was fantastic!
After dinner, Mother Nature gave us a lovely evening sky to welcome us to our week on the Crystal Coast in North Carolina. We all went to bed exhausted from our long time in the car but happy that we were here and ready to see what adventures the week would bring!
Sounds like the vacation is off to a great start!!
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