May 21, 2008 07:47
We had a wonderful vacation. I mean, I didn't want to come home. The kids were pretty exhausted and ready to come home, but I am totally moving to New Bern (yea, I do want to move somewhere else every week). We got there at like 8pm Friday and my parents weren't there yet. We meandered the lake while Ray unloaded the car. We heard tons of frogs, saw a grey fox and three deer. My parents have a timeshare in this area full of a mix of timeshares and full season residents. It's on the water in a marina with the timeshare buildings surrounding man made lakes. So we wandered around, caught toads, saw some wildlife and put the kids to bed. My parents got there around 11pm.
Saturday we spent the day at the timeshare. We went swimming in the pool, played putt putt golf, played on the playground, fed the geese and turtles, went bike riding and fishing. We also took a look at the vacation condo my parents own there because the tenant had moved out. It's a studio and really cute. It just needs updating and paint (and, yuck, the tenant was a smoker). Saturday FLEW by. I mean, one minute we woke up, the next minute it was 9pm and I think I was more exhausted than the kids. My whole body ached from the swimming an general exercise I got along with the working out at home I had been doing all week. I didn't realize how much exercise I would be getting on my vacation. heh.
Sunday we took a trip out to the beach. New Bern is about 45 minutes from the beach. Since the forecast called for rain later, we left as early as 7 people can get out of a house. heh. The beach was cool and cloudy because of the rain front coming in. It didn't rain on us and it wasn't that cold, is was just sooo windy. I am serious, my legs were exfoliated at the beach that day. But Rachael, little water girl, ran straight for the water and spent the whole time jumping the waves. We had lots of beach toys and found shells and built a sandcastle and Trevor, Ray and my dad played with a kite and the flying disk thing that wasn't really a frisbee. We spent 2 hours there before the wind picked up enough that we had had enough (even with the overcast, windy day, we all got sun). We stopped at this dive of a diner on the way out and ate lunch. Then we left for home where my children go nonstop! OMG. The entire time they were going going going. Wed be about to sit down and relax and there would be Trevor or Rachael saying "Let's go to the pool!!!" or "Let's bike ride around the lake!" So the minute we walked in the door, we convinced the kids to play a bit while we had a drink and played a little REAL scrabble. Then we went down to the pool for a while while Ray and dad worked on the condo. Then we ate dinner out at the mediocre restaraunt at the marina. Service was horribly slow, food was ok but not great. The kids were wonderful, though and we all got a little tipsy (well, not the kids!). Then we went for a bikeride to see these houses for sale on the lake and on the way back this huge wind came up and DARK clouds and it started raining on us! It was fun. heh.
Monday we had reserved a pontoon boat so we went out for a few hours on that. We tried our luck at fishing and caught nothing, we saw lots of ospreys and their nests (one dove at us because we got too close!), saw lots of gorgeous huge houses we all fell in love with. It was really nice out on the water and I think this will be our new tradition. Next year we'll rent for longer and bring a picnic. Afterwards we walked down to the town of New Bern and ate at this WONDERFUL place for lunch. OMG. This is one of those restaurants that is not only inexpensive but the best food you've ever had. I had a lobster bisque that was so good (I was glad I got all you can eat soup and salad- the salad was also fantastic, very fresh picked tasting) I ate another bowl and even my mom had to order a bowl. My mom and Trevor's flounder turned out moist and delicious. The mac n cheese the girls had.. omg, this was mac n cheese off a kids menu- it was a huge portion of REAL mac n Cheese, topped with mozzerella. Not that Kraft boxed stuff they pass off as mac n cheese on a kid's menu. Ray got a cheesesteak that he said was the best he's ever had. My soup and salad with the bisque was like 6.99. My mom's flounder sandwich was only 5.99. I think everything on the lunch menu was under ten bucks. It was a great place. Then we got ice cream and wandered to the toy store where my mom bought Trevor this way cool iguana puppet, Ariel got a new Webkinz horse (grey arabian) and Rachael got a new Webkinz frog to replace the one she lost. Happy and tired, we realized it was almost 5pm! We rented the boat at 10am. So it had been a long day. We came home and went swimming, then grilled out burgers/veggie burgers, corn and smores for our last evening. The kids ran around and played, my mom and I drank white wine mixed with OJ and ginger ale and we all relaxed. Then I took the girls for a walk around the lake to look for frogs with a flashlight and then we watched Pokemon and the kids were sleeping at 10pm.
Then we left for home on Tuesday, but we stopped at the BBQ place for lunch, a place we stop at every year. And yes, I ate BBQ pork. It's REALLY good, I love the vinegary Carolina BBQ and this place is not a chain and is one of those places you know the locals eat at. In fact, we ended up talking to this guy who has a house boat in Atlantic Beach (NC, not FL), the beach we went to, that was featured in a local magazine. So we looked at pictures of it (it was a REAL house that was a boat, not a houseboat in the typical sense of the word) and it was really cool. After that the kids said exhausted tearful good byes to grandma and grandpa and we headed home where we drove through like a tornado!!!!! We knew rain was supposed to happen on the way home, but as we were in VA, it got REALLY REALLY dark and breezy. All of a sudden, we look ahead and right in front of us on 95 is this blanket of wind- it was "cloudy looking" as we drove towards it and all these leaves and sticks were blowing around the road. Ray rolls up his window really quick and then we're in it and it blew the car but we didn't get blown off the road or anything, the wind just wonked against the car and Ray's like "oh, shit!" But we drove through it and looked behind us and that wind is still just sitting on the road. It wasn't a funnel cloud going up into the sky, but it was this pocket of swirling wind right on 95, crossing the whole road. It was freaky. The storm poured rain on us and lightening, but then we were out of it and our drive home was quicker than any trip we have made recently from NC to VA. No traffic, even in Fredericksburg.
I can't say I am happy to be home, our vacation was fun. Now Ray is back at work, I have my classes which started Monday and my first english class tonight. We have grocery shopping, dance and homeschooling to do today. It's going to be a busy day.
tornado!!,
vacation,
new bern