Clean the house or take a spontaneous trip to the beach??? Hmm…
Category Archives: Beach
December 22, 2015
Lunch at Frenchy’s and then a little beach time!
Filed under Beach, Project Life 2015, Uncategorized
February 9, 2014
It is just so pretty outside… We can’t help but find ourselves at the beach.
Filed under Beach, Project Life 2014
October 8, 2013
We spent most of the morning on the beach, the weather was beautiful and not to hot. The boys boogie boarded, went hunting for jelly fish that had washed up on the shore, and played bocce ball. Ann and I both agreed that life doesn’t get much better than watching your children run, laugh, and play. I love getting the boys out of the house…it is just so good for them. After lunch we packed up and headed back home. We needed to do some laundry and wind down a little to get ready for school the next day.
Filed under Beach, Project Life 2013
OBX 2 – Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Rise and Shine! The sun is out and the weather couldn’t be more beautiful. Today we continue our exploration of the Outer Banks. The lighthouse wasn’t open just yet so we checked out of the motel and headed south to the town of Hatteras. It’s the furthest point you can drive, from here you take a ferry over to Ocracoke. There is a lighthouse here and I was sad that we were going to miss it. The boys and I stopped at a café, grabbed a few lattes, a smoothie, a few breakfast pastries and headed back to visit the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
Here’s a little more history about the lighthouses from the OBX. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse protects one of the most hazardous sections of the Atlantic Coast. Offshore of Cape Hatteras, the Gulf Stream collides with the Virginia Drift, a branch of the Labrador Current from Canada. This current forces southbound ships into a dangerous twelve-mile long sandbar called Diamond Shoals. Hundreds and possibly thousands of shipwrecks in this area have given it the reputation as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic”. The lighthouse is 210 foot height makes it the tallest brick lighthouse structure in the United States and 29th in the world. The National Park Service acquired ownership of the lighthouse when it was abandoned in 1935. In 1950, when the structure was again found safe for use, new lighting equipment was installed. Now the Coast Guard owns and operates the navigational equipment, while the National Park Service maintains the tower as a historic structure. 1,250,000 bricks were used in construction of the lighthouse and it is 248 steps to the top.
In 1999, the Cape Hatteras lighthouse had to be moved from its original location at the edge of the ocean to safer ground 2,870 feet (870 m) inland. Due to erosion of the shore, the lighthouse was just 120 feet from the ocean’s edge and was in imminent danger. The Cape Hatteras Light House Station Relocation Project became known as “The Move of the Millennium.” It is the tallest masonry structure ever moved (200 feet tall and weighing 5,000 tons). The boys and I walked out to the original location, it was very close to the water and the Park Ranger told us that the lighthouse would not have survived Hurricane Sandy.
Filed under Beach, National Parks and Monuments, North Carolina, Vacations
OBX 1 – Bodie Lighthouse
After we left South Carolina, the boys and I headed eight hours north and east over to the Outer Banks. This is one place that I always wanted to go see and since the boys and I are on a lighthouse mission, this just seemed like the best next stop. By the time we arrived it was later in the afternoon and the sky was overcast and windy. This first lighthouse that we came to was the Bodie Lighthouse. This current lighthouse is the third that has stood in this vicinity of Bodie Island on the Outer Banks in North Carolina and was built in 1872. It stands 156 feet (48 m) tall and is located on the Roanoke Sound side of the first island that is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. While some people (including North Carolinians not from the Outer Banks) pronounce the name with a long “o” sound, it is traditionally pronounced as body. This is derived from the original name of the area, which was “Bodies Island”, after the Body family from whom the land was purchased. Folklore would have you believe it is due to the number of dead sailors washed ashore from this portion of the Atlantic Ocean, which is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. An impressive array of ships have been sunk due to storms, shoals, and German U-boats in World War II.
Our next stop was the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This lighthouse is right next to our motel, so we thought we would swing by and check it out. Due to lightening in the area we were not allowed up into the lighthouse, so we wandered down to the beach and the boys ran off some of their energy from the long car ride.
We checked into the motel, the boys went for a swim, we grabbed a pizza for dinner at a local arcade, and called it a day.
Filed under Beach, North Carolina, Vacations
And We Are Off….To Folly Beach
The day has finally arrived!!! The car is packed, the kids and Molly are in, and at 8:45 we pulled out of the driveway. Today is the first day of our 2013 summer vacation and I can’t wait for all of our fun adventures over the next 7 weeks!
Originally, we had planned on starting this trip in North Carolina visiting with Aunt Barbara, but after her plans changed I gave Davy the option of still going to the mountains or heading somewhere new, and he chose somewhere new. So, to break up the long distance of this trip I decided that our first stop would be to take the boys to Charleston, SC.
I found a little Inn on a creek 5 miles outside of Charleston, the price was cheap and the dog was welcome, so that’s where we are staying.
For dinner I thought that it would be fun to eat on the water. There are so many great places to eat here, but this one was close and right off of Folly Rd, so we stopped at The Crab House….Yum! Davy is now officially a fan of crab legs, although he says that I have to crack the legs for him… Crazy kid! 🙂
Next stop, Folly beach. Davy and I decided earlier in the week that since we were going to be driving up and down the East Coast, that we would be on the look out for lighthouses. Folly has one on the northeast end of the beach called Morris Island Lighthouse. This lighthouse is registered as one of the Nation’s most historic sites. The first ray of light was cast on October 1, 1876 and it is the third lighthouse to occupy this site. This lighthouse was South Carolina’s only first order lighthouse and is now their most beloved symbol of their maritime past. After 7.5 hours in the car, a trip to the beach to see the lighthouse was the perfect ending to our first day.
April 19, 2013
Davy went on a field trip today to Caladesi Island, so I thought that it would be fun to take Matty to the beach today as well. We went to Clearwater beach because they have a large beach playground. Matty had a great time playing, I love watching him smile….
Filed under Beach, Project Life 2013
April 9, 2013
Today, Matty and I went out to Ms. Shawna’s house on Redington Beach to have a playdate with Ashton. Nolan is in Davy’s class and Ashton will be in Matty’s class. Shawna had asked me if I would help her get started on a quilt for Nolan, so while they played we worked on her sewing machine. We took them down to the beach, they swam in the pool, had lunch, and it was a super fun day.
Filed under Beach, Project Life 2013
Honeymoon Island
After our disappointment of not getting to the beach on Thursday, we were super excited when we woke up today and found the weather to be so beautiful. So after we finished making Davy’s Pinebox Derby car and Mikey was picked up after Davy’s sleepover, we loaded up and headed out to the beach for a few hours. This beach is the closest, it only takes us about 20 minutes to get there. It isn’t the boys favorite, they call it ‘the rocky beach’, but it works and it is so pretty. The guys played frisbee, Lily dug in the sand, and the boys made a huge rock pile. Beautiful morning.
Mountains! Beach! or Both!... 