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we arrived at oak island around 11pm wednesday night, thanksgiving eve. we had a little difficulty finding the house we'd rented, but that consternation dissolved as soon as we parked the car and stepped onto the sand. the stars were magnificent, and the sound of the waves was instantly relaxing.
the house i'd rented was essentially sight-unseen. i'd seen these photos, but that gives a very limited idea of what the interior of the house is actually like. i knew it was going to be wonderful having something right on the ocean, and the screened porch looked like it totally rocked. but when we actually walked in, i thought the interior left a bit to be desired. it was completely paneled in wood -- identical to what's in my den. the bathrooms were tiny and poorly remodeled (my remodeled bathroom looks better than these, and that is saying a lot!). and the bedrooms were so sparsely furnished that it was kind of creepy. my initial instinct was "oh no", but ray's first comment was "you did good, baby!" and in the end it was just fine. i got used to the overabundance of wood and enjoyed the big kitchen overlooking the waves.
the first thing ray & i did was find some beach chairs and blankets and headed onto the shore. we laid on our backs and stared at the stars, which were incredibly vivid and bright. he pointed out constallations and while i admit i was only half-listening, it was wonderful to hear ray get so excited. you can't see stars that bright in durham.
the next morning, after we woke up, we lounged about for about 45 minutes or so before we got a call from our cat-sitter, lisa. i immediately panicked (she's very experienced, and wouldn't be calling if something weren't an emergency) and almost lost my shit when i heard her first words: "you're going to kill me."
visions of lost or dead kittens flashed through my mind, but thankfully it turned out that the only problem was that lisa couldn't find the key to our house. my relief over having safe kitties was short-lived, though, when i realized that this, indeed, was going to be a substantial problem. no one could get into the house to feed the cats!
we ran over several options. break in. call a locksmith. meet halfway to deliver our key to lisa. we even called the durham police for advice. we figured we had most of the day to sort it out before the cats really started to get hungry, so we tried to distract ourselves with fun on the beach... but both of us were pre-occupied with what our evening would hold.
this day was, of course, thanksgiving day. so i had many phone calls from family to take my mind off things. i also had planned on making a bit of a thanksgiving dinner that night. we had pork tenderloin, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and asparagus (all carted from durham). pumpkin pie for dessert. it was good, but by this time ray had decided that he didn't want to make the kitties wait for their dinner any longer and he said that he just wanted to drive home, feed the cats, spend the night, and return to the beach in the morning.
this is no small feat. the trip is 3.5 hours. but he was up for it, even though i cried buckets when he left. he seemed happy to make the journey, though. not only is he immensely, sickly devoted to our cats... but he'd also forgotten to pack his underwear. so this trip was doing double-duty for him. :-)
while he was gone, i tried to entertain myself with a 'west wing' marathon on bravo and some crazy-ass sex shows on oxygen. i stayed up too late waiting for ray's call, telling me he was home safe.
but when i awoke in the morning i was feeling pretty good, and was really surprised to see that the sun was shining again. the forecast had called for rain throughout the day, but it was absolutely beautiful. i threw on some shorts (!!) and walked down to the pier (which was only about 2 blocks from our house) and sat and watched the sun on the water. when i got back i grabbed a book and sat on the beach and read for a few hours.
ray finally got back around 1, i think. we had a few leftovers for lunch, then took a nice long nap. i napped every day i was there, which is highly unusual for me. (that's how much i needed this vacation!) when we woke up we decided to have dinner out that night and then maybe go catch a movie.
we had a few ideas for restaurants, but none of those panned out. so many places in the area are seasonal, so our selection was limited. we ended up at a seafood restaurant called 'sandfiddlers' or something, and it was only moderately good. it was better than cooking, though!
we had some time to kill before the movie started, so we decided to drive to southport and futz around. there's not a lot open there, either, but the houses are gorgeous and it was really neat to just explore the area. we were having a good time just looking around, driving, when ray spotted a wal-mart and said "let's go buy me some pants!" i'm never one to discourage ray from shopping, so we went in. he has lost so much weight that he's dropped a size! i'm really proud of him. i think that made shopping a little more fun for him that night.
but by that time we were pooped and decided to skip the movie (and we hadn't yet decided on whether to see 'master and commander' or 'haunted mansion'). the stars were out and bright again, so we stargazed a bit when we got home and then began cleaning up the place for our departure the next morning.
you know, i read all of what i just wrote and it sounds like we were busy busy busy. but we really weren't. i spent a lot of time reading (and watching dumb tv) and just sitting, listening to the waves. the weather for the most part was really nice (though late friday into early saturday the wind was blowing like crazy, which made the whole house -on stilts- rock like a boat), and the water was gorgeous (but much too cold for me to get into, though ray went in waist-high). there were several families hanging around the beach, but it was definitely low-key and the place was not overrun by idiots. it was very quiet, relaxing and nice.
then we ran home saturday and started painting my bedroom. so much for relaxation! but we're making good progress, and hope to finish the job sunday (sometime between my committments to the durham symphony; i'm not only stage managing their dress rehearsal & concert, but i also was asked to play 4th horn as well... and i haven't picked up my horn in probably 9 months or more. eep!)
so it's time to go to bed. hope you all had a great holiday!
Posted by xta at November 30, 2003 12:39 AM | TrackBack
