there's not much to report -- though the vacation was lovely it was largely uneventful. just how we like it. relaxing.
when we arrived on wednesday afternoon it was SO WINDY. i suspect the gusts were up to 35 or 40 miles an hour. the wind howled around the house, tore shingles off of nearby roofs, and tossed sea foam across the sand at high rates of speed (1.3 MB .mov). the house shook a little and it was hard for me to sleep that night.
things died down by the next afternoon, and when i woke up i stepped onto the screened porch and watched the kids next door delight in throwing bread crumbs at the seagulls. (less than 24 hours later i wanted to strangle these kids due to the constant use of their outdoor voices. sure, they were outdoors, but our house was really close to theirs.)
ray and i played a game of scrabble, which i lost.
i watched a little swimsuited girl try to bravely get in the water. it was too cold, even by ray's standards. overall the weather was really nice while we were there, but the water temperature was frigid.
the sunsets were beautiful from our deck.
on saturday morning we drove to the end of the island and walked some rickety wooden trails to the widest part of the beach, where the river opens into the ocean. we watched a fisherman catch an impressive fish and i learned that ray could skip rocks on the water.
we visited a nearby pier, which bills itself as the longest pier in north carolina.
we drank a lot. and we ate a lot, too. in addition to cooking quite a bit at the house --including a nice thanksgiving dinner-- we also ate out one night, at "turtle island restaurant" (where i indulged in shrimp and grits, which were loaded with bacon & cheese). for the first time in months i just ate what i wanted and tried not to feel too guilty. now that we're back, though, i'm actually really scared to get on the scale.
aside from the worries of overindulgence, the vacation was really, really nice. this was the third year ray & i have gone to the beach at thanksgiving, and i'm pretty certain we'll do it again next year. it's great just to get away and do nothing.
Posted by xta at November 27, 2005 07:13 PM | TrackBacksounds like a perfect vacation......you have ALL my envy.
Posted by: Gidge at November 27, 2005 09:54 PMThat sunset photo is achingly beautiful. It made me wish I was at the beach. Oh hell, who am I kidding, the beach in autumn needs no advertisement, it's so great.
I'm glad you had a nice time and enjoyed some indulgence.
This was a very evocative blog but the truth is -- I'm still thinking about Ray curled up in pain after eye surgery. Dude, I'm glad you had a nice vacation. And same for Christa.
Posted by: Phil at November 28, 2005 02:09 AM...except, next year? I'm thinking you need to bring an adorable Tuvalan family WITH YOU.
Posted by: blackbird at November 28, 2005 09:21 AMDang, you couldn't even spell E-I-E-I-O with that Scrabble rack!
Posted by: minty at November 28, 2005 10:18 AMshe actually led most of the game, but then i got a 7-letterer, Simmerer. playing Booger was fun too.
Posted by: ray speaking of christa's rack ubinger at November 28, 2005 11:06 AMHeh-heh-heh . . . Phil said "titter."
Wait, am I in the comments to the "my new bra" entry?
Posted by: minty at November 28, 2005 11:16 PMSimmerer is under doubt!
Christa doubted it during play but I cajoled her into accepting. Turns out it's evidently not in Scrabble nor normal Dictionary (neither of which we had), but found by me a couple or three times on the web tonight as a reference to a little fragrance mixing thing, e.g. a clay pot with lid with holes. My thought was that it was a simple do/doer relationship attached onto the transitive form of the verb: if you simmer the stew, you're a simmerer.
I offer to forfeit! A-E-I-E-E!!
Dnomyar Regnibu