Sunrise, Sunset Part 2

(starting where I left off in Sunrise, Sunset Part 1…)

After the couples massage, Will and me (is it “me” or “I”? “I” sounds better but I think “me” is grammatically correct…) relaxed a bit and got ready to go to dinner.  As nice as the massage was, I actually wish that it hadn’t been included in our bed and breakfast package.  It made things rather difficult because it was scheduled right in the middle of the day and prevented us from going to Ocracoke as we had planned.  Although, let me be clear…if that is my biggest problem, I am very blessed indeed.  It’s not a complaint, more of just an observation.

Anyway, that night for dinner we planned to go to the South Beach Grille.  I had discovered this restaurant through Restaurant.com and after reading through many, many reviews, had scored a $25 gift certificate for $4.   I was a bit nervous because even after reading the reviews, I had no idea whether or not this place would be great or a bust.  Thankfully, my worries were all in vain (as they usually are) and the food was amazing.  Very fresh seafood, great service, and a lot of food for a reasonable price.  If we get the chance to go back to the OBX, we will definitely eat there again.

After dinner (and doing our nightly check-in by phone with the kids), we headed back to our B&B to enjoy our last evening in the OBX together.  We decided to grab some wine and sit outside by the fire pit.  But alas, the young couple who had used it the night before had used the last of the gas and we were out of luck.  It was then that we discovered the tree swing in the backyard, and I was ecstatic.  I love swings.  One of my favorite moments of our trip was Will pushing me on that swing behind that Victorian house with a canopy of stars overhead.  It was so much fun.

After playing some more in the backyard, we decided to head in and watch a movie before bed.  I was determined to get better sleep that night too because I knew I would be returning to the land of disrupted sleep soon enough.

Except…it wasn’t meant to be.  I can’t complain though, because the reason for not getting much sleep that night was that Will woke me around 6:00am (granted, I was kind of awake as that is near the time Asher often wakes) to ask if I wanted to go with him to watch the sun rise.  I quickly debated warm bed vs. sunrise, and the sunrise won, as we have never watched the sunrise together and with young children, the chance to do so doesn’t come along very often.  We dressed quickly and drove about a mile down the road to the waterfront.  We walked out on a pier and cuddled up under a blanket and enjoyed the beauty around us.

God gave us such an amazing world to experience.

Following the beautiful sunrise, we went back, showered, dressed, and ate breakfast.  We packed up our things, checked out of our room, and headed towards Jockey Ridge State Park, hoping to have a couple hours there before we had to head back towards home.  The sand dunes at Jockey’s Ridge are incredible and are the tallest on the east coast.  Climbing them was actually an unexpected workout!

The view from the ground (Will took this of me at the top)…

And then, after the climb, we did this…

It was like playing in a giant sandbox, although unfortunately, sliding all the way down didn’t really work.  I discovered a way to do it in spurts, though.

Soon it was time to go home, and after grabbing a couple of sandwiches at a local sandwich shop, we were on our way.  It was hard to leave that “couple time” behind, but I was ready to see our kids again and step back into my mommy shoes.  We started our trip with a sunset and ended it with a sunrise, and while some may think the opposite would have been more fitting, I kind of like to think that it was the way it should be.  This trip we took to celebrate our 7th anniversary is only a blip in the time God has given us together- that last day didn’t mark the end of anything but the trip itself.  I’d rather look at that last day as the start to our next 7 years together.

And you know, we never did get to ride that tandem bike.  I guess we will have to go back!

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Sunrise, Sunset (Part 1)

No, the title of this post is is not a Fiddler on the Roof reference, for those of you wondering.  It is, however, a reference to two of my favorite memories of our trip to the Outer Banks last month.

The morning of our trip, we gathered up our bags and the kids’ bags and headed first to my parents house to drop the kids off.  For me, it was a bit of an emotional ordeal.  As much as I was looking forward to the alone time with my husband (and I really, REALLY was), it was very hard for me to leave the kids, even in my parents’ super capable hands.   Yes, there were tears as we drove away (mine, as I think the kids were fine), but thankfully a few miles down the road I was able to switch into wife mode and realize that We. Were. Alone. In. The. Van.

We made our way to the Outer Banks in good time and checked into our bed and breakfast a little after 3pm.  Once we had been given the tour and got settled into our bedroom, we enjoyed the wine and chocolates that was part of the Living Social deal and talked about what we wanted to do that evening.  We decided to grab something to eat and, um… go to a movie.  Yes, really.  We rarely go to movies (maybe once or twice a year) and when we do go, we often have to rush back to pick up the kids to get them home to bed or something along those lines.  I had purchased a deal through Living Social (noticing a theme here?) a while back for two tickets that I managed to get for $5.  We had both been wanting to see Courageous while it was in the theaters, and given that this was the Outer Banks in October, many things were closed for the season.  So…we first set out to find something to eat.  Did I mention that many things were closed for the season?  The place we had planned to eat was one of them- I had heard it had been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network, and some good friends of ours had also recommended it, so I was a bit bummed that it was one of the places that was already closed for the season.

As we drove around looking for a plan B, we noticed that the sun was going down and the sky was becoming a beautiful blaze of color.  So we decided to stop food hunting and find a place to watch the sunset.  We had about 10 minutes before it was due to set and  drove along trying to find a quick access on the sound side.  Thankfully, we found one and pulled off on the side of the road just in time to get some gorgeous pictures that still don’t do the actual event justice.

Because of that sunset, I’m glad that the place we had planned on was closed.  I don’t think we would have experienced that amazing, spontaneous moment otherwise.

 

 

 

We ended up at Five Guys, which I found hilarious because it is certainly not a restaurant unique to the OBX.  But it was good and fast, which allowed us to get to our movie in time. Being that it was a Monday night in late October, there was only one other couple in the movie theater, which was nice actually.  Courageous is an absolutely incredible movie.  And for those of you that have seen it, you can probably understand why it is not an easy movie to watch when you have left your kids for a few nights in a row for the first time…it was like an emotional punch to the stomach…but in a good way.

We got back to our room and reveled in the fact that we not only had a full nights sleep ahead of us with no little feet padding into our room, but that we could actually watch a movie undisturbed!  Our kids had the last laugh, however, because apparently I am now programmed to wake up at 6:30am no matter what.

That first full day in the Outer Banks we had planned to take the ferry over to Ocracoke Island and get back in time for the couples massage that was also part of the deal we had purchased.  Now, normally I am a planner and check into every little detail.  But I was seriously trying to just go with it on this trip.  Which meant that I didn’t realize it would be an hours drive to get to the ferry, on top of the 40 minute ride to and from Ocracoke.  Oh well, we figured we would be a little limited on our time on the island but could make it work.  That was, until the ferry was late.  Over 30 minutes late.  And we couldn’t easily abort our plan because we were stuck in the sardine-packed ferry lanes of cars waiting to board once the ferry actually ARRIVED.  As we sat in our car contemplating what to do, we decided to call our B&B to see if we could push our massage back.  It wasn’t possible.  We didn’t want to forfeit the massage due to the cost, and knew at this point that there was no way we’d have enough time on Ocracoke if we proceeded with our original plan.

We waited for the ferry (which apparently had been having some technical difficulties) and then managed to extract our car and head back towards Manteo.  I was back in my mode of “not managing failed expectations well” despite my attempts at a laidback, go-with-it attitude, and was not pleasant to be with at the particular moment.  Thankfully, we shook it off, decided to pick up a pizza, and ate it on the beach.

We made it back just in time for our couples massage (okay, about 3 minutes late).  And yet again, because this entry is getting a bit long, I’ll stop now and share about the last half of our trip next time.  I know, I know, I’m leaving you in suspense. Ha.