My right water shoe belongs to the sea now, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Me n' Leigh took a notion to head out to a beach weekend to enjoy the start of the truly hot part of summer. Leigh has a separate tradition of going to Surf City each year with her brothers, and so knew this town relatively well and could be our guide through the three days.
She picked out a bungalow right on the sound, tucked away and perfect for our getaway:
weird art though!
The spot couldn't have been more idyllic, and the first evening we were there we decided to try walking to the beach, which was only about 30 minutes, though we broke that trek in two at a coffee shop mid-way. We swam for a bit, then came back to enjoy the sunset from our porch:
And that beautiful evening light indoors:
And sparklers!
Then we drove back into town to see the pier at night - a must see, says Leigh!
and right she is!
The next day was the big beach day, and we set out early to get a breakfast sandwich from a shop in town, then head to the beach. Surf City is a small island across a bridge, and is just big enough to have plenty of seaside while also having a charming beach town and shops.
We set up our blankets & big umbrella, then hit the waves. My favorite activity of course is to walk out just far enough to still touch bottom, then get clobbered by the biggest waves right as they are breaking on their way to shore. This is great fun! But it was inevitable when a particularly colossal wave broke at just the precise moment to sweep me forward and backward - via the undertoe - and vacuum the shoe right off of my foot into the abyss.
I knew it was gone for good right when I felt it, but I searched in vain for a bit anyway. Luckily this was not the day we walked 30 minutes to swim, but I did still have to cross a hot pavement parking lot with one bare foot to get back to the car.
The plan then became: return to the bungalow, have the pre-packed picnic lunch that Leigh had crafted, then come back into town to shop for new water shoes. It is fortuitous that we were in a beach town with copious places to purchase water-related clothing. The first place we tried had racks upon racks of good shoes, and a pair was selected in no time.
And so I returned to the afternoon beach session renewed, and with water shoes that had a tightening strap and velcro. More fun in the sun was had, and more waves were crashed upon us, but no further shoes were eaten by the sea.
We considered coming back for more swimming in the evening, but we were tired out by our day in the sun, and as it turned out, we were both a bit sunburnt (me quite a bit more than Leigh). We gathered up our paraphernalia, then grabbed dinner at the Maine Lobstah Shack.
Leigh looked up and found a movie in the park at Soundside Park (near the Lobstah), so we strolled around that area until the show started:
The movie was Shrek, which somehow Leigh called:
Sleep was wonderful, yet painful that night, given the aforementioned sunburns. We packed up early the next morning and headed out for a breakfast stop in Wilmington, which was on the way back to Charlotte.
We had some donuts and sat by the river:
Saw a bookstore:
And just generally poked around til we got to hot to keep going, then returned to the car and headed home.
