Exploring

My schedule on a day to day basis is far from busy these days. I do not start teaching until August 28th, so I have had a lot of time on my hands to spend reading and relaxing. However, my husband has his first "adult" 8-5 job, which takes up quite a lot of his time during the week. Knowing this, I should let him relax on the weekends, but we are natural explorers and have a hard time staying at home during our time off.

This weekend was no exception...we started on Friday night by going to this little country steak house called The Baron and the Beef with Bryan, Bridget, Emily, and Brandon. It was delicious, but the company was even better. We came back to our apartment afterward and watched The Blind Side, which we had all seen before, but always touches my heart.

The next morning, we slept in until 9:00, ate breakfast, packed a lunch, and made our way towards Atlantic Beach. We, well mostly I, had planned a full agenda for the day. First, we went to the NC Coastal Aquarium, which was a lot of fun, except for the LIVE snake show Steven dragged me to for what seemed like an eternity.

Anyway, moving on, after leaving the aquarium, we got ice cream and headed to tour Fort Macon. I have to admit, I was not looking forward to this tour one bit. The sun was bright, and I desperately wanted to be sitting in a chair with my toes in the sand soaking up some rays; however, to my surprise I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We got to explore all of the underground rooms/barracks that were used from The Civil War all the way to World War II. There were lots of artifacts that had been restored from the wars, and we were even taught how to properly load and shoot a Civil War musket, which if you know Steven, you should know this was his favorite part. The man loves guns.

After the tour, we FINALLY made our way out on the beach; well, we tried...Since Fort Macon was located on the beach, and we were already there, we decided to do our beachin' there. We unloaded the car, and with our bags, cooler, and chairs in hand, we walked down the walkway and through the HOT sand to a spot on the coast. Just as I was "mentioning" how hot the sand, as well as I, was and how good the water was going to feel, Steven noticed a large sign on one of the dunes that read "GETTING IN THE WATER IS NOT PERMITTED IN THIS STATE PARK." You can't imagine how utterly annoyed we were...After dragging all of our beach stuff back up to the car, loading it up, driving down to the boardwalk, fighting for a parking spot, unloading the car, walking through the HOT sand, and finding a spot on the beach, we sat down in our chairs and relaxed for a few hours. It was heaven for me and I'm sure a little boring for Steven. He's not a tanner and would much prefer getting in the water or throwing the ball around to tanning any day of the week; but alas, the things you do for love :)

We had a wonderful day exploring Atlantic Beach...next stop, Emerald Isle, where my friend, Kara, grew up vacationing with her family. We are excited to check it out!