Relaxation: What a concept

It was a very relaxing week in North Carolina. I’ll admit I had some fears about traveling with a 1 1/2 year old (13 hours by the way), and about staying in a strange house on the ocean with a toddler.

The drive was OK though. We broke it up into 2 days and I found us a very nice Marriott in Charleston, W.V. to break up the drive. They had a wonderful down comforter (which is what sold me online) and an awesome breakfast buffet, that included an omelet and waffle chef. And the people were so nice. We were so happy with our stay that we stopped and spent the night there on our way home as well. Also cool: It was across the street from a mall – which was great for Ella to stretch her little legs, and there was a regatta/festival a few blocks down by the river. We took a stroll through and listened to a singer, who we later learned was Joe De Messina. We also passed a bus that had a Blues Traveler sticker on it. The next day we learned they had also played. Shoot. We should have stayed longer! We were all tired though.

Anyway the next day wasn’t as peachy. The second leg was longer and sooo boring. The first day was full of windy roads through the mountains of West Virginia and there was so much scenery to look at. Second day. Not so much. And Ella wasn’t as good spirited. All I can say is Hallelujah to portable DVD players. She watched a movie happily for 2 hours then fell asleep.

We FINALLY got there and were stunned at the ocean view. You never know when you only see photos online. But the house was RIGHT on the ocean. It was very, very close. And the waves were huge. It was high tide, but I think they were bigger than normal due to hurricane season.

I was very happy to learn the main deck doors were very hard to open, meaning Ella would never be able to open them. I wasn’t happy to see the deck rails were very wide, wide enough for a toddler to fall through, down ten feet to a bunch of bushes. Guess Ella wouldn’t be playing on the deck ever. Otherwise the house wasn’t bad. Very sparsely furnished so not a lot of stuff for her to get ahold of. There was a staircase up and a staircase down. But we had a gate that worked for one, and the other was closed off by a door that she could not open. And the house was very open. You could see her from anywhere.

So, anyway, my safety anxieties were relieved, and we had a nice time. We bought groceries and so did our roomies (SIL, BIL and neices) so we had some good meals at home and some out. Steve and I had some awesome sushi and we even got to go out one night by ourselves and have awesome seafood. The best crablegs ever. I even lived in Maryland one summer and I don’t remember them being sooo good.  We also played in the ocean, although not a ton because the waves were so huge that sometimes I felt like I was getting beat up and once I even lost a contact. And Steve’s knee got scraped up, so it’s not just that I’m a wimp.

We also checked out a very nice aquarium in Wilmington, in which Ella ran yelling from one tank to the next excitedly pointing to all the different creatures. She LOVED it.

More importantly we did a lot of relaxing. You know how on some trips or vacations you get back and you feel like you need another vacation to relax after that one? I don’t feel that way. I feel kinda revived. I’m actually kinda excited to get back to work to tackle some projects. As much as it killed me sometimes we sat around a lot and did nothing. I read a whole book. By the way, Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls is AWESOME. It’s a memoir by Walls, who is a contributor on MSNBC, about growing up in a very poor, eccentric home with her alcoholic father and anti-establishment mother. It’s crazy the conditions and things these kids lived through. And a lot of it happened in West Virginia. I was so tempted to go find their old home and see where it all took place.

Well, I think my husband has been watching football for 8 hours and maybe I can actually watch something now.

The house we stayed in.

Our stairway to the beach.

The first morning we were there Ella woke up and went right over the admire the view.

The world’s biggest sandbox.

Steve and Kelsey grin for a photo on Kelsey’s birthday.

Our nieces, Kelsey and Alyssa at the aquarium in Wilmington.

See those waves behind us? They’re very scary when you’re in them.

Always open to new challenges …