Ocean Isle Beach Vacation and Happy 4th of July

This past week we spent in Ocean Isle with my parents, my brother David, and his girlfriend, Kristin. We have way too many photos right now, so hopefully this isn't insanely boring and repetitive, since we went to the beach almost every day. We enjoyed the sand, sun, and a lot of great food. I enjoyed running on the beach with my dad and Ryan went on several road bike rides throughout the week. This was our first family vacation that I really felt that we put Keira and Soren's needs first, so we had a lot of time to relax while the kids napped. We also had an insane amount of ice cream from the Ocean Isle Creamery. We went there 4 times. Soren also became a master at crawling. Nothing like an 11 hour car ride to make you want to move around!

We woke up super early on Saturday to do the drive. To make it more exciting, we stopped in Raleigh at The Pit, a place we saw on Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the food channel. In the show, Bobby Flay lost to Ed Mitchell making ribs, and since we were passing through the area, we wanted to give it a shot. Our lunch was excellent, and provided a nice break for everyone from the drive. We finished out the drive with no issues, and had a quick dip in the pool before the kids crashed for bed.

On Sunday, Keira enjoyed playing with a new bubble maker. It blew tons of bubbles, and she loved it. She played with it so much we ran out of bubbles after a day and a half. We also went to the ocean. It was just a short walk from the house we rented. Neither Keira or Soren were super excited about the water today, but both enjoyed the sand. Soren wanted to eat it, of course. We had dinner at Crabby Oddwaters, which was not as good as we had hoped. It was odd for sure. It had upscale prices but we ate off of styrofoam plates with plastic silverware. We will not be recommending this place.

On Monday, we did more of the beach. We also had dinner at the Sugar Shack, which was excellent. We enjoyed coconut shrimp and lots of jamiancan style foods. It was also Soren's 9 month birthday.

On Tuesday, we had hoped to take Keira to the Ocean Isle Day Camp, which we would have attended with her. The Tuesday theme was Mermaids, so we thought she would really enjoy it. It was cancelled due to the heat. Instead, we did a bit of shopping and got her a mermaid doll. We went to the beach more, and Keira was getting more brave each day with the water. We barbequed in (which, since we were not making ribs, technically didn't count as barbeque in NC according to Ed Mitchell) so that we could go to a turtle show that evening. The turtle show was a presentation by the local turtle club. There were currently 13 nests on Ocean Isle and this group assists getting the baby turtles to the ocean and tries to protect their nests from predators. Only 1 in 1000 turtle eggs reaches adulthood.

Wednesday was a really big day. We drove to the aquarium in Fort Fisher. It was really fun. They had a lot of fish on display. Keira and Soren really enjoyed it. Keira's favorites were the sea turtles, clownfish, and seahorses.

Next, we drove to Wilmington. It is a cool historic town that we really enjoyed last year. We ate lunch at the Pilot House, which was neat because we felt like we were on a patio but were really in air conditioning. It was so hot, so we did not want to eat outside today! I had a raw oyster, which was a first for me. I thought I must have been super hungry to have done it, but looking back at the photos, I think it was just because the presentation was really good, with tons of great garnish. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. After lunch, we walked around a little bit and stopped in Coastal Cupcakes for a dessert, but it was just too hot to just be walking around the town. Ryan and I decided to take the kids to the Battleship North Carolina that is docked there and is now a museum. It was amazing. We could not believe that we could go all over the ship. It wasn't really stroller friendly, and we had to carry Soren and Keira all over the place, but they seemed to really enjoy it too.

When we got back into Ocean Isle, we had a quick dip in the pool and called it a day.

On Thursday, Keira got really brave in the ocean. She really enjoyed running in and out of the waves. Soren also enjoyed sitting in the shallow surf. Neither really liked being taken out with one of us into the ocean, still. We had considered taking Keira to the Ocean Isle Day camp again today, but it was cancelled again today due to the heat.

That evening, we went towards Myrtle Beach and ate at Parson's Table. It was a really nice place and was built from an old church. We had an excellent meal. It was funny, because we were concerned about what we should wear since it said casual, but nice. People were dressed all sorts of ways, so we were totally fine with our attire, except my dad was not allowed to wear his hat. Funny. We thought some people shouldn't be allowed to wear their tee shirts, but they didn't do anything about that.

Friday was our last full day in Ocean Isle. I did a full reverse triathlon, with lots of breaks. I ran in the morning, and then we went on a bike ride as a family around the island. Soren had his first bike ride in the trailer. He did not like wearing his helmet. Keira rode on the back of the bike I rode, and she also rode her bike a bit when we were done riding.

After we got back from the ride, Ryan and I were able to enjoy the ocean without the kids for a bit, but we took them to the pool when they got up from their naps. We had a ton of packing to do, so we didn't want to go anywhere for dinner, and just got pizza instead.

On Saturday, we got up early and spent most of our 4th of July in the car. Once we got into Westerville, we put the kids to bed and Ryan and I grabbed some raspberry chocolate chip ice cream from Graeters, our favorite. My mom and I were able to catch the Westerville fireworks. We watched them from our made up parking space with the top down in her mustang. It was fun, and we got home quickly, so that was even better.

On Sunday, we had a barbeque with my parents before heading back to Michigan. It was a great week. We had a blast in Ocean Isle and had a great time with my family. We are really thankful that they were able to take us along on this trip and let us have such a great vacation!