Summer Vacation

This year we went to Emerald Isle for a week.  I grew up going to EI, and I have not been back since 2007.  It is truly a place that feels so familiar and like home to me.

We stayed in an ocean front house, and this was the beautiful view from the deck...it never got old!

Here are a few photos from our week taken with my iPhone as well as my D800.

Of course there was a lot of boogie boarding, surf boarding, ball throwing, and playing in the surf!

We played putt putt and monopoly AND we put together a 1000 piece puzzle.

We drove up to Beaufort and took a boat tour over to Shackleford Banks where the wild horses have been living for about 300 years now.  The horses were too far away for me to get a good photo, but we did see some of them.  There are about 140 horses living on the island right now.



We also ate lunch in Beaufort at the Dock House restaurant...an old favorite of ours.  I always love seeing this old ship's mast and all the nautical flags...it is a Beaufort icon.



We stayed very close to The Point this year (the southernmost tip of the island) so we walked down to where the ocean meets the Intracoastal Waterway several times at low tide looking for shells.  We mainly found old broken ones, but Brendan (especially) also found some nice intact shells.



I also found this crazy shark's tooth...it's the biggest one I've ever found.


We had so much fun, and I think we were all sad when the week was over.  On Saturday, we had to be out of the house by 10am.  We drove to New Bern that night to stay for one night before taking the boys to Camp Don Lee on Sunday.  We had several hours to kill so we took the kids to a Water Boggan Park.  They all enjoyed it for the most part.



We had such a fantastic time!