Clouds-Upon-Avon

Hello friends, I'm sorry for the lack of blogging, this has been one of the craziest months of my life. Or two months. I can't even remember the last time I blogged. So here goes. (To be told in various blog posts).

In August, I took my first R&R, and went with my family to the Outer Banks! We went to Avon (just north of Cape Hatteras), and it was heavenly. The waves were much better this year than last year's "lame waves," we went to the traditional Saturday night fish fry at the firehouse, made homemade ice cream, did puzzles, played games, watched movies (and sang ALL the songs in Muppet Treasure Island, and quoted ALL of Princess Bride), and pretty much had a great time.....

Except for the clouds. I was in such a blissful state of being-in-North-Carolina that I didn't really notice, and when I did notice, I thought it was pretty hilarious. You see, we would wake up, and there would be clouds-upon-Avon. And so we thought "Ah, today would be a good day to go to the museum/go shopping/eat out/do something inside." So we would drive half an hour/an hour/10 minutes away, and as soon as we got wherever we were going, the sun would come out. Praise Be! So we would rush home, put on our suits, and run out to the beach where it was......cloudy. One time it even rained, and all of a sudden lightning struck the ocean WHILE WE WERE IN THE OCEAN, and, yeah, we went home. I'm serious, this happened every day (not the lightning, thank heavens), but we would be driving back home to Avon, and there would be that little cloud, hovering there waiting for us. I even got a picture from the Hatteras lighthouse to prove it: (Avon is just past that narrow stretch of land).


At any rate, we still had a lovely time, and our last day the sun was SHINING! And far-away Hurricane Danielle decided to stir up the ocean for a bit, and the waves were huge! So huge, in fact that I (and I consider myself a very adept ocean swimmer and body surfer) got "tumbled" every time I tried to get past where they were breaking. We all got "tumbled" a lot ("tumbled" is a euphemism one of my sisters created to try to lessen the horror of getting smashed head first into the sand, getting salt water up your nose, sand in your ears, and then getting tumbled again because you can't stand up straight). But it was also so fun to be back in the ocean. Maybe I'm out of practice, because Michael and Rachel had a lot more sucess than I did, at getting out past the breakers:

And here is more proof that the weather was beautiful while we were there, despite the clouds:


So, sorry there aren't more photos (especially one of the whole family, I think they're on mom's camera). So more later! But first, check out this great National Geographic quality photo I got of a tree frog on our deck! (I know, I'm such a dork :)