Escape to the Beach!

We've had a good streak going for the last year and a half-- every six months or so we've taken off for a beach vacation. This time around was North Carolina, where we met my relatives at a great beach house in the South Outer Banks. We spent four days with them on Emerald Isle, and had one of the best beach vacations in my recent memory. I love the beaches around North Carolina. They're unpretentious, and not too crowded. The seafood is fresh and the beer is cold. There are lovely dunes leading up to most of the beaches, and the water is just the right temperature for splashing around. 

Undocumented highlights of the trip include renting a boat and cruising around the sound, playing bocce on the beach, lots of splashing in the waves, and the two days at the end of the trip that we spent in Wilmington, NC. I lugged my new camera on the trip and had fun taking pictures with it, but I also learned that our old point and shoot still has a place in our home, for documenting the dirty/wet/impromptu parts of our life when the big camera isn't around. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the trip...

It was so steamy outside! This was the first night, and I had just brought my camera outside.
 It had been in the cool air conditioning all day, and was super fogged up. I like it anyway!

Taking a break to enjoy the A.C.

My uncle is a chef, so it's good to have him around!
This was from Shrimp & Grits night. SO GOOD!

Cocktails on the front porch.

My grandma is the best!

Dinner the night Joe and I cooked. Seared scallops, steamed clams, crab cakes,
 and strawberry and spinach salad. It was a perfect summer dinner, and so very beachy.

I really really really like fresh seafood.

Not a bad backyard view.

Turns out I have too many pictures to contain in one post! 

So this is part 1: Emerald Isle. 

I'll be back in a day or two with the next installment of the trip!