Anniversary/ Birthday/ Labor Day

As I sit here amidst the mess that is well known as the return home from vacation, I have to smile, because I know that the trip was well worth the 4 loads of laundry and the pint of sand that we will never be able to get out of our living room carpet ( at least until we get a vacuum cleaner that doesn't BLOW, literally.), but mostly I have to smile because I know that it will take at least another week for all of this laundry to get put away. My own fault, I am aware, this is just how things are.
Taking us all back for a moment, I am proud to say that our last couple of dinners (not disregarding the lovely beach bonfire hot-dog and Cheeto's with a juice box meals) have been very successful, apparently all the motivation i needed to change things was to wine before the entire Blogging world about my own laziness, and ta da! instant accountability! and there was also the dread of actually having to go to McDonald's again for a balanced meal.

And now a recap of our mini Anniversary/ Birthday/ Labor Day vacation.
One thing to note as i recount this adventure is the fact that 0% planning on either of our behalfs, aside from our final destination, went into this weekend trip... 0%

I had to work on Saturday morning. Thus the 1 single plan that we had was to leave as soon as we could after I got home from work so that we could maybe make it to our campsite before the sun set. I got home at 2:15 pm and we left for Cape Hatteras for the 1st time at about 3:20 pm. We forgot a couple things, like our beach chairs, so we turned around and left for Cape Hatteras for the 2nd time at 3:40 pm. We had a cooler in our backseat with an already melting bag of ice in it, but no groceries. We "planned" on picking some up when we got closer to our destination. This is all fine and well, but we never really got around to making a list of what we wanted to bring along to eat. This is what we ended up with. Hot Dogs, Buns, Ketchup, Juice Boxes, Smores things, Plates, Paper Plates, Cheeto's, Granola bars, 2 bananas, and Twizzlers. (note that we had failed to pack any kind of device that would allow us to cook the hot dogs  or smores over a fire, and that we had also failed to pack a lighter, which means (unless you are Bear Grylls; although we are big fans of his show, we are indeed not Bear himself) there would also be no fire.) With groceries in tow we arrived at the coast at about 7:30 pm. There is only one main street that spans the length of the peninsula, and there were parts of it that were still under water and sand. The going was slow but it allowed us to really take in the sights all the way down the 1 1/2 hour strip of road. As the sun sank lower in the west our confidence that we would be able to find a campsite before dark sank with it. We ended up missing the street that would take us to the campground that we wanted by about 20 minutes, when we reached the Ferry at the end of the peninsula it was plan B time. We chose to camp at the 1st site we found. After picking up some firewood and a lighter mere moments before the corner store turned out its lights we found ourselves in an ocean view campsite fending off giant gnats and hungry mosquitoes as we struggled to put up our tent in the light of our headlamps. The night ended on the beach under more stars than perhaps either of us has ever seen at one time, with a blazing fire and some well deserved hot dogs and juice boxes. A Birthday unlike any other.

Sunday, we woke up in time to catch the sun rise with our camera. Phil had never been to the beach previously, and thus thought it would be best for him to start his morning off wearing the wool socks he had, had on the night before to fend off the mosquitoes, and his canvas beach shoes. Why did I not stop him from committing such an atrocity? So that I could share the moment with all of you of course.

Phil standing ever so close to the waves in his shoes and wool socks = the next picture.

After the sun was up and hot we drove our Rav 4 right out to the beach and camped out on the sand till lunch time.
 Fried seafood sandwiches and fries! (fried oysters are officially the 2nd item on my list of foods that I just cannot enjoy. The 1st being liver.) We bought boogie boards and battled the waves; a battle which I apparently lost considering the giant raspberry on my leg. I got sun burned and Phil just got tan. Looking out over the water at one point in the afternoon i saw fins two fins, three fins it was a pod of dolphins! They were pretty far out there but they were dolphins for sure. (according to the combined knowledge that Phil and I have of marine biology)  Frozen custard just before sun set, and another fire on the beach completed what I would call a perfect day.

Monday we packed up early and headed back home, but we didn't get very far before we parked the car, got out our beach chairs and spent a couple more hours taking it all in (pictures, as well at literally taking a giant Conch shell that I found). We got home in time to unload the car, build a sand castle with what was left in between the seats and on the floorboards (we didn't really, but we very well could have), and take it to the car wash. Then I cut Phil's hair so that he didn't have to spent the next week washing sand out of his hair which we aptly and affectionately call "the web".

 And there you have it. Anniversary/ Birthday/ Labor Day from the Matta's View.