Vacation has come and gone (and I miss it already). After eight years living in North Carolina, we finally made a proper trip to the Outer Banks.
Along with OBX activities, I also had plans for reading a couple of books, writing, launching a new project. But I was so successful at relaxing and doing nothing that none of that got done. And that's just fine.
Mike found a house to rent about two blocks from the beach in Kill Devil Hills. By deciding to go in mid-September, we knew we were risking the weather but the rent for the week was only about one third of what it would be during peak season so it seemed worth the gamble.
The house was great, though even as a "small" house, it slept 8 (for our 2). The top floor included the master bedroom/bathroom, a full kitchen, dining room, living room, and porch. Actually, there was a partial level above that called a Captain's Watch. It was an interior room but all windows on two sides and we could glimpse the ocean from there. The second floor included 3 more bedrooms and another full bathroom. We only used one of those bedrooms one night (more on that later). The bottom floor included laundry, a wet bar, table, and bathroom and opened out to the backyard which had a small in ground pool and a hot tub.
We arrived Saturday and spent the rest of the evening settling in and picking up a few groceries. I believe there was some time spent in the hot tub as well.
Sunday, we checked out Jockey's Ridge State Park. Mike was interested in hang gliding lessons on the sand dunes so we spent awhile walking around checking it out. We had takeout from the Outer Banks Brewing Station for dinner that night - calamari, ribs, and bbq sandwich, all of which were awesome.
Monday, we thought we could go up to the Currituck Lighthouse but after lounging too long in the morning and not realizing how far the drive would be, it was too late. Instead, we went to the Wright Brothers Memorial for awhile before eating at the Outer Banks Brewing Station. We tried their beer sampler and found a couple we liked. We also had scallops with pumpkin risotto, pasta for me, and steak for him. We split a pumpkin doughnut for dessert and it was all amazing. Service was also great so we definitely recommend the OBBS.
Tuesday, Mike had scheduled his hang gliding lesson for 10am but it was canceled due to high winds. Sometime late Monday/early Tuesday, a storm off the coast started pushing inland, stirring up the winds in our area. So while it was sunny and nice Tuesday, it was a little breezy. Once they canceled his lesson, we decided to make the drive down to Cape Hatteras, afraid the weather might be too bad later in the week. As it was, they weren't allowing anyone to climb the lighthouse but it was still nice to see. On the way we stopped at the Bodie Island Lighthouse and Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station. That evening, Mike went for a windy run and we ordered pizza from Dare Devil's Authentic Pizzeria. Another place we recommend (we had the Crazy Greek Pizza). Being from Buffalo, we found their wings to be lacking but the pizza was spectacular.
That night, we didn't sleep much. The wind was beating against the house and making a terrible racket by banging the patio furniture around. I remember looking at the clock around 3am, wondering whether or not Mike would be mad if I woke him up to ask him to take me back home. To be fair, it sounded much worse than it was. But still, we didn't sleep.
Wednesday, we enjoyed another lazy morning before driving up to Corolla to see Currituck Lighthouse. It's really beautiful - unpainted, natural brick. Mike climbed to the top, though they outside balcony was closed due to the wind. I climbed about 60 feet, freaked out, and descended the stairs at record speeds to wait outside. Not my proudest moment. That night, we stayed in and Mike made a fabulous salmon and Parmesan risotto. I'm pretty spoiled that he cooks so well.
Wednesday night, we gave up and slept downstairs, crammed into a twin bed in the one room of the house that didn't seem to be taking a beating from the wind. It was cramped and uncomfortable but almost quiet. The power went out around 2am and stayed out until around 7am but it didn't really matter.
Thursday was the rainy day and we planned for a washout. It wasn't as bad as we had thought it would be but it was still awesome to just chill out inside, read, watch tv, and do nothing. He ran out to Five Guys to pick up burgers for dinner but other than that, we never left the house.
On Friday, we started out with breakfast at Stack'em High Pancake House. He had pancakes, I had a Greek omelet. Both were fabulous. He was able to reschedule his hang gliding lesson for that afternoon. I read a book while he was in flight school and then I followed his class out to the dunes. For me, it was a long couple of hours. The sun was very hot and the sand was whipping hard against my legs. That night we went to Basnight's Lone Cedar Cafe for our "big" seafood dinner. I had delicious crab cakes and he had three different fish varieties - dolphin (I'm assuming now that this was dolphin-fish as opposed to actual Flipper), swordfish, and tuna. Good stuff.
Saturday morning, we loaded up the car and headed for home, stopping at the Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo on the way. We pulled back into the garage around 4pm and were happy to see Tasha and Ripley awaiting our return. Or at least awaiting a refill on their crunchies.
Even though we had some weather issues, it was a great trip. We picked the location in Kill Devil Hills rather randomly (Mike fell in love with the pictures of the house) and it worked out perfectly. I'm glad we've finally spent some time in the Outer Banks. We were able to fit in a lot of sights and activities but we missed enough to make it worth a return visit. Hopefully it won't be another eight years before we go back.
Sorry this was so long. As much as I blog this kind of stuff to share with our family and friends, I also blog it for my own records so I can look back and remember what we've been up to. I've been holding off on posting this, wanting to get some photos ready but I'll have to add them later.
If you want to see the sun shine, you have to weather the storm. -Frank Lane
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
First Day of Fall
And it feels like it. Which is fabulous.
We've lived in NC since 2000 and I still haven't adapted to the heat and humidity that summer brings. By mid-August, I'm so over sweating and being gross all the time that I find myself crankily refusing to go outside. Nope, too hot.
But in the last week or so, the weather in Raleigh has shifted. It's almost cold at night, dropping into the 50s. And highs in the mid-70s. Absolutely perfect.
Also, since it's Fall, it's time for the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks. I haven't indulged yet but that's definitely one of those things that says "autumn" to me. I'm hoping we can find a day to drive out and do a little hiking somewhere west enough that the leaves change. Here, they change but not until very late. It's just not quite the same.
So, here's to Fall. Pumpkins, apples, sweaters, blazers, cute boots, and pretty leaves. Yay!
For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. -Edwin Way Teale
We've lived in NC since 2000 and I still haven't adapted to the heat and humidity that summer brings. By mid-August, I'm so over sweating and being gross all the time that I find myself crankily refusing to go outside. Nope, too hot.
But in the last week or so, the weather in Raleigh has shifted. It's almost cold at night, dropping into the 50s. And highs in the mid-70s. Absolutely perfect.
Also, since it's Fall, it's time for the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks. I haven't indulged yet but that's definitely one of those things that says "autumn" to me. I'm hoping we can find a day to drive out and do a little hiking somewhere west enough that the leaves change. Here, they change but not until very late. It's just not quite the same.
So, here's to Fall. Pumpkins, apples, sweaters, blazers, cute boots, and pretty leaves. Yay!
For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. -Edwin Way Teale
Saturday, September 13, 2008
A New Project, Maybe
The creative wheels are spinning and maybe, just maybe, after an extended break, I might have something up my sleeve.
Maybe.
Lots of thoughts rattling around in my head and I'm trying to capture them all so I can make sense of it all. I haven't written much in the past year so it's encouraging just to have rumblings again.
I feel like 2008 has involved a lot of floundering and wandering. I'm embarrassed when I look back at my resolutions for this year. A few were silly, a few are too late to save. But I might be able to salvage a couple. It would be awesome to set things back on track before 2009 rolls around.
Not sure what my point is, or even if I have one. But one of those resolutions was to blog more often. So here I am, sharing my excitement over a whole lot of nothing at this point. I'll see if I can turn it into something.
The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. -Linus Pauling
Maybe.
Lots of thoughts rattling around in my head and I'm trying to capture them all so I can make sense of it all. I haven't written much in the past year so it's encouraging just to have rumblings again.
I feel like 2008 has involved a lot of floundering and wandering. I'm embarrassed when I look back at my resolutions for this year. A few were silly, a few are too late to save. But I might be able to salvage a couple. It would be awesome to set things back on track before 2009 rolls around.
Not sure what my point is, or even if I have one. But one of those resolutions was to blog more often. So here I am, sharing my excitement over a whole lot of nothing at this point. I'll see if I can turn it into something.
The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. -Linus Pauling
Sunday, September 7, 2008
After Hanna
I've had a couple of emails/calls so I thought I'd just write up a quick blog about Tropical Storm Hanna here in Raleigh.
Originally, they thought the storm would come directly through Raleigh. Thursday evening (I think) the projected path changed, keeping the storm along the coast. Then Friday at noon, they changed the projections yet again, shifting the storm back inland towards us.
Basically, we had a lot of rain. Official storm totals were somewhere around six inches. It started sometime after we went to bed around midnight on Friday. At times, it came down quite hard. When we woke up Saturday morning, I noticed a tree on the property next to ours had come down, taking out a board on our fence.
A word or two about the tree. This tree, probably thirty or so feet tall, was on the little piece of property behind our house. It was snapped about a quarter of the way up and leaning into the top of another tree. Nobody technically owns that property and since it's so small, the City of Raleigh can't be bothered to put it to auction for the back taxes. We've expressed interest in buying it several times.
When I first noticed the tree was leaning, Mike spent several weeks trying to get the City to come do something about it. The City's official response? "It's on private property so we can't do anything about it. Also, you can't do anything about it. Once it falls, we'll come clean it up." Way to be proactive.
Anyways, I'm actually glad it fell because the damage was very minimal. No worries now about it falling and causing major damage - I had worried it would take down the entire section of fence.
We used the storm as an excuse to sit around and not do much on Saturday. After the storm moved out around noon, Mike nailed the board back in place. Good as new. And now we don't have to worry about it falling. We didn't even bother taking pictures of it because it was such a small thing.
So that was it for Hanna. A few gusts, some rain, and negligible damage. We've been very fortunate with our Hurricane experience since moving to North Carolina eight years ago.
Most of the time it was probably real bad being stuck down in a dungeon. But some days, when there was a bad storm outside, you'd look out your little window and think, "Boy, I'm glad I'm not out in THAT." -Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
Originally, they thought the storm would come directly through Raleigh. Thursday evening (I think) the projected path changed, keeping the storm along the coast. Then Friday at noon, they changed the projections yet again, shifting the storm back inland towards us.
Basically, we had a lot of rain. Official storm totals were somewhere around six inches. It started sometime after we went to bed around midnight on Friday. At times, it came down quite hard. When we woke up Saturday morning, I noticed a tree on the property next to ours had come down, taking out a board on our fence.
A word or two about the tree. This tree, probably thirty or so feet tall, was on the little piece of property behind our house. It was snapped about a quarter of the way up and leaning into the top of another tree. Nobody technically owns that property and since it's so small, the City of Raleigh can't be bothered to put it to auction for the back taxes. We've expressed interest in buying it several times.
When I first noticed the tree was leaning, Mike spent several weeks trying to get the City to come do something about it. The City's official response? "It's on private property so we can't do anything about it. Also, you can't do anything about it. Once it falls, we'll come clean it up." Way to be proactive.
Anyways, I'm actually glad it fell because the damage was very minimal. No worries now about it falling and causing major damage - I had worried it would take down the entire section of fence.
We used the storm as an excuse to sit around and not do much on Saturday. After the storm moved out around noon, Mike nailed the board back in place. Good as new. And now we don't have to worry about it falling. We didn't even bother taking pictures of it because it was such a small thing.
So that was it for Hanna. A few gusts, some rain, and negligible damage. We've been very fortunate with our Hurricane experience since moving to North Carolina eight years ago.
Most of the time it was probably real bad being stuck down in a dungeon. But some days, when there was a bad storm outside, you'd look out your little window and think, "Boy, I'm glad I'm not out in THAT." -Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey
Friday, September 5, 2008
Your First Time (And Your Last)
Everyone remembers their first time. Where, when, all the details that you anxiously fixated on while you waited for it to be over. My first time was at church.
No, not THAT first time! I'm talking about your first time performing in public. In this case, my first time playing the piano for an audience.
I had played around with my grandmother's organ for years but in fourth grade, my parents set me up for piano lessons with our pastor's wife, JoAnne. She's an amazing pianist and taught me so much in the few years I was able to learn from her.
The date escapes me and I don't remember how old I was but I don't believe I had been taking lessons long when JoAnne decided I should play a solo at church on a Sunday morning. I worked for months learning "How Great Thou Art", feeling particularly tricky and accomplished when I added some low notes for the "rolling thunder". Of course, once I finished my simple rendition, Pastor Kelvin was moved to lead the congregation in a verse or two so JoAnne took over the piano and blew my plinking and plunking away.
That was my first time playing the piano in front of a crowd. Over the next ten years or so, I played many more times. At church, I played for the adult and childrens' choirs, accompanied soloists, filled in as the regular Sunday and midweek pianist, and performed my own solo pieces from time to time. I also played at school, helping with chorus rehearsels, then accompanying soloists, various choral groups, and providing prelude music at several events. Add an occasional wedding or other random event and I had quite the list of performances.
Throughout college and our first couple of years in Raleigh, I had relied on an electric keyboard when the mood struck me to play. When we bought our house in 2002, one of my first big purchases was a used piano. It was exciting to finally have access to a 'real' piano again even though I only play for me now. And I'm fine with that.
Recently, I was asked to audition for a local Follies show. Performing for others isn't something that interests me at this point. I'm sure that's in part due to being out of practice but it's really just not something I want to do. Any playing I do now is for my own enjoyment and I would prefer to keep the stress of crowd-pleasing out of it. I turned down the offer to audition.
The invitation did, however, start an interesting line of thinking - when WAS my last public performance? I would guess it was probably at the church during one of my breaks from college. And likely before our wedding so it was at least ten years ago. Maybe I accompanied Dad on "Oh Holy Night" at a Christmas service. Or even a Sunday morning. I can't remember. And I'm sure that during that performance, I had no idea that it was the last performance EVER!!!
It's strange to think about. Something I did so regularly, and then there was a final performance but I was completely unaware at the time. It's not as if I made a conscious decision to officially retire. Life just moved in another direction.
I wonder what other "lasts" I've already had. And what "firsts" still await.
Live as though it were your last day on earth. Some day you will be right. -Robert Anthony
No, not THAT first time! I'm talking about your first time performing in public. In this case, my first time playing the piano for an audience.
I had played around with my grandmother's organ for years but in fourth grade, my parents set me up for piano lessons with our pastor's wife, JoAnne. She's an amazing pianist and taught me so much in the few years I was able to learn from her.
The date escapes me and I don't remember how old I was but I don't believe I had been taking lessons long when JoAnne decided I should play a solo at church on a Sunday morning. I worked for months learning "How Great Thou Art", feeling particularly tricky and accomplished when I added some low notes for the "rolling thunder". Of course, once I finished my simple rendition, Pastor Kelvin was moved to lead the congregation in a verse or two so JoAnne took over the piano and blew my plinking and plunking away.
That was my first time playing the piano in front of a crowd. Over the next ten years or so, I played many more times. At church, I played for the adult and childrens' choirs, accompanied soloists, filled in as the regular Sunday and midweek pianist, and performed my own solo pieces from time to time. I also played at school, helping with chorus rehearsels, then accompanying soloists, various choral groups, and providing prelude music at several events. Add an occasional wedding or other random event and I had quite the list of performances.
Throughout college and our first couple of years in Raleigh, I had relied on an electric keyboard when the mood struck me to play. When we bought our house in 2002, one of my first big purchases was a used piano. It was exciting to finally have access to a 'real' piano again even though I only play for me now. And I'm fine with that.
Recently, I was asked to audition for a local Follies show. Performing for others isn't something that interests me at this point. I'm sure that's in part due to being out of practice but it's really just not something I want to do. Any playing I do now is for my own enjoyment and I would prefer to keep the stress of crowd-pleasing out of it. I turned down the offer to audition.
The invitation did, however, start an interesting line of thinking - when WAS my last public performance? I would guess it was probably at the church during one of my breaks from college. And likely before our wedding so it was at least ten years ago. Maybe I accompanied Dad on "Oh Holy Night" at a Christmas service. Or even a Sunday morning. I can't remember. And I'm sure that during that performance, I had no idea that it was the last performance EVER!!!
It's strange to think about. Something I did so regularly, and then there was a final performance but I was completely unaware at the time. It's not as if I made a conscious decision to officially retire. Life just moved in another direction.
I wonder what other "lasts" I've already had. And what "firsts" still await.
Live as though it were your last day on earth. Some day you will be right. -Robert Anthony
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Labor Day
Our Labor Day weekend was nice, though not as we had originally planned. Instead of a trip to Virginia Beach, we stayed in Raleigh.
Mike has been training for the past several months to run a half-marathon and was signed up for the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach on Sunday. Even with being sick and having knee issues, he kept at his training so he'd be ready. But Friday night, we checked the forecast and they were calling for 75° with 97% humidity at racetime. Having just run 30 minutes in that kind of humidity that morning, Mike made the smart decision and decided not to take the trip to Va Beach. Instead, he ran the distance on his own Monday when the conditions were better. He finished in an hour and 56 minutes but more importantly (to me, anyways) with no pain or injury. He's now signed up for a half in Baltimore.
Once we scratched the trip to Va Beach, we had a three day weekend completely devoid of plans. We lounged around Saturday, thinking we would head out to Carolina Hopefest at Koka Booth Ampitheater in Cary to see Colbie Caillat. However, the area was beaten down by storms all day so we decided a soggy concert might not be a lot of fun.
Sunday, we ran a bunch of errands, picked up some things at Trader Joe's, and had an awesome dinner before watching a movie.
And Monday, finally the humidity had cleared and it was nice outside. Not just nice but beautiful. After Mike's run in the morning, we drove up to Falls Lake for the afternoon. We were surprised to find the picnic area completely deserted so we had some lunch and then spent a few hours just talking, watching the boats on the lake, and enjoying the weather.
Maybe the weekend wasn't the big event we had originally planned on but it was still a really nice weekend. Hopefully we can get back to Falls Lake to do some hiking soon.
On an unrelated note, yes, I see I'm still failing miserable at the blogging. I have several half-written posts in draft mode. They just don't seem to quite make it to the page. Maybe I'll go nuts the next few days...
People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy. -Anton Chekhov
Mike has been training for the past several months to run a half-marathon and was signed up for the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach on Sunday. Even with being sick and having knee issues, he kept at his training so he'd be ready. But Friday night, we checked the forecast and they were calling for 75° with 97% humidity at racetime. Having just run 30 minutes in that kind of humidity that morning, Mike made the smart decision and decided not to take the trip to Va Beach. Instead, he ran the distance on his own Monday when the conditions were better. He finished in an hour and 56 minutes but more importantly (to me, anyways) with no pain or injury. He's now signed up for a half in Baltimore.
Once we scratched the trip to Va Beach, we had a three day weekend completely devoid of plans. We lounged around Saturday, thinking we would head out to Carolina Hopefest at Koka Booth Ampitheater in Cary to see Colbie Caillat. However, the area was beaten down by storms all day so we decided a soggy concert might not be a lot of fun.
Sunday, we ran a bunch of errands, picked up some things at Trader Joe's, and had an awesome dinner before watching a movie.
And Monday, finally the humidity had cleared and it was nice outside. Not just nice but beautiful. After Mike's run in the morning, we drove up to Falls Lake for the afternoon. We were surprised to find the picnic area completely deserted so we had some lunch and then spent a few hours just talking, watching the boats on the lake, and enjoying the weather.
Maybe the weekend wasn't the big event we had originally planned on but it was still a really nice weekend. Hopefully we can get back to Falls Lake to do some hiking soon.
On an unrelated note, yes, I see I'm still failing miserable at the blogging. I have several half-written posts in draft mode. They just don't seem to quite make it to the page. Maybe I'll go nuts the next few days...
People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy. -Anton Chekhov
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