Our Summer at the Beach part 1

We have had our house at the beach for three and a half years now.

During the summer we spend as much time as we can there and go as often as we can during the school  year. The soccer schedule usually dictates when we go.

It is close to a three hour drive for us, door to door. 

 During the summer we usually have two cars there and Art will leave during the week to go back to Raleigh to work and then head back to the beach on Thursday for a three or four day weekend. 

The older girls have had to work around their work and school schedules, 

but they do spend as much time at the beach as they can.
It is truly our second home.

When we are there, we spend a lot of time outside.

Usually we have the ladder ball game set up outside and play

 while Art is cooking seafood on the grill.
Sometimes we roll the ping pong table out and play in the yard. 

I try to walk, run and/or ride my bike everyday.
(I do try to do all three.)

(Art, back in early spring)

The usual mode of transportation there is by golf/street cart. 

We load it up with all of our beach gear and head to the beach for the afternoon.

(The beach is about 12 houses way from our house.)

I love riding to the beach on my bike.

My bike is pink and has a wicker basket on the front.  

I have put many many miles on it. 

At night while we are watching TV, we like to put puzzles together.

Barrett is our puzzle expert.

She would stay up all night putting one together

and she would have a little help.....

I love walking the beach at low tide.

I am officially one of those ladies that walk staring at the ground for hours.  

I am a sheller. 

I cannot tell you how many bocci ball games I have walked through obliviously. 

I have shown these pictures before, but they were taken in late spring/early summer.

I don't know what was up with the Mother Nature, but we found everything on the table one afternoon!

I have several lamps that you can fill with things and, you guessed it, they are filled with shells.  

Coral is harder to find, but I have had a little luck this summer. 

I have an antique wine jug that I am filling.  

Sometimes, I  find some interesting creatures. 

I threw this guy back.

My seaglass collection is growing.  

This picture is from the beginning of the summer and I have more than doubled the number of pieces. 

On rare occasions, I just walk......

Our beach is small.

It is on an island all by itself and 

 is about four miles wide.  

Something just happens when you cross over that bridge.....

There is a main street that runs along the direction of the beach and then there are streets that run vertically to the ocean along the canals that come off the waterway. 

Our house is on one of the canals.

We can see the intracoastal waterway from our back deck and we can hear the waves from the other direction.

(old picture....we have enclosed underneath the house where the boat is and made it into a garage that opens up in the front of the house and the back. We also store our boat on a boat lift off our dock.)

This is the screened porch off the second floor of our house (master bedroom). The waterway is to the right, past the trees. 

(Yes, that is a statue of me on the table!)

(I love sleeping with the door opened when it is cool enough.....

the breeze, the sound of the waves and boats.....ahhhhh!)

This is down the canal to the left.

The ocean is behind that house at the end. 

The sunsets are amazing!

This is off the kitchen. We eat dinner a lot here.  It is also the best place in the house to drink coffee in the morning.......and wine in the afternoon!

We added the curtains this summer because the sun was just too much to enjoy sitting out there in the afternoon.  

I will certainly miss the beach this holiday weekend. It is the last hurrah  of the summer.

We will be spending the weekend at a soccer tournament in Greensboro, NC with Barrett (#3). 

I do have a lot more beach pictures to share.

Stay tuned.