At the Beach

Since we decided not to go to Pennsylvania it occurred to me that we should try to salvage Amanda's birthday weekend. I went with my original plan and set up a night at the beach. We stayed at what I hoped would be a nice hotel. We got off to a fairly early start on Thursday and were at the hotel by around 11:00. Since it was mid-week and early in the season they had our room ready, which was nice. We got our stuff in the room and hit the beach.

We had a picnic on the beach complete with some leftover birthday cake from the mini-party Amanda's friends from church had for her on Wednesday. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The kids splashed around in the surf for a while. Lily tried to fly her kite, but had a hard time. Noah and I played some catch.

After the beach we hit the pool. It was a very nice pool, but it was still a little cold. I swam with the kids some and we had a great time. The kids really liked going in the hot tub with Amanda, though of course they couldn't do it too much. Lily was intrigued by my description of the sauna and she did poke her head in Friday morning. I offered to take her in for a minute, but she refused. I was hoping she would hang out in there then jump in the pool.

We opened up the window in our room and enjoyed the beautiful day with some homemade daiquiris. I found out from the bartender by the pool that a pina colada at the pool would set you back $15. To be somewhat fair, they are 16 oz and they do have 2 1/2 oz of rum in them. Plus, they are completely fresh with freshly-made coconut cream each morning. I was glad for our mix instead.

Later, we went on a free 30 minute harbor cruise on the intracoastal. The highlight for me was seeing Trot Nixon's house. We then went to a lovely dinner followed by frozen custard next door. We walked home on the beach and enjoyed our evening immensely.

As you might imagine, it took the kids some time to settle down in the room. Noah was very excited about sleeping in a hotel room. The air conditioner was kind of loud and Lily complained that she didn't really get to sleep until 3:30 AM. Nevertheless, after I got back from my run on the beach everyone got up for our free breakfast buffet. We enjoyed the pool and the beach some more and then hit the road home. On the way we stopped in Wilmington for a nice lunch and then came home.

I've decided that an overnight is the perfect amount of time at the beach. The kids like the pool better than the ocean. I find that I can only take so much sand and sun. As long as I get my sunrise run in I'm a happy camper though. Amanda declared it to be a good birthday, so I felt like we did well.