Our Perfect Vacation

Carolina Beach, North Carolina has been a place of healing for me since I was 16 years old.

That’s how old I was the first time my family went there for a vacation. It was about seven months after my brother died.

My parents were hoping that getting away would help us all.

It did.

And we have gone there just about every summer since.

Carolina Beach is a relatively undiscovered little beach town. It’s grown quite a bit since I started going there 30+ years ago, but compared to many super popular southern beaches, it’s quiet and calm and a gem.

And I love it that way.

On the one hand I hate to share it with anyone because I want to keep it as hidden as possible.

On the other hand, I want to share it with all of you because I just love it so much.

So here is a little album of our vacation.

We were pretty excited to arrive.

We stayed in two different condos when we were down there because this vacation was kind of a last minute decision, we were able to go for 2 weeks, and I couldn’t find a place that worked for us that was available the whole time.

The first place was just a block from the beach. This was my bedroom.

And the view out the window of my room:

And very often the view on the floor of my room:

This was my office the first week:

The beach looked like this on our first day down there:

It was just me and the kids most of the time we were down there. I drove alone with them there and back. I made sure to get in some pictures.

My parents stayed in a place a couple blocks from us.

We spent a lot of time with them.

My dad is a pretty good sand castle builder.

And boogie boarder.

And football partner.

We did a lot of bike riding when we were there.

We went to the beach just about every day.

Number 3 and 6 spent a lot of time together.

We went to a water park.

My dad and I took Number 3 to play golf for the first time.

The second place we stayed in had a tennis court. The kids had never played tennis before, and they loved it!

There is a walkway that goes from the condo complex to the beach. It’s a great place to take pictures, and it’s a gorgeous walk.

 

My husband unexpectedly came down for a few days. That enabled me to take the girls to Southport, NC for the day with my parents.

Southport is a super cute, coastal town.

We took the ferry over. The girls loved that.

We walked around and checked out the town and had lunch and did a little shopping.

Southport is my new favorite town.

It’s REALLY beautiful.

Lots of big, old Southern trees.

And lots of beautiful places to take pictures.

Every Thursday night in Carolina Beach there are fireworks.

In all the years I’ve been going down there, I have never seen them.

This year we watched fireworks on the beach.

Over the course of the two weeks we were there, I got lots of great family photos.

 

I was even in some of them.

As Number 4 said, “It was the best vacation I’ve ever been on.”

I was actually able to relax a few times.

And I can’t wait to do it all over again next summer.