For twenty years now, my family has been going to the beach for a week every summer. We spent many years going to Ocean Isle, which almost started to feel like a second home. Every year sometime between June and July, a big group of us would head to the beach to relax for the week. Typically it was my family (four of us plus a friend I always go to bring), my grandparents, my uncle and his family, my two aunts and their families, a few others here and there...and a partrige in a pear tree. We'd go on walks or bike rides in the morning, hang on the beach for the day, play some mini-golf or a game of pool when the beach got too hot, and take the boat or jet skis out for a run before dinner.
Then, a few years back some crazy lady got her panties in a wad about protecting sea turtles and Ocean Isle outlawed tents on the beach. We went there a few times after that, but missing the shade of my uncle's big beach tent, went on the hunt for another family beach spot. A bit of a silly reason to break with tradition over a comfort as small as a tent, but that's what happened. Last year, everyone went to Wrightsville. I wasn't there. I was pregnant. Very pregnant. Too pregnant to even entertain the idea of being in the car for the time it would take to get to the beach...let alone actually want to step foot on the sand. Guess it wasn't exactly what they were looking for because soon after the trip ended, my mom was
already on the hunt for a new beach. One that everyone liked enough to keep coming back. And this year, we've found Holden Beach.
This is the first time I've ever been to Holden Beach. It seems like a nice enough beach, though not the same as the one I grew to love many years over. The island itself is pretty long, and there's not much on it that's not right off the bridge. The house we've rented is on the west side of the island were most of the homes are privately owned and not rented out. The good end of the deal is that the beach itself is not very crowded. The bad end of the deal is that we are almost as far away from everything as we can be. There's been some debate whether the closest form of civilization (an ice cream shop and general store) is 3 or 5 miles away (depending on how big your tires are...haha...yes, that was part of a REAL discussion)...either way...too far to not need a car.
The house we are renting is actually a duplex. It's been nice having two kitchens. With eighteen people under one roof, it's been an added luxury to feel like we can spread out a little more. It will be even nicer come tomorrow when some people start getting on other people's nerves and there's more places to hide. It's not necessarily the nicest house we've ever stayed in, but it serves all the needed purposes. We've spent some time envying the house behind us that has a swimming pool, volleyball court, basketball and shuffle board. I think we've already researched that one for next year.
It's been an interesting vacation so far. Lila's spent a few days at the beach which has been neat to watch. I was worried how she would react to the ocean. She's not a big fan of cooler water. She wasn't a fan at first, but once she figured out how to dig around in the sand, she was right at home. She spent a long time just running her fingers through the sand, chasing small beach toys through the tide pool waters and sampling how the shells tasted. She is still not used to the waves. She was playing in the sand at one point when a wave came in a barely reached her, just up to her bottom a bit. You would have thought a shark crawled up on the beach next to her. She screamed and started crawling up my legs. It was pricelessly funny! The demented side of my personality wants to set her up again, and this time have a video camera rolling. We'll see if that can be arranged. I'm hoping to try out her new life jacket and get her out in the waves before we leave. We'll see how that goes.
Our second night here, we packed up the whole crew and headed to Ocean Isle to have dinner at the Sugar Shack. (My own personal "Frommer's" tip for you: If you ever find yourself in Ocean Isle, you MUST eat at Sugar Shack. You will not be disappointed!) Sugar Shack is a Jamaican restaurant run by two transplanted yankees from New York. We forgive them for that since the food is so good! My dad had a beautiful salad of mozzarella cheese, basil, and tomatoes on steroids. Some years ago her actually got the owner to tell him where she got her tomatoes. Now, every year, he heads to the little farmer's market down the street and asks for the tomatoes "in the back room". The woman in charges usually just smiles and sells him a few. Lila ate most of my lobster bisque and was very displeased when there was no more left in the bowl. Most of the group chowed down on ribs and shrimp for dinner. Tim and my cousin tested out the goat. I found it to be a bit chewy but good all the same. We all participated in an embarrassing display of "Happy Birthday" for a few patrons before heading back. It was bittersweet being so close to the beach we spent so many good years enjoying. Even though Holden is only one beach north of Holden, it feels like a bit of a hike, but was well worth the trip!
Yesterday a few of the ladies took a day shopping trip to Myrtle Beach before meeting the rest of the group for dinner at Pirate Voyage. The show was pretty entertaining...with PLENTY of food for anyone. I was just thankful that Lila was tolerant of the whole show. With cannons going off and lots of flashing lights, there was no shortage of opportunities for her to show her not so pretty side. She seemed to enjoy most of it though, eatting most of my vegetable soup before watching the pirate performers dive into the water and tumble across the floor. It was QUITE a drive back though. If we do make Holden Beach our new beach of choice, I'm not sure I'll be up for making the treck all the way to Mrytle ever year.
Today I got to do something I haven't done in at least ten years. We took a walk down to the end of the island at low tide and dug for sand dollars. We did this at Ocean Isle for many, many years. Used to be that you could go out a little before low tide, walk out until you were knee to waist deep in water, scoop up some sand and come up with two or three sand dollars on your arm. As the years have gone by, there have been less and less sand dollars. The last year we went, no one could find anything. Probably due to the people that would come out and take them back by the hundreds. Today we found three. It wasn't that successful of an adventure, but it sure brought back some memories to do it again. At least we have something to show for the effort.
So there's the highlights of the trip so far. My goal was to write everyday of the trip (like I did when we were in Ireland), but that hasn't happened so far. Hopefully I can keep up with things a bit more now and write every day for the rest of the trip. Maybe then you won't get the Cliff's notes version...but the whole kit and cabootal.
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