I was at the beach

No, I didn't stop blogging, I was at the Outer Banks for the past week. Every year for more years than I can remember (my cousin Phil swears its 20, but we decided he is bad at math) we have been going down to the Outer Banks.

It all started before I was born, my parents used to go down to Corolla with their friends before it was the suburbanite love fest that it is today. It used to be a forest with one store. You would stop at said store and pick up your supplies for the week, then take a vehicle with four wheel drive and ride on the beach to get to a house hidden in the dunes. I'm told that when they had me I went too, but I was too young to remember.

At some point the family friends sold their house in the dunes and we stopped going. Our family picked back up again when I was eight or nine. We rented a house on the sound side (my brother called it "the noise" because he was cute and three or four years old) in Duck. We crabbed with boneless skinless chicken breast off the dock by our house and packed up the van for extended stays at the beach (it was far away). A few years later we moved across the street to the ocean side, but still in Duck. Our house was still a haul to the beach, but not completely unreasonable so we spent more time at the beach, but in smaller chunks of time. Phil jumped on cactus's, we learned to water ski, we took an air boat tour and I bungee jumped from a 150 foot crane.

Duck was getting too crowded so we started renting further north in Corolla. Phil destroyed himself jumping over a trash can on roller blades, we para sailed, jet skied and watched some one drinking a gallon of whole milk in just under an hour without throwing up. Impressive to say the least. Corolla eventually become just as crowded as Duck and our options further north included the four wheel drive trek I mentioned earlier. So we have rented in Corolla ever since, it is less compact then Duck so it never feels too claustrophobic.

After what I'm guessing has been sixteen years of going to the Outer Banks, I finally feel like I truly appreciate it. It was nice to take a vacation from my vacation when I was in grade school and then college, but to take a vacation from a busy year of working is the cat's pajamas. I used to go down to the beach with all kinds of plans (see: bungee, ski, ski, boat, sail, etc), but for the past two years my plan was to have no plan. I took a lot of naps this year, passed on shopping and jet skis and drank far to much beer and Jack Daniels. We couldn't bring our bikes (car was jam packed) so riding on Ocracoke was out and I just couldn't bring myself to jog when the pool needed lounging by.

Now its back to work, eating healthy and exercise. I can't say that I'm excited to be back, but it is nice to get my batteries recharged once a year. I am planning to have pictures up on my gallery tonight and I will share them here tomorrow morning.