Beach Bums & Wino's

March 7th-March 11th

Jed was able to get a few days off this year for Spring Break so we had to get out of town and enjoy it. We went with a group of friends down to Waves, NC. We had no idea when we head down there that it was in the middle on nowhere and the beginning of March was still off season so it was pretty much just the 6 of us running the town.

We spent our days (and nights) just hanging out, telling stories, playing games and enjoying the sun and beach.

In the evenings, we would make fires on the beach and just hang out.

We did venture out one day and we were able to find one restaurant that was opened, Waterman's. It was pretty much just us at the restaurant and our waitress, Kate, was the best! She even took pictures with us after we ate.

On our way home, we met up with Megan in the Blue Ridge Mountains and stay in a cabin in the woods, Royal Oaks. We were able to check out Bold Rock Cidery on Tuesday night before they closed and we retired to our cabin for a fire and movie (on a tiny, tiny tv).

On Wednesday, went to Big Apple Bagels for breakfast before heading out to a few wineries in the area but on our way, we found a fantastic popcorn food truck, Kings. Now that we had snack food, our first winery was Veritas.

It was a little too cold to hang out outside so we did a quick tasting and headed up the road to Pollak Vineyards. We had a great time here. We were the only ones there and the guy pouring our wine was just amazing! He was just so fun and they let Griff come in for the tasting as well!

We jumped over to King Family Vineyards before lunch and in addition to a wine tasting, we also got a free polo lesson and learned they have polo matches in the spring here. We will have to come check that out sometime.

Thanks to the gentleman at the wineries, we were able to find a tiny hole in the wall called, Greenwood Gourmet Grocery for lunch before we headed to our last winery of the day, Cardinal Point.

It was a fantastic Spring Break making memories and tighter friendships.

A Duck Vacation

July 1st - July 5th

This year everyone but my brother in law was able to make it to the beach for a family vacation. I was able to drop Jed off on Saturday night so he could spend most of the week with the family. I wasn't about to stay the entire time but I did get some time with the family. As most beach vacations go, there was a lot of eating, sleeping, hanging out at the beach and ice cream. I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

Our Duck Donuts

Fourth of July Parade in Duck

Duck Float in Duck, NC parade

Where everyone spent the majority of the vacation

Dinner at High Cotton

Boy, do they group up quick!

Ice Cream stop



All our Castro niece's



Spontaneous Dancing





With cousin's from New York that were vacations the same week



It was so great that everyone was able to get together and spend time together. Hopefully we will be able to do it again soon.

Nags Head Family Vacation

May 6th - May 8th

After Kelly & Adam's wedding, my mom rented a beach house in Nags Head for the week. It is the same beach house she got a few years back when she retired, The Spirit of Kitty Hawk. We really like it and it is a lot of fun to have a beach house that we go back to time and time again. It almost feels like a second home. It was still a little chilly so we never made it out to the beach during the day. We spent most of our time hanging out by the pool.

                                        

It was great to be able to spend time with family and just relax. And we had so much fun watching and playing with my niece, Korryn. She is just too cute.

                                         

One of our days at the beach, Shelby, Ben, Korryn, Jed and I hopped in Ben's truck to go four wheeling in Corolla. We made the 45 minute drive down to the sand but Ben wasn't able to get his truck into four wheel drive so we weren't able to do too much off roading. We even got stuck twice and both times some really nice people were willing to help pull us out so we didn't have to pay a million dollars to get the truck towed.

                                            

                                                

 After our adventure on the beach, we headed back to the house and met up with mom, Tom and Ryan and headed out to dinner. We found a cool brewery just down the road called Outer Banks Brewing Station. It is "America's First Wind Powered Brewery". We liked the beer, root beer and food but the service was not the best.

On our last day at the beach, it started to warm up so Jed and I took a little bike ride. It was fun to get out and enjoy the weather and explore a little. We didn't find much but we did end up seeing some pretty funny graffiti on the road.

On our way back home that night we had to make a quick pit stop for dinner at one of my favorite places, Chesapeake Pizza. I love this place and I was so excited to be able to stop and get a pizza for the road. It was the perfect way to end our few day vacation.

I am so thankful that we had the chance to go and spend time at the beach with my family. Thank you so much mom for making it happen and getting the house. We had a great time!