The last adventure of the summer

July 24th-26th

Every August comes football and a lot of crazy so every year we try and get away just the two of us before it all gets here. This year we decided to check out Wilmington, NC.

After work on Friday, we hopped in the car and headed south for the weekend. We made it to Wilmington in time to grab dinner at the Copper Penny and explore Historic Downtown but most things had closed for the night.

The next morning we decided to get up and headed to Wrightsville Beach for the afternoon. We spent a few hours hanging out on the beach, swimming in the ocean and checking out the fishing an Johnnie Mercer's Fishing Pier.

Before we headed back to Historic Downtown Wilmington to go exploring, we stopped for lunch at Tower 7 Baja Mexican Restaurant. This place was fantastic! If you are ever in the area, definitely stop.

When we got back downtown, we decided to take the water taxi over to the USS North Carolina Battleship. We spent hours exploring the ship and walking around with our jaws on the ground in amazement and complete gratitude for what our Navy does and how they live on this massive ships for months and years at a time. It was a surreal and humbling experience.

By the time we got back to the other side of the water, we had a few minutes to grab a quick bite to eat at The Trolly Stop before our Ghost Tour started.

We have really enjoyed exploring a city via different Ghost Tours. A lot of times they end up being more historic then scary and that was definitely the case in Wilmington. The tour was fun and very interesting to hear what life was like as a port city many, many years ago. This was definitely one of the least scary of tours we have been on but it was still a great time.

Sunday morning, we were not ready to start the drive north yet so we headed south to Carolina Beach for DONUTS! We had heard from may sources that we HAD to go try Britt's donuts. Apparently many, many other people got the same message so when we got there, there was quite the line. But I can assure you it was well worth it!

After walking along Carolina Beach's new boardwalk for a little while to burn off some of that donut, we hopped in the car and head to the next donut shop!

Wake N Bake donuts was completely different from Britt's. Britt's has one kind of donut, glazed. Wake N Bake is home of some of the craziest donuts. They are nuts. Examples you ask, how about the signature Wake N Bake donut, maple glaze with bacon crumbles. That doesn't seem too extreme, right? Well, how about the other donut we got, the PB get Bizzy, peanut butter vanilla filling, chocolate icing, peanut butter cups (whole peanut butter cups!) with peanut butter drizzle. Crazy, right! I almost went into sugar shock. But there crown and glory was already sold out by the time we got there. There stuffed donuts. What is a stuffed donut you ask? They take a full pop tart, dip it in donut batter and deep fry it to make a stuffed donut. Or our favorite that we couldn't bring ourselves to get, a full sized snickers, dipped in donut batter, deep fried THEN covered with caramel icing, chocolate chips and crushed peanuts. I love that, THAT qualities as a donut!

After the huge sugar rush, we really wanted to just go back to sleep but instead we drove. The trip was a great way to end the summer. As sad as we are that it is all done, we are really excited for football season and all the fun and adventure the fall will bring.

The Greatest Show On Earth

July 17th - 19th

This weekend Jed & I headed up to NYC to catch a U2 concert at Madison Square Gardens. We were so excited to get tickets to the concert and I couldn't think of a better way to be introduced to MSG.

A huge bonus to our trip to New York was that most of Jed's family had moved the family reunion up to NYC so we had the chance to hang out with them before the concert. We spent a lot of time eating with family.

Golden Unicorn in Chinatown

Doughnut Plant

Jamba Juice

Other notable food stops with the family were Noho Star and pie at Bubby's. And just so we remember, Jed and I also found Xi'an Famous Food.

Jed and I did get an opportunity to send part of the day visiting the National 9/11 Memorial Museum. I know that this is a difficult topic and everyone handles this event differently. It has taken us a really long time to be able to come and do this and for us, it was a very powerful and emotional experience. Words and pictures will never do this justice and what they have done and how they have done it leaves me speechless. They recommend 2 hours for the museum but for Jed & I we were there for over 4 hours and could have spent a few more hours there if we would have been able to. My one recommendation would be, be in the first group into the museum, it gets really busy and at least at the beginning it isn't super crowded.

Our final night was memorable in a very different way as we headed into Madison Square Garden.

Our seats were behind the stage and it was a really neat way to watch the concert. At times, we could see under the stage and Bono made sure to come give us some love from time to time. I think the coolest thing about it was something Jed said. From our seats, we (kind of) had the opportunity to see what the band saw. We had a similar view as them. When we thought about it that way, it was a fantastic view!

Great Video board show

New York City is definitely one of our favorite cities and we always have a great time when we are there. It is always sad to leave but there will always be another time.

July 4th with Family

July 4th - July 7th

For the Fourth of July weekend, Jed's family were all in one place! It has been quite a few years since we all were able to get together so we spend a long weekend at the beach spending time together as a family. We didn't do much other hang out at the house & at the beach.

Before getting to Nags Head, we had a quick stop with the family at the BEST PIZZA PLACE, Chesapeake Pizza.

It was a fast four days but we are so glad that we all had the change to get together as a big family.
Before we all parted ways, we made sure that we took a family picture. (Thanks so much for taking it Scottie!)