Running Away to the Beach!

I know it was lame of us.....there we were, one of the few houses in our neighborhood with power, and we left and went to the beach! But I promise, it was planned beforehand, and we DID offer our house to several people to stay in till their power came back on....we can't help it if no one took us up on it! Actually, we had not planned a beach vacation this year. The kids begged and pleaded for a trip to Disney World in the fall, so we all agreed that in order to afford it, we would need to skip the beach vacation and skip our annual passes to a local amusement park. Everyone was fine with that, except for me and Chris! The beach is really the perfect vacation for us; it is so relaxing and carefree and when you compare that to a Disney World vacation....well it kind of sounds like a nightmare to us!

So anyway, by the first of August, we were further ahead than we had expected on saving for our trip and Chris desperately still wanted a beach trip. We decided that we could afford a vacation with one caveat: it had to be under $500. That's not an easy price point to hit, but Chris went ahead and took the last week of August off and I kept checking craigslist for last minute specials. Then the hurricane started looking threatening, so we decided to just wait and see what would happen.

On the Sunday after the hurricane I started checking the internet. It looked like we might be able to pull off a 4 night trip to Myrtle Beach within our budget, but Myrtle is just SO much more developed. Not really the lazy relaxing beach that we are used to at Topsail. I started checking some rent by owner sites and found an owner who lived close to his rental at Topsail and called him. I was hoping that with having to actually meet up with him in person, it would be more legit than wiring someone money for a rental that you hope pans out. His property was even in the same condominiums that we usually rent, so it was a good fit! The only downside was that it was a 1 bedroom. There were bunk beds built into the wall in the hallway and then a pull out couch. We knew it would be tighter quarters than we were used to, but it was right in our price range, so we went for it! We drove down Sunday evening and spent the rest of the week relaxing at a relatively deserted beach! It was heaven!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the little part about Caleb having to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.....

We ended up leaving him home and then he went into work Monday and traded his other shifts off. So Chris left Monday night and picked him up, then drove back and got to the condo at about 5:00 am! Not really relaxing, but it was fun to have Caleb at the beach with us.

We found lots of shells and shark teeth and sea glass this time. Way more than we have ever gotten! It helps when there are less people around to take them!

It was a perfect week! Once again, a great way to end the summer!