This year our beach vacay to North Carolina was pretty rough compare to other previous years. Ethan got sick, gave it to the rest of us and then he was fine. Brian and I slowly got better, but Gavin actually got worse. He came down with a fever and struggled to sleep through the 2 out of 3 nights, which of course affected the rest of us. To make matter worse, we found some bed bugs in our room after our first night there. I'll spare you the details but it was just TOTALLY gross! You know it's one of those things you've read about online but hope to never experience it). Long story short, the hotel manager took it very seriously and was super apologetic about
it. We got upgraded to the top floor with ocean view and had a one
night free stay. However, all of our stuff had to be put through their high heat dryer and the
luggage, etc had to be sprayed and wiped down. It was such a pain because everything was everywhere and Gavin's cloth swim diaper went missing until our last day. But we did our best to deal with the
situation and try to enjoy the rest of our time there.
So
other than that, we all had a great time! We did some sight seeing in between beach time and was able to take turns boogie boarding and relaxing. Ate LOTS of scrumptious seafood and Ethan was all over the shrimps and mussels.
Day 1: Got there and couldn't check in so we hit the beach right away.
Couldn't contain his excitement!
"Eww yucky sand"...'nuf said.
Full tummies after a yummy seafood dinner
Day 2: Up at the crack of dawn
Gavin saw his first sunrise with Daddy
Down to the beach in the morning...
Watermelon Festival in the afternoon...
and then the Jockey's Ridge State Park sand dunes in the evening
Day 3: Gavin kept getting up super early so off to the beach we went...
This Beach-Brella was a life saver!
Sick and tired - poor kid!
Our view from the hotel
Enjoying the beach after sunset
Day 4: Soaking it in one last time before heading home
The drive home was a story in and of itself. We headed back around noon and the boys fell asleep in the car at the same time. What I thought would be a peaceful drive didn't quite turn out that way. Gavin kept waking up crying and choking to the point that we had to pull over to get him out. That of course woke Ethan up. Then we hit the tunnel traffic
and a major accident that block all lanes on interstate 95. So what should have been a 5-1/2 hour drive took us 7 hours with numerous screaming, crying and everything in between. Ethan did the best he could, but it eventually got to him...and to me too! We were all SO done it was awful! It kinda puts a damper on the whole vacation for me to end that way, but thankfully we made it home safe and sound. And for all of us to sleep in our own beds and our own rooms again!
