Emerald Isle

Spring break this year found us in North Carolina on the Outer Banks, visiting our dear friends the Cluffs. They are living a pretty charmed life in their little beach house nestled into a gated community on Emerald Isle. Private beaches, adorable homes and beautiful weather...Andrew and I were stunned. Jealousy is an ugly word, but it may apply. We seriously want to live there. And if we were rich old people instead of broke student peasants, I think we would.

We took golf cart rides, rode bikes, watched the sunset, played games, and just let the kids play. My heart  sobs just thinking about it all...because as much as we loved the setting, we love these friends even more. Jared and Laura are as warm and lovely as people get, and our very definition of comfort friends. When we're together, there is never a shortage of excited conversation, good food, wild laughter, and sociological edification in the form of reality TV. :) So we love The Bachelor. Whatever.

 

 Walk down to the beach our first night there

A private beach makes a world of difference in sea shell quality. Asher found so many treasures.

Laura is 7-months pregnant and still voluntarily spent half the week holding our giant child.

 

 Preston took a nap in daddy's arms, and we made a fire to roast Peeps.

Aside from hanging out around the homestead, we also went on a few fun outings. Tuesday we visited a cool little pirate museum in Beaufort, NC.

Notice the whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling. It looked pretty strange!

Some of our pictures are blurry because I was messing with our camera's aperture on the beach the day before...I basically still have no idea how to use it.

In the back of the museum, we stumbled upon a maritime library, and my book-loving, future-library-dreaming husband lit up like the fourth of July. 

 

 

Andrew is very into house plans, and has always wanted to have a library in our forever home. Can you see his little wheels turning? This room was definitely his highlight.

 Here is Asher putting his mouth on a public display. The giant orb is a solid steel, two-man chamber, used to lower researchers 1,000 feet into the depth of the sea. Basically my biggest fear. Nothing scares me like the thought of being dropped into the middle of the dark ocean, coursing with giant swells, man-eating beasts, and fish poop to boot. Shudder.

Anyway, notice the "Do Not Open" sign on the door...a nice museum worker came and opened the door for us and even let the kids crawl inside. The whole "looking over his shoulder and making us feel we were getting away with something" act was probably something he does for everyone, but we totally felt special.

Cheers!

Andrew is in charge of the camera for 15 minutes, and we wind up with pictures of dead sea birds. Typical.

Poor taxidermy....such a misunderstood art form.

William, Asher and Harrison

Our next stop was Fort Macon, an old Civil War Fort situated right on the coast. This stop had to be my highlight...all the history was incredible.

Here are a couple aerial shots from Google: 

So there's a really nice visitor's center and museum, and the fort portion is a giant, multi-level area the where the little ones could run and explore.

Ha. Trying to look cute even though I'm wearing a sweatshirt dress.

The mark of a Union cannon ball that hit each stair on it's decent

Inside the fort's rooms made for some really cool photos...

 Confederate money, shoes and other personal artifacts

 Such a cool place we want to revisit!

We also got the opportunity to have a fun night out with no kids, and ate at a fantastic restaurant that sits right on the water.

Oh, how we miss these faces. Thank you guys for such a memorable (and quotable!) trip. Good to be with you, friends! Already plotting our return.