Escape to Ocean Isle

Wednesday morning was gray and rainy — an inauspicious start to our beach escape. (You knew it would be the beach, didn't you? Where else in the world would Russ & I want to escape to?)

We had hoped to go stay at our favorite beach house, Big Bertha, but at the last minute it was unavailable. I did some research online and we decided to go to Ocean Isle Beach, a small island between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach.

We drove down I-40 to the coast, wondering if the forecast (supposed to be 85 degrees) had lied.

Because we haven't been to Ocean Isle for many years, we were a little unsure about where the turn-off was. There were a few signs, but they didn't indicate conclusively where we should turn. And then we saw this sign. (But not the blue sky--that was from Thursday.) We couldn't decide. It was positioned right in front of a smallish street--were we supposed to turn there? We decided there must be a bigger street, and perhaps a traffic light too, so we kept driving. After a mile or two with no streets available to turn on, we decided we had been wrong. And that when a sign has an arrow that big on it, and says "turn here," you really should turn right there!

We arrived at Ocean Isle just before noon, expecting that we would go and sit on the beach and then check in later that afternoon. Instead, the nice (and not very busy) hotel staff let us check in right away. That was awesome!

Here was the view from our balcony. As you can see, the clouds were blowing away. Blowing being the important word. It was incredibly windy.

We put on our suits and went out to the water. Usually at this time of the year the water is still pretty warm, but it's been so cool since we got home from Utah that I was a little worried. As we got in we realized that not only was the water colder than we'd hoped (brrrr!), but the wind meant that there was a very strong undertow towards the pier. We waded out and played for a few minutes, but it was far too much work to be very fun. After a few minutes we got out and went to sit in our chairs and dry off.

I know there are people who will be surprised to hear this, but

I sat in a chair at the beach and read a book.

A whole book.
And half of another book, actually.
Russ said that I sat in that chair more in those two days than the combined total of all other beach chair sitting in my whole entire life. I think he was proud of me for handling the whole cold ocean thing so well. But really, I sat in that chair because I was reading Catching Fire, and it was not like I could stop reading to do anything else!

Russ also sat happily in his chair (which he is always good at) and read. He didn't have a book in mind to bring, so I recommended he read Jason's copy of the Hunger Games. Wow did he zip through that, and Russ isn't a zippy reader.

As we were packing to leave Russ made me promise I would take a picture at the hotel. So here you have it:

How the woman packs, and how the man packs.

In my defense I would like to point out that without me he wouldn't have had a towel, or anything to read, and that I didn't even bring any makeup. I thought I packed pretty light on this trip.

When I woke up Thursday morning I was happy to see a blue, blue sky and calm ocean.

It was so beautiful.

We got into the water again--still very cold, but much calmer. We're not sure we really like the Ocean Isle beach experience. It has a very long flat beach, and so at high tide you would have to walk out really far to get into water above your waist. We bobbed around for a while and then decided it was time to dry off and read some more.

Russ had fun throwing potato chips to the seagulls. It was amazing. There would only be a few near us, but if he pulled out any food...immediately more would come.

On Wednesday I think he probably had 30-40 waiting for him to throw more food.

A shrimp boat came by,

And we walked past the pier and back.

We finally decided in the late afternoon that it was time to leave. We're always sad to drive over the big bridge over the inter-coastal waterway, because that means we're off the island and back to the "real" world.

I won't complain too much, though, because I'm so glad we got to leave the "real world" for two whole days!