Mortgaged to the Hilt

That is what I would call my beach house, if I ever owned one. The cottages on Emerald Isle had the twee-est names, but somehow it works on the beach, where the houses are painted coral pink, seafoam green and sky blue, and all the windows overlook either the ocean or the Bogue Sound. Two If By Sea, The Nineteenth Hole, All Good, Just For the Halibut, Sea-Renity, Barometer Soup, and my personal favourite, 5 O'Clock Somewhere. Phil and I are real estate junkies ("Guess the Asking Price" is a favourite game) so of course we took a look at what was on the market in the neighbourhood. A million American dollars will buy you half of a duplex overlooking the Atlantic ocean. Three bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, kitchen, living/dining room, two or three balconies, in a house made of wood that sits on stilts and that will probably blow over in the first hurricane. Pretty pricey for a pile of firewood.

We had a great time. Every morning, before it got too hot, I went running on the beach (I came back dripping anyway). This was a fantasy of mine - running on a treadmill gets boring and choking on smog as I jog around my neighbourhood is not my idea of a good time. Running on the beach is great, except it's much harder work and it's hard to tell how far you've gone. But I was on vacation so who cares.

Then I would have breakfast and read a back issue of National Geographic (the cottage had about thirty years' worth). I don't think I looked at a newspaper the entire time I was there and Phil made his parents turn the news off after five minutes because it was too depressing.

Then I would slather myself in SPF 30 and head down to the beach again to hang out with various members of our 54-person group - aunts, uncles, great-aunts and great-uncles, cousins, boyfriends, girlfriends and friends. Lunch back at the cottage, then back to the beach for more swimming, boogie boarding, sand-castle building, chatting and beer drinking.

A few times, I crashed immediately after dinner, I was so tired. I have never felt so tired on a vacation - a full-body tiredness that just takes over and you have no choice but to give in. Other times Phil and I went for long walks on the beach or sat around drinking gin and tonics on the balcony.

We went to Beaufort twice, a small historic seaside town about thirty minutes away - once for the afternoon, and once with the immediate family for dinner. If the weather hadn't been so gorgeous, we probably would have taken other little day trips to the aquarium, the museums, heritage homes, and other towns and cities in the area, but every day was so beautiful, I wanted to spend it on the beach.

I took over 200 pictures. I will be posting selections from different parts of the trip in photo albums on the left of this page. Enjoy!