My Favorite Place

If I were in 9th grade again and going back to school a month ago, I undoubtedly would have been assigned an essay on what I did over my summer break. Fortunately I am not in 9th grade and never will be again, but I did have a most unusual summer break which I'm hoping will be ending soon, one way or another. More on that some other time. But Chris and I did go on our first week long vacation since our honeymoon and having traveled back to the Outer Banks after way too long, I'm inspired to assign myself an essay.

I know there are beautiful, exotic places across the world to visit with centuries old architecture to marvel at and different cultures to explore and be a part of, however brief. And I do hope to visit those places too someday, but I think OBX will always be one of my favorite places on earth, and for reasons no other place could compare to. As a kid we had family vacations every summer with the Bartlett's, and I'm too young to know how the location was selected but we went to Myrtle beach, Disney World, Sandbridge... basically a different place every summer; until we found Nags Head. After that first summer, we never looked anywhere else.

Here's a picture of the cousins on the beach somewhere around my junior year of high school.

My family is crazy, just like everyone else's, but we enjoy spending time with each other, and for a week we got to all be under the same roof half a block from the beach with a pool table in the basement and at least one hot tub on one of the many decks on the house. We played games and got to spend time with our cousins who we didn't see nearly as much as we would have liked to. We body surfed with my Dad and shopped at the outlets and the Christmas shops with my Mom. We stayed up way past normal bedtimes walking on the beach and making new friends with the other kids in the neighborhood. As we got older the tradition continued, the house got bigger so we could bring friends or significant others on the trip. It is hard to explain in words what makes it so special to me, it's such a wonderful combination of history, family, and of course, the beach.

A little over six years ago on the last family vacation to OBX, I invited my then boyfriend to join me on vacation. We arrived very early on Tuesday morning to a sleeping household and crashed so we could enjoy our first day of vacation on some sleep. As usual we were up late with everyone, playing games and having a good time, but Chris wanted to get up early the next morning to see the sunrise. Needless to say, after going to bed sometime after 2am for the second night in a row, I was not thrilled to see him at 5:30 the next morning shaking me awake so we could see the sunrise. I stumbled after him down the street towards the beach, still in my pajamas, rubbing sleep from my eyes, and wondering if this guy was crazy. But as we sat on my favorite beach, watching the sun slowly rise over the ocean, he asked me to marry him in what would have been a very romantic setting had I been awake enough to appreciate it. Watching him slip the ring on my finger however, was better then any cup of coffee I've ever had.

As we walked back to the house, we happened to look up at the street sign as we passed. The house we had rented for the week was on Engagement Hill. So of course, we took pictures. (sorry for the poor quality, it's a picture of a picture.)

Until two weeks ago, we hadn't been back since, but years ago we planned that for our five year anniversary we would rent a house and celebrate with our wedding party plus a few extras. We got an awesome house, right on the beach and I had a fabulous time. Here we are at the same sign post five years later...

High five seemed most appropriate.
But we had to try the sign climb again...

Not quite as successful as the first time. ;-)

It was a great vacation, catching up with friends we don't get to see very often, as well as hanging out with family we don't see as often as we'd like. We played games, enjoyed the cozy hot tub, ran around on the beach, and of course, read while lounging on the beach or by the pool. Ironically, I was awake almost every morning for the sunrise. I have more pictures then anyone wants to see at a time, but these are a few of my favorites.