Josie loved wearing her little sailor suit I bought her last year at a thrift store at the beach. It fits her perfectly this year. She looked so cute wearing it too!
Angela
I'm behind again.... Back at the end of May we went on vacation to the Outer Banks. We took Josie with us again this year. She absolutely loves going to the beach. We believe she remembered her trip last year.
Angela
Sometime in January we made arrangements for our vacation at the Outer Banks. That was before this virus had made it's nasty appearance in the United States. The rental company we used would not let us out of our rental agreement. Believe me, my husband tried many times to get a refund and to cancel our reservations. They would not refund us our money. We could have put the rental back on the market for a fee of course and if someone else rented it we would only be out that fee which I think he said was around $150. We decided that since we had already paid for it we would go ahead and go. We did have fun. We just didn't get to eat out at any of the restaurants. The condo we rented was not a pet friendly unit, but since they were unreasonable in giving us a refund we decided we would take our chances and take Josie with us anyway. lol I have always wanted to take our dogs to the beach so this was our opportunity to do so.
Josie absolutely loved her first visit to the beach. We will take her with us again should we go. We won't use the rental agency we used this last visit though. It's not that we didn't enjoy the condo we stayed in. It was a fantastic place to stay in. We just didn't like the way the rental agency did business with us and others during a difficult time. Normally we eat out at least once a day. We did order some food and ate it at the condo. To me it was like eating leftovers though. Mainly because the food wasn't that hot and needed to be warmed up. We did go in a few stores, but only the ones that required you to wear a mask and to stay at least 6 feet away from others plus they would squirt hand sanitizer in your hands upon entry to their store. I'll share a few pictures from our trip in other posts.
Angela
Before school started back for the year this year we went on a little trip to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It had been around 23 years since my husband and I had been in that area. So much has changed since then. I don't know if the Applebarn was there back then or not, but we found it this year and we were glad that we did.
We went to the Applebarn Cafe for lunch. We had no idea that they would bring out these apple fritters with apple butter as an appetizer along with the glasses of what they called a julep that had orange juice, apple juice and pineapple juice mixed. The apple fritters were so good. I really liked the julep drink. We all loved the apple butter. We had to stop by the Applebarn Store on our way home to get a few jars.
I don't know if it is just a Tennessee thing or not, but our lunch also came with soup. We all ordered the vegetable soup. It was also really good.
My husband had the turkey with gravy and dressing with a side of mac and cheese and cranberry sauce.
My Young Man had grilled ham with mashed potatoes and green beans.
I had grilled pork with mashed potatoes and dressing with gravy. We all sampled each others meals and everything was really good. If we are ever in the area again we will be sure to stop by for lunch or dinner again.
Angela
The first part of our vacation we went to Cape Lookout.
We had to take a ferry boat ride over to the Island.
It was a perfect weather day when we went.
My Young Man and my Husband walked to the top of the lighthouse. They love walking up the different lighthouses which is why we went to see this one so they could walk up to the top.
I'm not a fan of walking up that many stairs so I stay on the ground and take pictures of them when they get to the top and I take pictures of the scenery at the bottom of the lighthouse.
Angela
We just got back from our vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina last week. We had a great time! I, of course, took way too many pictures and videos. I will start out by sharing a video of the ocean waves. It was so windy that there was a no swim order issued at all of the beaches in the area.
Angela
This past weekend we took a little trip to Canaan Valley, West Virginia to see the fall leaves. Last year we drove up early on a Saturday morning and came home late that night. This year we decided to stay at the Canaan Resort for the night so we could have more time to see all of the sights. We had planned that we would go to Dolly Sods on our way home Sunday. Much to our surprise it was extremely foggy once we got there.
And it was raining... We have never been up there in these types of elements. It was a different experience to say the least.
Even though it was raining with a lot of fog we did have a good time looking at God's beauty that he created for us to see at Dolly Sods. I have wrote several other posts of us going to Dolly Sods that you can see HERE. I just realized that I have been there more than that without sharing some of my pictures from there so I'll share one from this summer now so you can see a comparison of what it looks like on a beautiful clear day. It looks like you could reach up and touch Heaven there!
At times we could only see not more than 30 feet in front of us if that! It was that foggy!
Angela
This year when we went to the Outer Banks for our vacation we decided that we wanted to stay in a condo instead of a hotel room. My husband found a great deal online and booked this beautiful condo. It reminded me of the 2nd apartment my husband and I lived in when we were first married and living in Maryland. Everything was white. I love everything white! I would have white carpet again if I didn't have kids! lol I also used to have a white couch before I had kids.
The condo had a full size kitchen with everything you would need to cook, but it is my vacation from cooking so I did not cook anything except for some microwave popcorn.
The master bedroom was really nice! I loved waking up with the sun shining every morning. The sun just does not shine like that at home for some reason.
The condo had 2 bedrooms. This is where my Young Lady slept. Her room was on a different side of the condo than the master bedroom, but she had just as much sun shining in as we did.
The big sectional couch in the living room did fold out into a bed, but my Little Man decided to just crash out on this little couch that was in a sitting room when you first came into the condo. There was also a garage to park your vehicle in or store things in. I loved the washer and dryer there. When the laundry was done it would play a song! We absolutely loved staying here and we will be booking this condo again for next year if we decide to go back to the Outer Banks instead of going somewhere different next summer.
Angela
We went to the Outer Banks again this year for vacation. I miss it already! It has been raining every single day with storms and high water since we got home.... I miss seeing the sun shining.
My husband decided that we would try to go to a different location on this day than what we normally go.
We normally go to the beach first thing in the morning around 7am when we wake up. We stay for a few hours. Then we get cleaned up and go somewhere to get something to eat.
Angela
When we stay at Canaan Valley we have to check out of the rental house at 10am so that doesn't leave much time for us to make breakfast before we leave. There are a lot of things we have to do before we leave the house like start the dishwasher, wash and start drying all of the towels, stripe all of the beds and my husband always runs the vacuum throughout the house just to make sure we get our security deposit back. We also have to load up all of our stuff and take out the trash on our way out.
We are always looking for a nice place to have breakfast before we make our long journey home. This year we discovered there was a place in Davis that only serves breakfast which is why I don't think we had ever noticed it. Well, that and the fact that it is an Inn. The Bright Morning Inn serves breakfast until 11am. I had their omelet with sausage, onions, mushrooms and cheese with their home style potatoes and wheat toast with blackberry jam. It was really good! We will be going back to this place on our next trip there on our way home for sure!
My Little Man had their biscuit with gravy. He ate it all! There wasn't anything let for us to even give it a taste to see if we would like it!
My husband had their scrabbled eggs with bacon, home style potatoes, wheat toast and blackberry jam. My Young Lady had one of their breakfast sandwiches that I didn't get a picture of.
They have some pretty flowers in their flowerbeds.
I highly recommend the Bright Morning Inn if you are looking for a good healthy and hearty breakfast to start your day! We will be back there next year!
Angela
About two weeks ago we went to Canaan Valley, West Virginia for a nice cool relaxing vacation. We love to go geocaching there because we get to see new and different areas when we are looking for a cache. My husband found a place where he wanted to go to look for a cache and so we went in search of finding some treasures. He mapped out the route to where we were to go making sure that the road would be a good road for us to drive on. We drove through some very beautiful and scenic areas not far from Canaan Valley. We finally came to a place where there was supposed to be a bridge according to the online map and his GPS! The road came to an end right at a stream that from the looks of it there never ever was a bridge there at all! lol He drove us as far as he could and looked around. We didn't see any sign of a bridge whatsoever! lol
Needless to say, we did not locate the geocache that we were looking for that day. It was a fun drive so all wasn't lost. Now on to the next geocache!
Angela
I found this picture of Albert Falls located in Thomas, West Virginia just sitting in my drafts! I can't believe I forgot to post this beauty. Well, it's never to late to post a picture of a beautiful waterfall so here it is! This was taken in the summer of 2012.
4-wheeling on the beach! Now that is where the fun is at! I love go 4-wheeling on the beach! Don't try this if you are in a car that doesn't have 4-wheel drive. Before you start driving on the beach you have to let out some air from your tires which means you need to have an air compressor to pump that babies back up once you are ready to get back on the road.
The water was so warm that day that it felt like bath water. The waves were so gentle that day also.
We like to have the beach to ourselves which driving on the beach is perfect for that. There were other people there, but we felt like we had the beach to ourselves.
They started out flying the butterfly kite that is my Young Lady's.
Critters in the sand! My Young Lady did not like these critters! lol She is scared of bugs also which explains why she didn't like these little guys. It is just hilarious to watch her when a bug is around and it was hilarious to see her with these critters in the sand.
My Little Man flying his dolphin kite at the beach.
My Little Man surfing the waves with his boogie board. He had too much fun!
Driving back to the mainland. We didn't want to leave, but dinner was calling!
Angela
