Emerald Isle

For our house hunting trip to North Carolina we stayed in an amazing ocean front home at Emerald Isle.  Absolutely one of the best vacation homes we could have imagined.  I'm going to gush for a minute.  The place was beautiful...the ocean was right at the back porch, there were games and books for rainy days, even dog bowls and pick up bags.  Every time I thought 'oh, we need to go get *insert something here*' I would find that very thing in a cabinet a few minutes later.  (I swear they aren't paying me to say this)

There were dolphins swimming out there most mornings and while the weather was atrocious (just our luck), we at least had a beautiful view!

Nanny and Papa met us down there and helped us out a ton (really can't thank them enough!) while we were there.  They watched Bella for us and let us sleep in every morning, took care of her while we were out house hunting, made lots of meals for us and were generally just great company to have around.  We got very spoiled!

Joseph joined us the last part of the week since he had a day and a half off from school and Bella was overjoyed to get to spend time with her uncle.  It was a very 'joe-filled' house there at the end of the week with my Papa (Joseph) and my brother (Joseph) and our dog (Josie).  Yell 'Joe' and you never knew who would answer :P

Papa brought a fishing pole and brought Bella a smaller fishing pole and she had a blast trying to figure it out.  Then the fishing pole made the rounds...

Vinny and Bella fishing

Papa and Joseph fishing

Papa and Vinny fishing

I use the term 'fishing' lightly because it was really just throwing hot dogs on a stick into the waves to get knocked off and washed back at you...but they seemed to enjoy it, which is good enough for me.

Nanny and Bella and I also took some time to pick up seashells of course

Nanny had just read an article in a magazine about fulgurite, which are formations made when lightning hits the sand.  She was thrilled to find 3 or 4 of them while we were out.  I picked up a select few shells too that I'm hoping to craft into some cheap artwork for the new house.

I wish the weather had been a bit warmer, but we made the most of it.  And the storms made for huge waves and great photos!  This was my favorite:

This beach is about 30 minutes from our new place, but there is also a beach on the base, so we'll probably use that one because it should be less crowded during the summer.

Where is your favorite vacation destination?  The beach?  The mountains?  Any specific spot in particular?