I actually have something to blog about!
Eric and I are sort of terrible about taking advantage of the time we have to do anything except to be lazy. We will almost always favor being lazy over anything else, which is a little embarrassing to admit, but it's true. Y'all know that I am an obnoxious perfectionist who loves to travel and do new things, but my most favorite favorite place to be is at home with my daughter and husband all cozy and safe, with my dogs at my feet, my coffee maker to wake me up, wine at my finger tips, and no where to go - every single thing that I love most on this side of Heaven in one comfy spot! So it can be really hard to get my ass out of my house sometimes, and why we haven't done much since we got to Virginia. {And probably why I've gained 5lbs all in the top part of my butt - it's too upsetting to talk about.}
Eric and I visited the East Coast a couple of different times, once to Boston, and once to Florida, but there is a lot more than just those two places to see, and we have wasted all of our time since we got here daydreaming about where life was going to take us next, and now, we're getting ready to leave having barely seen a single thing that this side of the U.S has to offer.
But I work really well under pressure - you give me a checklist and a deadline and I am unstoppable! So with a month to go before we head off to Texas, I booked a quick weekend trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina!
My first time in North Carolina!
The Outer Banks (a.k.a the OBX) is a stretch of small barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. Wikipedia says that it is a 200 mile stretch, but the guy we talked to at the OBX Winery said it's like 60 miles, but maybe he wasn't talking about the entire stretch... I don't know, I was too busy tasting all of his wine to pay any attention (and I do mean all of his wine, the man kept pouring and pouring and pouring. It was amazing.). I don't feel like Googling it right now, but if you want to, tell me what you find out! But what I do know after seeing the OBX with my own eyes, is that it is a giant stretch of beautiful beaches! Beaches and ocean in every direction as far as you can see! I mean, I guess it looked like it could be 200 miles of beaches...? Which sounds way more impressive than 60, but who am I kidding, I was impressed that the guy at the winery let me have goldfish crackers with his wine.
We stopped in the town of Duck on our way to our hotel because it's known to have the best beaches in all of North Carolina (or so says the Travel Channel) and we wanted to walk along their boardwalk and grab a donut.
Duck, North Carolina
Always with headphones in her ears.
Duck Donuts are famous donuts that originated in Duck, North Carolina about 10 years ago, and we were told by just about everyone we've met in this area of the world that we needed a Duck Donut in our belly at some point before we leave. They weren't wrong. Duck donuts (how many times can I write "donut" in one paragraph) are made to order and served warm - you first pick the type of donut you want, then you choose your topping, and then the glaze; they tasted like a donut shaped funnel cake!
The Weather Channel app on my phone has shamelessly lied to my face for the past 4 years, which is why I can't pack for our trips worth a damn and I second guess my planning skills. I don't know why I put up with it. We were "supposed" to get really bad thunderstorms the entire weekend we were in North Carolina, but I couldn't cancel our hotel without paying a fee so we just figured we would go and see as much as we could, even if it ended up being from our car window. And if eating a donut was all that we managed to accomplish, we would consider it a successful trip. But it didn't thunderstorm. The weather was hot, and beautiful, and sunny, and not the kind of weather that I packed for.
Our hotel was on the beach and only a couple of miles from the Wright Brothers National Memorial - a memorial dedicated to the first successful flight at that exact location on December 17, 1903, so we decided to go there before checking into our hotel because: 1) I did not pack for a beach trip. We wanted to see the ocean, I wanted to touch the ocean, but we did not plan on swimming in the ocean because I hear it's dangerous when it's lightening, and 2) we figured we might as well enjoy the weather for as long as it was going to hold out, just not at the actual ocean because the Weather Channel app is an asshole and I didn't pack swimsuits.
The Wright Brothers National Memorial covered a large outdoor park area, with a monument on top of a hill, and the take-off spot of the first four flights at the bottom and a ways a way from the hill that the monument was on top of. Eric and I assumed that the top of the hill was where the actual first flights happened, but no, the first flights took off from level ground at the bottom of and a ways a way from that hill where the monument was, which was conveniently next to the parking lot we parked at, but like a gazillion miles away from the top of the hill that we had hiked to the top of in 90° temps thinking that if we were going to fly an airplane for the first time, that is where we would fly it from. Except that Eric and I don't know how to fly airplanes.... soooo... what the frick were we thinking.
I still have no idea what that monument was for.
Standing in the area of where the flights took off from looking at the monument on top of the hill.
The views from the monument were beautiful though!
Reconstructed 1903 hangar and flight workshop.
This is where the first four flights happened, with each boulder in the distance marking a landing spot.
Laziness and all joking aside, I want to tell you guys something. For almost a year, I had been planning a family trip to this exact beach for this exact weekend for the sole purpose of taking my own little family's pictures for a special announcement that we so hoped to make.
I was so excited.
I had it all planned out.
I spent months Pinteresting every thing I could on beach pictures - how to edit beach pictures, the best outfits to wear, poses for a small family, cute announcement ideas, you name it! So when Eric and I were standing on the beaches of North Carolina, without an announcement to make and hearts broken, we sat there in silence, his arm around my shoulders.... there was nothing to say that we hadn't said before.
A couple of weeks ago we hit another roadblock, just as we have every single step of the way for the entire 2,747 days we have been on this brutal path of hoping beyond all hope that we may expand our family. And I'm not all the way ready to talk about it yet. After we get settled in Texas, and my heart finally comes to terms with never having another child, I promise to fill you all in.
I'm just telling you this because it's apart of why I haven't been blogging lately. My heart is broken and I just needed some time to find the joy. I have to be honest though, I haven't found any yet.
As I was standing on the beach with my husband, both of us trying to find our footing again going in a direction that is not what we hoped for, prayed for, or wanted.... I felt compelled to take pictures of the beach anyway, just different pictures than what I hoped to. I felt like an empty beautiful beach was.... metaphorical.
About an hour later the thunderstorm started.... and I thought that that was beautiful and metaphorical too.
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