Yep, it’s time for a bit of holiday down at the beach house Grammy rents every year. We’re sharing the house with Grammy as well as Uncle Patrick and his family.
We made excellent time down to Ocean Isle which was aided by finding a route through Wilmington that avoided Market Street (US-17). Of course, Daddy lost all of the time gained by that routing by forgetting that you have to go right to stay on US-17 which then immediately turns left. It’s rather amazing how that stretch of US-74/US-76 near Leland is scenic…NOT!
Anywho, we arrived about 45 minutes ahead of everyone else which gave us a chance to unload the Escape which was loaded! As in whole lot of stuff loaded! It wasn’t quite all of the house possessions that haven’t been packed by Mommy…but it seemed like we weren’t all that far off, either! Fortunately for us, our quarters are down below behind the garage so the really heavy stuff didn’t have to go up the stairs to the second level. When everyone else showed up, it was time to repeat the unloading process…except all of this stuff was going upstairs. Ah, our aching backs…
Arrival day tends to be rather low-key as everyone is usually tired by the time we get here. Except for a certain little one who decided to find a big burst of energy and where it came from, we have no idea! He definitely enjoyed his jaunt to the beach where he played in the sand, in the water, but most of all loved playing the chase me game. And we can’t tell you how many buckets of sand we filled with mucky sand and shells. Nicholas showed a particular fascination for holes and a rather remarkable balance when he stepped into the hole. All in all, a good day at the beach for him and he didn’t even taste the sand once. Way to go, little one!
Of course, on every trip, there is always something someone forgets. In this case, it was Daddy forgetting that soap is a rather nice thing to pack to the beach if he wants to get clean and not smell of tangerines! So a raiding party set off for the local Food Lion to get those last-minute essentials.
In today’s lesson, we will learn that’s not a real swift plan. You see, pretty much everyone arrives in the area on Saturday! And guess where they end up. Come on, three guesses and the first two don’t count! Yep…the local Food Lion. All at the same time. Queues that stretch the length of the front of the store and make it rather impassable through the aisles. And of course, it’s not like the old commissary on Fort Bragg where they have one queue and 30 to 40 checkout stations that were always fully staffed…nope…half of the queues were shut. A memo to the Sunset Beach Food Lion managers…offer bonuses to fully staff Saturday nights during tourist season, eh!
Of course, Nicholas outlasted Daddy who went down below to put sheets on the bed and inflate Nicholas’ new inflatable Bob the Builder instant sleeping bag air mattress. I’m sure they came in sometime later but I couldn’t really tell with all of the dreams of waves crashing against the sea shore!
