Back from Vacation, Outer Banks

Hi everyone! Sorry I missed the swap but I have enjoyed reading posts and viewing pictures.

As Ruby may have told you all, our Meet and Eat was a wash! Car trouble had us in Morgantown VW for 8 hours, we did not get into Williamsburg till midnight. (We make it a habit of not driving in unfamiliar areas at night) so we were thankful to get to our destination where our daughter was meeting us.
Next day we went to Bush Gardens for the day and Yes! I did ride the Griffin what a coaster the men folk backed out so DD and I took the dive: 90º straight down. We all had a good time.

The next morning shopped the Pottery Factory and then on to the Outer banks. We enjoyed good weather, good food and good company, the others rented a kayak and paddled in the ocean, Hubby and one of the boys flew kites. I enjoyed walking the beach and picking up whatever I could find, horseshoe crab shell, starfish, beach glass and shells.

We left Sunday and drove stright home, the yard needed mowed, and some of my new plants were in bloom, I have been weeding, and getting thing into shape since we got back. It's nice to go away but sweeter getting back home.

Chris

I really enjoyed watching these guys!

There was a ship wreck at the bottom of out walkway to the beach. Hubby and kids enjoyed digging around it. He thinks it may have been an old steamer ship.

Chris! I'm certainly glad that you got to the beach and am glad you enjoyed yourself!
R&R is good for a body. :D Am also glad that you got home, without incedent!
Got anymore of those pix?
Joey

Welcome Home Chris!!! I am so sorry that we didn't get to meet. We will, I promise, we will. You are way too important to me for us to not be able to meet and spend a bit of time together.

I am glad that you had a good time. I love that area. I haven't been for at least 15 years, and decided to only go as far as VA Beach this week.
My laptop has not worked here this week and that has put a real damper on things for me. It was cloudy yesterday and might be that way again today. If it is going to be cloudy, I am going to head on home a day early.

i learned two things for traveling from now on. Number one is that I packed enough clothes to stay for a month rather than stay less than a week. ha-ha Secondly, if staying in hotels at VA Beach again, it has to be oceanfront from here on out. We are only one street over, but I am missing being able to look at ocean throughout the day.

Again, welcome home honey. Glad that you had a good time and I have to agree 100% about getting home. It is sweet.

Ruby

Hi Chris! that is such a nice area. we've been on several big family vacations to NC beaches.

Joey! Try the link, it will show you the inside of the "rundown shack" we had to stay in. lol
http://www.corollaclassicvacations.com/book/house.html?Name=Dolphina&PMSID=DOLPHINA&Avail=&Stay=7

The round built in hot tub was filled in with plants and there was a regular hot tub in the right had corner instead.

Here is a view from the back after being on the beach.

Ruby, your right if your going to the beach, stay where it is ocean front, I am so spoiled that even ocean view won't do; hate hanging over balconies to see the ocean. We got to see the dolphins while cooking and eating breakfast and some days lunch.

Chris

Hi Sally, This was our 2nd time to the area. It is very relaxing. Need a group to go to split the cost. We had 4 couples. Don't know if well go next year. Daughter is looking for something different, she is my travel agent now.

View to the south from beach walkway.

One of my concepts for later life is to live in a new place every year for a year, to see what it's like.
New places are exciting, and revisiting allows you to perfect the experience, and revisit memories. Both have merit!

What a gorgeous place to vacation! It's very hard to come back to reality when you've been 'livin' the good life' at the beach! Gorgeous beach front home too! Great idea to have 4 couples split the cost!

Seeing dolphins while cooking breakfast & lunch....it doesn't get much better than that!

So maybe we should rent a DG vacation house, what d'ya think?

Wow! Chris! That really looks like heaven! :D The Outer Banks is my favorite place to go "beaching"! I haven't been to the beach for about 15 years & Nags Head is the place we went. That was just before all of the baseball & softball started. It's been Soooo Long! Thanx for the link, but it just made me drool! Did you take pix of the "garden hottub"?
Joey

Hey there everyone. I am putting in my request to be on Sally's mailing list when she begins her adventure of living some place different each year. When ever you are at beaches and island types of things, please let me know. I will be your first visitor. ha-ha

Joey, it has been 15 years or so since I have been to the Outer Banks area too. I am sure that there have been many, many changes. I really loved the place. It has been a while but in the early 2000's my husband and I made several trips to Cape Cod Massachusetts. That is a really lovely area also.

The irony of all of this is that we own a time share in VA Beach. It is the last week of the year. We have taken advantage of that a few times. The first year that we stayed, the area had about six inches of snow. Seeing snow on the sand is quite something. Last winter we took the week we own and went to Atlantic City. That was a pretty decent trip.

I haven't been able to get myself together enough to arrange summer beach times for the time share yet. We have three weeks deposited just waiting for us. It is very hard for us to make plans having this teenager here and worrying that he gets to all of his commitments and things. At some point I am going to become less of a worrier and begin to enjoy some of what this world has to offer.

Chris, I am glad that you were able to get away and that you had a good week. Sorry that the beginning of the trip was bad for you though.

Everyone have a great weekend. I will be planting a lot of plants from the swap. We have had some lovely rain the past day or so. We certainly needed it too. Not sure what the weather is doing today.

Ruby

Happy, that would be a huge task, renting a DG vacation house. You would need very commited people, depost was due in Dec. and balance 30+ days before arrival. No drop outs. I did see a place on the internet that is 2 homes where you can rent for a large group. I think the price was really up there!!!

Joey I did not get the garden hot tub pic. It had a short palm like plant in the center and pink ice plants all around, really not that impressive. I have a feeling the pool hot tub was not as nice as the one that was there. I'am thinking just seating all around and not very many jets.
But it looked good on the picture.

Ruby, send some rain up this way! we had 1 1/2 inches while we were gone but the ground is really dry. Even the trout are looking for water. Ha ha

Welcome home, Chris. Sounds like you had a great time once the car cooperated. Such a pretty place.

I don't do beach. I get sun poisoning. But I sure do envy those of you who do get to go to the ocean and watch the dolphins.

Chris, the plants here loved the slow and steady rain that we had all day on Thursday. A lot of my gardens are in full bloom at the moment. The prize for best in show this week would have to go to some bright red lily's that are putting on a great show.

I am not sure what today's weather will be. I hope that the 90 degree temperatures will be a someone elses place. I need a fairly cool and overcast day in order to be able to work in yard. So far this morning that that is what we are having. Again, 90 degree temps, go away!!!

Ruby

Morning Ruby, and everyone.

It is a bit cool here this am. Took Penny out for her morning stroll around the yard. I had to put a sweater on.

I am hoping the fence guy shows up today, he said he might start it last weekend but did not.

Ruby, could you post a pic of the red Lilies? Not fair teasing me like that!

I stepped outside last night to see if I could get a night pic of the garden by the watergarden as seen from the patio. Here it is.

Chris! That is soooo pretty! It looks so peaceful!

We're supposed to have record heat over the next few days...maybe you'll warm up then! :D

Joey

Joey, It is my favoriate place in the yard. I always take my garden breaks there and watch the frogs, I have at least 7 this year! They were very vocal this afternoon.
I was watching a very large dragorfly trying to find a place to deposit her eggs, she was almost froggie's lunch : 0

Nice Hosta, is your's blooming already!

Many of my hostas are blooming already too. I thought it was usually later in the year when they bloomed. I am not complaining, they look real purty. ha-ha

OKay Chris, will try to get a pic of the red lily's. I spent about three hours in garden yesterday planting some of the goodies that I got at the swap. So much fun. I will be going out in a little bit and try to get some more things in the ground. I won't have gardening time tomorrow, so I want to spend a while at it today.

I have another busy week coming up. Seems that for almost a year now, I have been running, running, and running from one place to another. I need to cut out some down time for myself.

Joey, you can keep those record high temperatures. I hate them. I am not sure what the weather is supposed to be here this week. All that I can say is Thank God for air conditioning. ha-ha

Okay gals, have a good Sunday and I will check in again soon.

Ruby

I was out last night until dark still weeding and planting. I have the rest of my "basement babies" to plant out and Yesterday morning I went to the nursery and picked up some more plants. They have the nicest Millionbell petunias, and other plants that Wal-mart doesn't carry. The prices are up there, but I was happy to catch a "buy 1 annual get one free!" Yea!!
I make up my own hanging baskets, I use Miricle Grow with Moisture Control, Seems that the soil that the nurseries use in their baskets drain quickly, that is why they are always running around with the watering hose. I don't have time to do that every day. My baskets last all summer this way.

Here is a container with the nursery Millionbell, potato vine and my basement baby coleus. The taller Coleus is Sedona that I also bought.

Chris! The pond is Great! And I love your collection in the pot! Those petunias are my favorite kind! They go like hot cakes here & I didn't get any this year. :(

My hosta's are a little early, too, & they are budding & blooming! ;D
Joey

Joey, That's too bad you missed out on the petunias, I couldn't container garden without them, they bloom all summer and just get better.
The only color left yesterday was magenta, but I did find one last white one, so three was enough to fill my hanging basket. The white brakes up the magenta, and really makes it pop.

Here is the container at my front door.

Gorgeous arrangements Chris. I haven't ever tried my hand at arranging. There is one project along those lines that I will be attempting one day this week. I came away from the plant swap with three or four types of indoor succulents. I am hoping to put them all together in one pot and keep inside. They are small and at this point will just be put in the pot, not a lot of arranging to it.

I just came in from a short gardening session. I am still working on getting the new plants from the swap put in the ground. There are several things that I got there which will need to be potted up and will be house plants. Now that I have put most of my houseplants outside, I am getting a hankering to build a sun room or something to house them this coming winter. Last winter I had two of the bedrooms almost filled with plants. It is so nice to have that space now.

I am going to call the builder who built our deck and screen porch and see what kind of money I will be looking at to get me a better place to do house plants. I was kind of thinking of closing in the screen porch, but John poo-pooed that idea. I guess that he is right, it is really nice having it as just a screened in area, versus closed in.

Both of my sons owe me some money at the present and they are in the process of selling a piece of land that they own and I plan to collect on what is due then. I will have some extra money to do some sort of renovation. May as well spend it on something that I enjoy.

Well, I am off to the shower to wash off the bug spray. Talk to you good ladies later on.

Ruby

Ruby, I attended a mini seminar at Disney World's Epcot, the speaker was P. Allen Smith, the one thing I remember is containers should have one plant for height, plants to fill in and some to spill over.
The coleus gives me color to play with and they bring everything together.
Smith also had Ornamental Millet which adds lots of height, but I could not find it this year and what I tried to grow from seed did not make it.

Hey what's with us! getting into the building mode? I'd like a potting shed in the back yard, one that looks like an outhouse.

Chris- you have beautiful containers! what an eye for color and also different leaf shape and size.

Chris, Boy I can't wait to get down to Duck in the outer banks. It's very close to where Chris stayed and we will be going Sept 1st. My aunt who lives in Calif is flying out to spend a week with us while we are down there. So you have to know what a great place it is when someone with the Pacific Ocean at their feet flies across the country to come. Here is a shot of the sunset over the sound.

Holly, How did I miss that shot, was that close to where we were?

Have you done Steamers To Go, it has become a tradition with us. We also tried Awful Arther's, I had the deep fried clams, such a big heaping plateful. Can't get seafood that good up here.

Keep it up you might just find me on your doorstep Sept 2nd. LOL

Sally, I was just out for the color the leaf shape and size was an accident. Thank you for the compliment.

Chris

Wow, Holly. That looks like a painting.

Chris, That shot was taken near the Sunset Grill in Duck you would have gone past it going in and out. We usually go over there at sunset this shot shows the little gazebo at the end of their walkway.

And of course you would want a sunrise over the ocean.

These are a little hard to see but here are your foxes. Three cubs hanging around one of the shopping areas on the sound side.

Holly, I agree with hart! A painting!

holly- well done!

I'd love to take credit for those pics but Ric took them.
Chris, Yep got to go to Awful Arthur’s, I haven't tried Steamers to go but I will. We just love the Rundown Cafe they have great food. Stone oven pizza is a little pricey but very good gourmet pizzas.

One of my daughters has been living on the OBX now for two years and loves it. I'm going down tomorrow, as a matter of fact, to go to an NPR festival in Manteo, I think.
If you go by the KDH Front Porch Cafe (great coffee, roasting on-site), say "hi" to Yvonne from Mom.(:(: