its the simple things: Adventures in NC: Part 2

Following all of the wonderful adventures in Raleigh and Wake Forest during my trip back home to NC, I got to head down to the beach to spend some time with my wonderful family. Three important things you should know (if you don't already):

1. I love my family.
2. My family loves the beach.
3. I get excited easily.

Ere-go, going to the beach with my family had me incredibly excited!

My brothers Ben and Ryan were getting their SCUBA certification at the dive school in Beaufort, so they went down a few days before me and mom and pops did. Pops recently got a boat, so we loaded up his truck with tons of fishing gear and other boat-tastic goodies. With all of the fishing gear and this crazy dog there wasn't a ton of room for mom and I.

So we headed down on our own, and made a pit-stop in Macclesfield at Self Made Farm to see Jackie and Beamer. This was the only time I saw a horse on my whole trip home, and I couldn't have been happier (I see enough horses at work). Jackie let me take Beamer for a spin (first time in over a year that I've ridden him!). I always forget how much I love this horse until I ride him; he's so much fun!

We had a really sweet house in Emerald Isle for the week, so the next few days were spent hanging out, enjoying the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean, fishing, crabbing, and a pretty sweet adventure with a TON of dolphins in Bougue Inlet. Seriously. I have NEVER in my life seen this many dolphins. There was a pod of at least 30 of them all around the boat. It was SO cool (I would also like to note that this day was dubbed "animal day," as we caught a shark (which Ben promptly dropped in the boat and scared the daylights out of me), saw a huge ray leap clear out of the water, and caught lots of fishies and sea urchins).

There are several things that I can do in the Atlantic, but not the Pacific, including building "dribble castles" (the Pacific is too cold to sit by the water like this). And I got to see my first thunderstorm in over a year roll in across the sound, which was AWESOME. I miss thunderstorms.

I would like to take this opportunity to say that California life has only made half of me tan, as this picture clearly dictates. Fortunately, my legs evened out a little bit by the end of the week, thanks to a little thing called SPF 55, which was slathered all over my tan parts.