Growing Up Gessner: North Carolina

In typical Stephanie style, this post is coming about a month after the trip was made, but at least I'm getting it posted...

For Owen's spring break, the boys and I headed to North Carolina with my mom and her best friend. It was such a fun, relaxing trip and I really enjoyed the Carolina shore. I've been to several beaches along the Atlantic coast, but this was my first time in North Carolina, and we really loved it. The weather was fairly nice for being so early in the year. It was a little cool somedays, but really, I can't complain.

The boys also did an amazing job riding in the car for such a long period of time. Eli slept quite a bit, but I was really proud of how well behaved they were being strapped in for so long!

View from our condo's balcony

Even with the cooler temps, the boys still got into the ocean almost every day. I don't know how they could stand it, but they seemed to have a blast! Playing on the beach and at the resort pool were their favorite parts of the trip.

We named this seagull, "Grandpa Larry".

We also were lucky to meet lots of super nice people. There were tons of fishermen out on the beach every day and it was fun to see what kinds of interesting things they would pull in. They were always gracious about showing the boys their catch. We especially enjoyed seeing the puffer fish; they were such cute, funny little creatures.

We also saw lots of sharks and stingrays caught. The boys loved getting to touch these critters before they were thrown back.

We spent one day out at Fort Macon state park. The boys enjoyed seeing all of the canons and running around through the beautifully maintained fort.

We did have one rainy day, and we made the most of it by going to the North Carolina State Aquarium. It was very cool aquarium with several interactive exhibits. Eli particularly enjoyed seeing the young sea turtles that are being rehabiltated to release. Owen liked petting the sting rays and picking up the crabs in the touch tank.

As per usual for Eli, he played hard every day and by dinner time, he was completely pooped out. We would carry him into the restaurant each night and would do everything we could to wake him before his dinner came. Some nights it worked. Some nights, not so much...

Some of the other highlights of our trip were watching dolphins from our condo, catching mole crabs in the surf, and eating at some wonderful restaurants. Our favorite was a place called, Amos Mosquitos. The boys got to make s'mores on a table top fire, and scored awesome tattoos. It was big hit!

Our last morning in NC was the Saturday before Easter. Our resort hosted a big Easter egg hunt, and the boys loved being able to participate before being packed back into the car.