Sun, Fun & Family

Warning: this is a long post.
The past two weeks have been busy and hot and tons of fun. Definitely worth coming out of the Basement! Wanted to include more photos in the slide show, but camera batteries are dead and hubby isn't here to rescue help me (details below). Our twelve day 'go-a-thon' started with a long weekend trip to Emerald Isle. We flew into Beaufort, NC (lovely historic coastal town) and drove to Emerald Isle. We had a super fun night at the Emerald Club. Some of the best people watching I've done recently...couple of the 'locals' were very interesting. Live performance by Johnny Dollar Band was the highlight of the evening. Unfortunately the band has changed since we last saw them...still good, but only two original members are with them. The old group were much better 'showman' (and musicians). The weather was perfect and the whole trip was fun & relaxing. The Crystal Coast is so appropriately named. I had a couple of days to get some sewing done. Seems like black & white was the color scheme of the week. Is there anything more classic than houndstooth? On Wednesday, my Dad and Nina came to visit. They brought me the most delicious real tomatoes and SC peaches. I made TWO fab-u-lous peach cobblers! We ate every bite. Don't hate. We spent Friday with Hanna...toured the NASCAR Hall of Fame, rambled through her campus(UNC-C) and had dinner at the restaurant where she works. Although we aren't really race fans, the Hall of Fame is an impressive facility. Saturday we headed north to visit Rach. She was a great hostess. We cruised NC State campus and had lunch at 'The Pitt' (wow!....a must if you are ever in Raleigh). Then we drove through the Duke campus and she showed us her office building and some houses/apartments she is interested in. We hung out at Tyler's in the American Tobacco Center and waited out a few rain showers before the Bull's baseball game. Good wine & people watching! The ballgame was excellent although it was hot as hades! We had good seats (more great people watching) and the Bull's won. We left during the 7th inning and went to Tobacco Road (more good food & wine) to catch the end of the college world series game, Clemson vs. SC. We were very sad that our Tigers lost, especially to the Gamecocks! We finished the weekend with a tour of UNC and delicious Sunday brunch. We have some outstanding colleges in NC and now I've seen three of the best.
This morning my scales screamed at me! And my digestive has played 'pay back' all day for my 10 days of wining & dining!
Now I am home alone and the house is deafeningly quiet. Pa & Nina are safely back in Alabama. The girls are at their respective apartments and back at work. I am getting caught up in the basement. And my sweet husband is in the Gulf, working on a project associated with the oil spill clean up. It all sounds like a huge goat rodeo and he doesn't completely understand his assignment, yet. I hope they can help. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a magic wand to make it all better. I promise not to whine about him being away...maybe.

'Night y'all.