So we headed down to Emerald Isle last Friday.

In retrospect, it was pretty silly of us not to bring our laptops since it turned out that the condo came with a cable modem and a WiFi connection. Foo. Ah well, we had better things to do than geek out in front of computers all day anyway.

Donald and Janelle had been at Emerald Isle all week, and by the time we got there were pretty desperate for company. This is not your bustling, crowded beach like some I’ve seen along the North Carolina coast. No, this is a more “family-oriented” area, which translates into civilization consisting of a small cluster of shopping centers and then fifteen miles of nothing but residential areas. That, coupled with the fact that it had pretty much poured down rain all week there meant that D&J were pretty much bored out of their minds.

We were late getting there on Friday night because we hadn’t counted on the fact that driving down the main drag in Jacksonville, NC (you know, the home for Camp Lejeune?) on a Friday night might be nothing but stop-and-go traffic as marines celebrate the weekend by going to one of the numerous sleazy dives around town and cruising. Yeesh. We didn’t get to the condo until about 9:30. I mentioned the possibility of doing something stupid, like going out bar hopping, until it was pointed out that the nearest bar was ten miles away and probably closed at ten (OK, that’s an exaggeration, but that pretty much summed it up). So, after bumming around and chatting with Thomas and Sherry and Donald and Janelle, we went to bed.

Saturday, I woke up stupidly early (7 AM) but hey, so did Janelle. Cool. I made coffee (I had the forethought to bring my French press and pre-ground coffee) and enjoyed sitting on the beach and chatting. We went and picked up some bagels not long after we got back the skies opened up. Rain was coming down in torrents and it seemed the day would be a washout. But lo! After a few hours, the rain passed and blue skies prevailed. Afterwards, after donning proper beach attire, we went out to a local restaurant and had a mediocre meal (lousy restaurants would plague us all weekend) After a stop by one of the ubiquitous beach supplies stores, we went out and did a little surfing and generally got pummeled by the ocean, since the waves were at about 6-8 feet. It was a blast. Both Dan and I got sunburned, but not too badly. Dinner was in Morehead City, at an appalling place called Raps. I should have known it was going to be a crappy mea when Dan asked for a grasshopper (creme de menthe, creme de cacao, and cream) made with ice cream instead of cream. The waitress checked with the bartender and returned to say that while they had ice cream, it was for dessert and they couldn’t make drinks with it. Riiiiight. So basically, they didn’t give a crap what the customers wanted, just get your food and get out. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the meal was pretty lousy. Ah well – at least the company was good. That night we hung out at the condo, drank wine, and played with the camera a bit under the moonlight. We were all pretty tired after swimming, so we went to bed at about 10.

Sunday was another early start (6:45 AM), and we had to pack everything up since Donald and Janelle had to be out of the condo by 10 AM. For breakfast, we went to a little cafe in Swansboro that was so-so, at best. We got home at 1:30 PM, which was cool since it gave us time to relax. Dan made up some yummy homemade mac and cheese (with bacon!) and we watched Tivo goodness.

On the agenda for this week: Lilo and Stitch, and possibly Amelie at the new art-house theater in Cary. Amelie is a fabulous movie and I’m looking forward to seeing it again – I really think Dan will like it. For the coming weekend: nothing planned. Yay!