OBX

how is it that one place can make me so happy?

it probably stems from the fact that my family would take a week-long vacation to the outer banks nearly every summer for most of my childhood. i have great memories from those vacations: whole days at the beach, bobbing and diving through waves, playing "bong" with my brother (was that what we called it, eric?), digging holes, catching critters, demolishing my brother in a fishing competition off the pier (they were practically jumping out of the water to bite my hook), being "rescued" by gus (also known as gus-swimming-furiously-towards-you-with-his-nails-fully-extended-and-eventually-you-get-out-of-the-water-just-to-avoid-being-scratched-anymore), chair surfing, sunset walks, big spaghetti dinners on the deck overlooking the ocean, rich breaking my dad's whole arm, reading books while sprawling on a towel in the sun, and just in general loving every minute of it...

well, this past weekend i went to the outer banks with granger. we left shortly after 11pm on fiday night (when granger got out of work) and drove down. we got there around 3:30 or so, and after snarfing some pb&js we passed out. then, after only 2 HOURS OF SLEEPING, i was awakened by my lovely boyfriend who was up and ready to get the day started. ummm... what?!?!?! i couldn't even wrap my mind around how impossible it was that he was already up for good, although i managed to fanagle another hour of sleep before i joined granger in a state of, albeit grudging, awakeness. sigh...

we got the grocery shopping out of the way that morning and managed to be on the beach by about 9:30, however, so the early morning rise did have its benefits. we brough some mike's hard lemonade and some chips and dip down to the water and stayed well into the afternoon. the only downside of the day was me getting sunburned. but otherwise, granger and i had a great time in the water, tossing a frisbee, and just generally goofing around. granger had a pretty spectacularly graceless moment with the frisbee that caused the lifeguard who was driving by on her ATV to stop and compliment him. she later asked for a repeat performance. he and i both did eventually have some pretty great catches though; i think my favorite of his was when he launched off the ground like a goalkeeper would to barely catch the frisbee between his fingers. my best catch was from behind my back. yeah, i know, i'm awesome!

unfortunately sunday dawned cloudy and windy, so we didn't spend too much time on the beach. we tooled around the house we were staying in and made a smorgasbord for dinner, cleaned and packed up, and drove back to DC. all in all, it was a great trip, and the only reason that i wasn't super sad about leaving was because granger reminded me that, in a week, we'd be lounging on the shores of mexico making one of the toughest decisions of our lives: do i want a margarita or a pina colada? i think i'm going to choose both...