Emerald Isle! (part: the first)

This island, this beach, this whole environment is seriously one of my favorite places to be. My dear aunt invites me along every year (so far), and two different groups go at two different times. There's the smaller, more relaxed group in April and the usually-larger, adventurous group in August. I've been going in April since my sophomore year of college when I first learned to rearrange my spring semester exam schedule to be able to join. I've only been a part of the August crowd since the summer of 2009. Richard was invited to join the August trip starting in 2011. 

Since the April trip always came at the end of the semester (and the spring semester just somehow always seemed harder), Emerald Isle has been a haven of relaxation to me. A beautiful breath of fresh air after months of hard work. 

On August 17, 2012 -- the Thursday of that year's August trip -- Richard took me on a date night at the beach, then we sat on the back deck of the beach house, and he gave me the best surprise of my life; he proposed! 

So, those are a couple of reasons why this beautiful place holds my heart. 

I love the view; I love the beach; I love the restaurants around the island; I love the shops that we visit every year; I love the time with friends and family; I love it all. 

This year was no different. The forecast was seriously bleak for the whole week -- cloudy and stormy and rainy all week. We had rain on Saturday afternoon as we unloaded the cars (good timing), and it rained overnight a couple of times. But other than that, all sunshine and smiles!

As per tradition, I always take a picture from the deck as soon as we get there. As you can see, the deck on "our" beach house has a unique view with no rails to obscure it. It makes for a very relaxing and beautiful, unobstructed view of the beach. I love it. 

Had to take a hot dog legs picture! It's how you know I'm at the beach and that I have legs. 

Another, better view of the beach, sans hot dogs. 

For a while prior to the trip, I wasn't sure if my work schedule would allow me to go to the beach or possibly for only part of the week. All along though, Richard made it clear that he was going, and he was going for the whole week -- whether I'd be there or not. 

And he had one plan for the whole week: fish. 

So it was a lovely and great surprise that I was able to go for the whole time! Woohoo! And Richard got his wish, too. He was left to his own devices to fish and crab all he wanted. (This was a reasonable escape though -- his beach company most of the week was two sets of sisters -- my aunt Cherryl, my mom, my sister Beth, and myself, his lovely wife.)

The new walkway out to the Bogue Sound

Richard graciously let us go crabbing with him on Sunday night. Beth, Mom, and Cherryl with their lines in the water. 

One of the little guys we caught. Most of the ones we caught (actually, all of them) were smaller than the legal limit, so we let them all go and had pizza for dinner instead. For some reason, this guy was missing a claw. Maybe he'd been hangin' around, eatin' bait a few too many times. 

Beautiful Bogue Sound

"Here crabby, crabby, crabby."

That's the first batch of pictures -- many, many more to come! It makes me feel like my vacation lasts just a liiiiittle bit longer.