Mimmsical Creations

Pshew! We arrived safely home last night from our trip to North Carolina (and Virginia).

All-in-all, it was a wonderful vacation! It started on a not so good note with the air travel last Saturday, and ended with another rather unpleasant flight, but the between was great!

First off - never fly AirTran airlines! It was a bit cheaper, but not worth it! After we were pushed back from the gate Saturday morning, we returned right back to the gate. After about 20 minutes of sitting (and wondering) we were told by the pilot that an "eyebrow" window was shattered and the plane wasn't air worthy... So, off the plane we go. And then we wait, and we wait, and we wait some more... for info about when we'll be leaving again... FINALLY, we are rescheduled to leave at 3:40 p.m. (our original flight was 11:40) and we finally make it to Atlanta, and then Raleigh at about midnight. It was a terribly LONG day, and boy, were we glad to arrive... (Mind you - I was glad the broken window was discovered before we took off, but the way the aftermath was handled was unpleasant to say the least!)

Finding a hotel was the next order of business... come to find out it is the NC State Fair and everything is full! Yikes!!!! We took the one over-priced room we could find and literally crashed! We decided the next day to go ahead and head for Wilmington to get away from the busy-ness of state fair! We spent much of the morning and afternoon at Duke University walking through the gardens. Wow! So amazing! I'm just in awe of the green-ness of this area! Vines, trees, ferns, moss, everywhere! Something I haven't seen a lot of living in Colorado!!

Duke was impressive to say the least. I took so many photos of the chapel. The architecture was stunning. We drove onto campus just in time to hear the bells at noon too! We left in time to make it to the coast at Wrightsville Beach just around sunset! We made a beeline for the shore! When we returned to our car, I realized we were parked right in front of a hotel I'd researched online! I hadn't made reservations because I couldn't tell what it was really like. Well - it was really amazing!! So, we rented a room - well, a suite really! For $69 a night, we rented a wonderful suite at the Sandpeddler Motel right next to the ocean!! WHOO HOO! It was about as close to perfect as it comes! We had an ocean view from our balcony and could hear the waves crashing! LOVED it!!

I've decided that waking up and hearing the ocean right out your door is just about the best thing. And then taking a walk on the beach before breakfast - even better! That's what we did every morning!

I'm going to have more to share, but that's it for tonight!! I'll be back with more and more pictures!! You can see all of our trip photos at my flickr.