Good Morning Carolina Beach!

After three weeks of beach living, we've developed a bit of a routine for our days typically involving some or all of the following activities: shark tooth hunting and playing catch with Josie on the beach, a dip in the ocean or the pool, a surf session for Gideon, tooling around on our beach bikes or road bikes, gnoshing on ice cream at the Fudgeboat or Krazy Kones, reading, playing with the kids, a game of cards, and a shift at the fudge shop now and then. I could definitely get used to this... in fact, I think it's safe to say that I AM used to it at this point.

Here's a run down of a typical morning--in this case, yesterday morning. Wake up between 6:30 and 8:00. Ride bikes a few blocks to the beach with Josie on her leash dragging Gideon along behind. Watch the sun rise. Toss the tennis ball into the waves for Josie for 30 to 45 minutes. Search for sharks' teeth and beach glass. Do a little yoga on the beach. Rinse pounds of sand off of Josie. Head home for coffee and a fresh fruit smoothie. After that, if we are not scheduled to work, we search for something meaningful to do. Yesterday that involved developing beach safety precautions for Josie.

Oh, the intensity.

Can you find the shark's tooth and beach glass? CLICK to enlarge picture.

Our morning loot

Just trying to keep Josie safe... he he he.
CLICK this one to enlarge if you want a good laugh.

The Fudgeboat

Oh, the Fudgeboat... can you think of a better place to hang out? Thirty or more flavors of homemade fudge, plus 16 flavors of premium hard ice cream, still-warm waffle cones, fresh chocolate covered strawberries, saltwater taffy, roasted nuts... I could go on, but I won't torture you. This is where I work a few evenings a week. I typically spend my time scooping ice cream, but I also give samples of fudge and fill fudge orders.
Last week, a woman came into the shop and spent a good ten minutes debating what kind of treat to get. Fudge or ice cream? "How about a hot fudge sundae made with your choice of ice cream and whatever kind of fudge you want melted on top?" I suggested.
"Oh, I couldn't possibly do that; I just had seafood for dinner!" she replied, holding her belly.
After a few more minutes, she made her decision. "Give me three scoops of chocolate peanut butter ice cream on a chocolate dipped waffle cone."
I'm not quite sure how her belly felt later that night, but I liked her style.

Flip flops and fudge

Back in May, Gideon called me from work. "Now, I don't want you to overreact," he said to me. Hmm... ommm. "The law firm is offering all the associates a year off with some benefits. Basically, they want some volunteers to take a hike for a year so they can save some money. I'm thinking it could be fun."
I'm not quite sure what reaction or overreaction he was expecting from me, but my immediate response was, "When can we go?" Less than 4 weeks later, we were packing up our life in D.C. and making plans for the year.
After putting all of our earthly belongings into storage, we headed to Canada for a week at the lake with our good buddy, Jon. Chilling at the lake was a great way to "reset" ourselves for this year of exploration. Here are some lake shots.




From Canada, we headed south to Carolina Beach, North Carolina. My cousin Tracee and her husband, Duke, own a few bike rental shops as well as a fudge shop and an ice cream shop on the beach. Considering Gideon's bike expertise and my fudge and ice cream expertise, we figured we'd be helpful additions to the staff for the high season, so we invited ourselves down for the summer.
So, here we are in sunny Carolina Beach. Located just south of Wilmington, Carolina Beach is situated on a small island referred to as "Pleasure Island". We certainly understand why. We've been pleasuring in surfing, biking, eating fudge and ice cream, wearing bathing suits and flip flops 24/7, doing beach yoga, watching weekly fireworks displays, and more. Oh yeah, and we've been working a bit at the shops, if you call scooping ice cream, sampling ice cream, cutting fudge, and sampling fudge "work".
Here is a glimpse of life in Carolina Beach so far.

Surfer boy

Tracee & Duke's son, Sam, and his amazing shark tooth find

Tracee and Duke's daughter, Hana, and her new BFF, Josie