Vacation At Wrightsville Beach, NC

Hello and happy Monday. It was back to work today for me and hubs. We took off last week and went to the beach in Wrightsville NC. This is near Wilmington. It is about a nine hour drive for us. We have flown there a few times but we wanted to take some beach chairs with us so we drove. We left out about 5:30 AM last Sunday morning. When my husband says he wants to leave at a particular time we will be leaving our house at that exact time. He is good about staying on time. Of course he didn’t have the million things I had to do before leaving. I always arrange who will stay with the kitties or come in and feed them. I always make sure the house is clean before we leave. That’s just a little pet peeve I have when I leave. I like for the house to be clean.

We had a few traffic delays and we stopped a few times for fuel and food. We got to the beach around 4:00 PM. The weather all week was great. We stay at the same place. Surf Suites. Each suite is ocean front. Their balconies are really large with plenty of room to stretch out and relax and enjoy the ocean and listen to the waves.

Wrightsville Beach is a fairly small coastal town. If you are looking for amusement parks and lots of shopping centers this is not the place. There are a few places to see in the small town of Wrightsville and of course Wilmington is only about a fifteen minute drive and there’s lots of things to see and do there. But the beauty of this place is that it is so laid back and peaceful. We are usually tired from the drive when we get there. We go to a local grocery store and stock up on groceries for the week and then grab something to eat.

The first morning was a little overcast but other than that we had lots of sun.

We started every morning walking into town. It is about a three mile walk round trip. One morning we walked a little more and made it just over four miles. It was a great way to start the day. We usually walked early around 7:00 AM. I loved looking at the beach houses and boat docks along the way. Then we usually walked on the beach. We took beach chairs this time so that we could spend more time at the beach.

And we had some really good meals.

Crab stuffed salmon. This meal was at The Oceanic. One of our favorite restaurants of all time.
Carolina crab cakes. This was at Poe’s Tavern. The music here was great and a lot of Edgar Allen Poe references. Poe’s is a chain restaurant. They are located in a lot of coastal towns.
More Carolina Crab Cakes. this was also at The Oceanic.
Shrimp and fries at South beach Grill.

I went out a couple of mornings at 6:00 AM to get sunrise pictures. And one morning there was a wedding on the beach at sunrise.


I read two books and started a third one. I will have them listed on Friday Favorites.
I also took along a blanket I am crocheting. Luckily I just started it so it hasn’t grown too much yet. The blankets get a little warm in the summer especially after they have gotten to a certain length.

So we had a great week. We started back early Saturday morning. I missed the babies so bad. When we got home they were overjoyed to see us. They ran to us and jumped in our laps and let us love on them. HA!!!! They’re cats you know that didn’t happen. But Gus did sleep with me Saturday night and even if he didn’t want to show it I know he was glad we were back home. I know I was.

And of course seeing this was the best sight because it meant we were almost home.

A great and fun week but I am always glad to get back home. How was your week? How have you been? I have missed being with you on the blog. I have a lot of catching up to do and getting around to reading all your posts.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Lavender Festival In Oak Ridge Tennessee

Hello and happy Monday. What a fun weekend I had. My friend Lorie and I decided a couple of weeks ago to check out the annual Lavender Festival in Oak Ridge Tennessee. Oak Ridge is about an hour from us.

The Lavender Festival has been held annually since 1999, always the third weekend in June because that is when the lavender is in bloom in Tennessee, and was voted “Best Festival” last year by The Middle East Tennessee Tourism Council. The Festival is free and so is parking. More than 150 vendors are set up for the festival. There were several bands playing and lots of food and drink vendors. There were some Lavender garden tours that could be purchased but you had to sign up for those and I think there was an additional fee for those.

Lorie and I took off early Saturday morning and got to the festival around 9:30. Lorie spotted a prime parking spot very close to the entrance. What luck. The weather was perfect. It did get a bit warm as the day wore on.

I bought one of these lavender plants and then discovered they are toxic to cats. Lorie is taking it to her house.
This booth had infused glass. I love the designs. This artist has amazing talent.
There were a couple of vendors selling these concrete planters. They are made by mixing concrete and pearlite together and putting them in boxes or buckets to frame them. I bought the one on the right with this gorgeous succulent.
We didn’t get to try the lavender lemonade the line was just too long.
Beautiful and smelled so nice.

Several Bands were playing. This one was really good.

More of the infused glass. I especially loved the little cat ornaments.

Lots and lots of flowers, succulents and even fresh fruits and vegetables. Lots of everything.

By mid afternoon the crowd had really grown.

Me and Lorie. We have so much fun when we get together. I love hanging out with her she is up for whatever adventure we get into. Nothing is too crazy for us when we get together. This might be good or bad, HA!!! We decided to make the Lavender Festival an annual event for us.
We didn’t get to try the lavender lemonade but we did try the Bold Rock Blackberry Cider. It was yummy and really hit the spot in the heat of the day

Before coming home we stopped in Sweetwater at Sweetwater Creamery and got some ice cream. This is such a cute place and the ice cream is homemade and delicious. I got Peppermint Pattie.

Peppermint Pattie. They also make the waffle cones daily. This is a single scoop!!! Yummy.

I brought my succulent home and put it on the deck. I think it fits in well with the rest of my cactus family.

Sunday was a rather quiet day. Mostly hanging around the house with hubs and working on clearing some things from the garage. A really nice weekend. How was your weekend?

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!!