Restaurants we ate at: Locals for breakfast every morning. Kelly and I love their French toast. We had supper at Fishy Fishy Cafe twice. (Love their fried flounder.) We also had supper twice at Famous Pizza and Subs. Charlie and Kelly like their subs; Sean and I like their pizza. We had supper one night at Nicola's Italian Restaurant ("Italian with a Twist") in Wilmington after we'd spent a cool, overcast, sprinkly afternoon in Ft. Fisher. It was the first time we'd eaten there. Really good food. They make their own pasta.
Sunset at Caswell Beach.
Shrimp boat on the Cape Fear in Southport, heading out to sea.
Sunrise over the Cape Fear. Charlie and the kids went. They also saw dolphins.
Sean (18) and Kelly (15) walking on Caswell Beach near sunset.
Caswell Beach at sunset.
Sean and Kelly entering a tunnel in the yaupon at Ft. Fisher. Charlie went in also.
Two of the tunnel entrances in the yaupon. Windswept trees in the background.
I was trying to get a picture to show how large an area the yaupon covers. That's Charlie in the picture, standing at the end of the walkway that leads to the gazebo.
Ft. Fisher beach.
Sharks in a touch-tank at the aquarium. I touched one of them.
We walked on the beach (Caswell) for an hour or two almost every evening, enjoying the beautiful sunset, the warm water, and not having many people around. While I really loved walking on the beach, apparently my back didn't. I'm sure sleeping in a hotel bed didn't help.
It didn't hinder my movements or prevent me from being able to sleep or enjoy our vacation, but by Sunday afternoon, after we'd gone to church and I'd worn heels, my back was killing me.
By Monday (the 7th; Labor Day), the pain was much worse. I could barely move and when I did move, it hurt so much I felt like crying. I could only sleep sitting up on the couch and even then I was in pain. Charlie was still on vacation (he took two weeks off) and brought me to the doctor on Tuesday. It was some kind of nerve causing my pain. The doctor gave me a shot (novocaine and cortisone) and wrote me a prescription for a muscle relaxer and hydrocodone. I only took one of the muscle relaxers (made me sleepy) and two or three of the hydrocodone (didn't seem to help much).
It's been less than a week since I finally started waking up pain-free. I've loved being able to sleep in my bed again and function normally again.
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I'm really looking forward to our annual mountain trip in less than a month. Obviously, we want to go when the colors are at their peak. I also want it to be sunny and around 65°-70°. That would be perfect. I want to enjoy the mountain air, take lots of pictures, walk a trail or two, hopefully get some pumpkin bread and maybe some apples. It can't get here soon enough.
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I finished reading What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick a couple nights ago. It was okay. I never really cared about any of the characters and the story wasn't all that interesting. It took me more than a month to read 407 pages. :-/
I'm now reading The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell. I've only read a few pages so far. I hope this will be one I have a hard time putting down.
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I went shopping on Friday (and Saturday, but only bought a bra), not really expecting to find anything and not caring if I didn't. It just felt good to be out of the house and looking around the stores. But then I saw this beautiful, sparkly plum-colored dress at Macy's. (I love shopping there because they always have coupons to scan that they keep at their registers. I can't remember the last time I paid full price for anything there.) I tried it on and loved how it looked, so I bought it - for about $30 off after they scanned a coupon for me. :-)
You can't really see them in this picture, but the dress is covered with tiny sparkles. So pretty. I wore a black shrug and black heels with it.
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I was going to go to Hagan-Stone Park yesterday, had been planning to go since last week when I saw a forecast of 70° and no rain, but when I got up it was overcast outside and looked like it could rain at any minute. :-/ So much for that. I love going to Hagan-Stone in the fall and spring. I hope I can go soon. I miss it.
