Phew there is nothing like five days away from your phone, email, and Internet to recharge your batteries!!! I feel a renewed sense of motivation that I was seriously lacking before this vacation! I grew up in New Jersey but two weeks after I graduated from college my parents and I packed up our home of 22 years and moved down to a small town in southern North Carolina. I was preparing to Washington DC full time and my brother had already been living in DC for years. I was nervous about how this move would make me feel but honestly it’s the best thing ever for the whole family! Now my only regret is I can’t get down there MORE! Regardless, Fourth of July in my parents’ town is quite a big shin dig! Here are some highlights from our trip:

• Fig made his first long car trip and he did GREAT! He really wanted to be in someone’s lap the whole time though, so I will have to be creative if ever taking him on long drives alone (kitty in the driver seat seems very dangerous to me. I am currently writing this post in the car on the way home with Fig in my lap… My brother is driving I promise!). He also met his first dog – our geriatric family mutt Bernie (Bernie is 15 years old and is the sweetest, most easy going guy ever). He did pretty well with Bernie. At first he was very scared of him so there was some minor hissing and hiding under furniture but all on all they cohabitated perfectly. He also didn’t destroy my parents house… Score!

• The weather was unimaginably good. We went to the beach every single day (even Mike who kind of hates being in the sun. I told him I’d turn him into a beach / sun lover and I think I might have succeeded!!).

• Mike played his first game of tennis since 2007 and his first full 9 holes on a real golf course ever. My favorite thing about visiting NC is all the activities there are to partake in. Its the perfect way to feel really active and enjoy the gorgeous weather. He was obviously really good at tennis even though he said he wasn’t and even though he spent the entire trip saying how bad he was going to be at golf he was annoyingly good. He is already looking at clubs on CraigsList, and I suspect my dad and brother will soon box me out and just take Mike golfing with them 🙂

• Fourth of July celebrations to remember. For the actual fourth of July we tried to get downtown for the parade but we were lazy having coffee and chatting in the morning and the traffic was too crazy. So we packed it in and just went to the beach instead! Then we went to my favorite restaurant on the beach, Island Way, for an amazing dinner of broiled fresh seafood and a chocolate cake that should be illegal. By then the sun had set and we walked out on a huge fishing pier where you could see fireworks in literally four different towns as well as some very impressive personal firework shows on the beach. (Fireworks were illegal in NJ growing up so the most we ever had were sparklers. I’m still amazed at how awesome the personal fireworks were.)

• Dinner at the Sugar Shack. My brother flew down on Thursday night to join us on vacation so after we picked him up at the airport we went to dinner at literally one of the best restaurants in the whole area. It is absolutely nothing to look at (quite literally a shack) but they serve hands down the most amazing Jamaican food I’ve ever had. I’ve been raving about this place to Mike for forever and it did not disappoint. The portions are MASSIVE so we shared a half rack of ribs with coconut shrimp and curried rice with sweet potato. And of course a slice of house made key lime pie for dessert 🙂 Best meal of the trip!

I love having a go to vacation spot with my family where we can just hang out together and enjoy beautiful weather. Mike has been down once before but it was at Christmas so it’s not exactly the same as the summer. I was so glad he got to experience it! I’ll check in tomorrow about vacation food stuff. I have a lot to discuss!!

KITTY JAIL!