Traveling Toward Retirement

We packed up and moved out of Myrtle Beach this morning. It was a three hour drive to Raleigh but we kept busy with conversations and a little audiobook. This book isn’t so good though. That’s a crazy thing about art, not everyone enjoys the same stuff! So in Raleigh we met my sister and her crew at a Costco to grab lunch and swap cars. Katie and I went with Tina, Colin, and Kenzie to a Lego art exhibit, and Todd took the rental van with Em, Jacob, Kieran, and Gemma to play disc golf nearby.  I didn’t go discing so I don’t know much about that, other than they had fun. The course was great. And Em got a killer shot through a bunch of trees.  The Art of the Brick was a cool immersive traveling exhibit. These have become popular with Van Gogh if you’ve seen that traveling exhibit come to your town. So this is legos but it’s all set up like an art gallery. It was really cool to see the detail and different ways that the artist is able to create sculptures.  Aren’t those ju...

We started out slow this morning with showers and coffee over the sun filled balcony. Watching the sunrise every morning over the ocean is a pretty beautiful sight.  We headed out to a breakfast joint to enjoy eggs Benedict, chicken and waffles, an omelet, and pancakes. Everyone enjoyed their food and it was nice to have something new as most days we’ve started off with toast, cereal, or bagels.  After dropping the leftovers off at the condo, we headed to the helipad. Yes, we saw some billboards for $20 rides and we thought that’s crazy, so after researching it last night, we decided to go ahead and give it a shot. The kids opted for the level above the $20 ride which is only about 4 minutes. This one was 10 minutes and while it may not have been long, where else are you going to even ride in a helicopter for $40?  They came off the helicopter smiling and it’ll be something they hopefully remember forever. Priceless moments.  Next up was Brookgreen Gardens which is ...

We had a leisurely morning with coffee, bagels, and cream cheese. Nothing quick. Hot showers and slow mornings are what vacations are made of right? I listened to my audiobook “The Measure” while watching the sunrise over the Atlantic.  We set our eyes on Splinter City Disc Golf Course and headed out around 10am. If you sleep in until noon, vacationing with us might be a challenge.  It was a decent course but there were some frustrations today. Jacob shot 5 over, Todd 6 over, and Emily up 11. Katie had fun and I took videos for the Gram. You can see two birdies in there which made them happy. We’ve been playing every other day which gives their arms a break in between. Afterward we needed grub, such is the life when vacationing, so we yelped a poke bowl place and found ourselves in a little outdoor mall that is probably packed in summer.  The poke bowls were yummy and my Thai green curry was spicy and delicious. Everything was awesome and we agreed that we have had some...

Today we cleaned up and moved out of New Bern, leaving maybe my favorite Airbnb behind. We drove 1.5 hours south to Wilmington, NC to visit a WWII battleship. We have just an afternoon in this town so we picked one thing to check out.  But first, we needed lunch! Todd found a little taco shop called Taco Baby and whoa baby were they delicious! It was a tiny place and it seemed dead when we walked in, but after sitting for a bit, the place filled up with what must be people who already knew about the amazing Taco Tuesday deals.  $2 tacos, beers, even margaritas, and $2 hush puppies and Mexican corn. Our entire lunch was $47 😮 But what’s better than a deal is delicious fresh food FOR a steal! The Mexican corn was awesome. I had a Brussel sprout taco that was literally my favorite. The chicken tacos were good and when Todd bit into the hush puppy he said, “oh my gosh they’re so good.” So, aside for the cute decor, their food was bomb.  After lunch, we headed over to the US...