Beach Day

Our kite not bad for $2

Daddy & Pops jumping waves with Maddie

The house we stayed in was within walking distance to the beach. We also picked the perfect time of the year not alot of people and the weather was awesome. Maddie wasn't too sure about the sand at first and sat in her chair and held her feet up out of the sand like yuck what is this stuff. Eventally she caught on and from then on she was unstopable. Rolling, crawling, running around then she picked up the sand and putt it on and in everything. Towels, shoes, bags everything. She loved the water too. Squealed everytime a wave would crash around her feet. She's way too brave, once a wave would come in she would move further into the ocean.. A couple times she got up and ran towards the water.. Oh my!

Day one of our Vacation

Our view from the beach house

Us at the fishing pier

The yellow beach house was ours

Exmore Diner a must stop on Eastern Shore of VA



What a step back into time

Fish tails Rodanthe Pier

House from the movie Nights in Rodanthe not quite what it looks like in the movie



Okay so my pictures are a little out of order.. but who cares. We started out our adventure with a stop in Exmore VA at the Exmore diner for the best lunch in the WORLD! I never heard stopped in Exmore before GPS lead the way. The diner was a bit scary looking but packed full of cars. Good sign right! Not much has changed there since the 50's and I loved it! I had a crab cake sandwich ($6.95 w/fries can't beat that) which was huge and delicious! Much different from back home. We all also got homemade chocolate milkshakes, you know like you used to get with the metal cup!! Yum!! Sorry to go on & on about it . But this was a highlight of our trip...

On to Rodanthe, we arrived 530pm or so. Long but scenic trip. My dad who had never been to the Outer Banks before road down with us. We made a few stops along the way. We stop at Moyok Motors old car heaven. Full of old broncos, pick up trucks and my fave big ol cars! I wish I would have grab a picture but we were all busy hollering ooh look at this & that.

My first impression of Rodanthe was that it was beautiful! The dunes, Pier..everything

A-ha relaxation! Our place was nice! awesome location. We were able to walk down the street to the Rodanthe Pier. We had views of the Ocean & Sound side.

Back to realty

Okay, so I am back to realty this week. We had a wonderful Va-k ! Rodanthe is awesome, Weather perfect. Did alot of beach going, reading, drinking wine. Busy catching up on laundry, emails, and other chores. Plus working... agh

Vacation a-ha

Busy packing & cleaning leaving tomorrow early a.m. for Rodanthe for a week. Should be a fun time with family and friends.

Amy & Jason continued

The Groom

The veil

The cutest flower ever

Brides cheerful bouquet

Sneak Peek

Amy the beautiful bride & her talented sister whom baked their organic cake & styled her hair

Amy & Jason's wedding bands, they like Crochet so I thought this was fitting

The wedding was held here at the Inn at Mitchell House
Which is a Green hotel check out their website here: http://www.innatmitchellhouse.com/

Yay! I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to second shoot for Natalie of Natalie Franke Photography http://www.nataliefrankephotography.blogspot.com/ Historic Chestertown was the location of this beautiful Inn. It helped that the weather was enjoyable. Amy & Jason put together such a thoughtful & meaningful Green wedding. The Inn, food, cake, and dress details were all organic and all natural. Pretty neat! Working with Natalie was awesome! She is very laid back, and talented. She made me feel at ease and gave me the chance to be creative. I learned alot & can't wait to get her feed back on my photos. A few more to come. So check back.

Working hard on these photos as it's a short week and I am headed to Rodanthe for a much needed vacation.

ALERT!

Come visit me tonight! I will be attending & showing some pieces at the Academy of Arts http://www.art-academy.org/ Fence show tonight 5-8pm Alot of great talent local photographers (from the Tidewater Camera Club) & painters from all around the shore.

THE BOTTLE GUY'S TREASURES

I love dragonflies but can never seem to get a picture of them. They're too quick.

Not the greatest shot in the world but I love the colors, and the keg.




Mixture of stuff he put together on another building.

I just liked this old kerosene can, the bright blue againist the color of the leaves.

This Dr. Pepper sign was off of an old building someone was tearing down.

In pretty good shape for as old as it is.

This is an old store (soda fountain) he had moved to his home & plans to redo and live in

Section in the back with a black & white tile floor where after the store closed they would go back there and dance. Pretty neat!


While we were visiting my brother & family, Mike took me to "the bottle guy's" house. Ooh I have heard alot about him & his stuff so I was curious to meet him & his treasures. Despite it being 300 degrees out we climbed in and around all of his buildings & finds. We didn't have much time as Miss Maddie was fussy and sweat was rolling off of all of us.. but I think I could have dug around in there all weekend. Mr. Bottle guy gave me an old wooden pepsi flat & some really old pepsi bottle caps. Yes I am a little bit of a pepsi collector. I'll have to post some more photos from this adventure later.

Pirate Invasion Beaufort

Pirates!!

Portable VHS old as the hills borrowed from a friend = Lifesaver
Made the last hour of the 7 1/2 hour bareable

Thought I'd share a few pictures from our visit to Beaufort to see Mason Wade (my new nephew) It just so happened to be Pirate Invasion weekend in Beaufort. We arrived in Beaufort around 1130am after leaving home at 3am. And after lunch we decided to ride thru town and check out the Pirate stuff. We rode thru just as the pirate ship was in the harbor shooting iff cannon balls. Or make pretend cannon balls I should say. Apparently Beaufort is Blackbeard the Pirate's home town check out this site for more info:

http://www.blackbeardthepirate.com/ Pretty cool isn't it. The locals really get into the whole Pirate thing. I shouldn't say anything if I lived there I probably would too. Arr...