Carolina Beach Part 1: Donuts, cabanas and shin shields

Carolina Beach - photo credit Alisa :)

For Memorial day weekend Weston and I planned a trip to his grandparents adorable beach house in Carolina Beach with his parents, Teresa and David and close friends Jim and Alisa. The trip also included special guest appearances by my parents Dawn and Don and Weston's Aunt Kris and Uncle Dewayne and it was such a memorable and relaxing getaway. And so as I sit here with a significant dose of PBD - post beach depression - I am going to narrate you through the highlights. 

Weston and I arrived in Raleigh late Thursday night and his parents and my favorite little chihuahua Coco picked us up for the two hour drive to the beach house. We got there at about 2am, but I quickly woke from my coma as I walked through the front door. It is truly beautiful - so warm and inviting, just big enough to fit everyone, but still very cozy and charming. What a great location too - just a short walk from the sand and only a half mile walk to the boardwalk which is sprinkled with Carnival rides, seafood restaurants, dive bars, an awesome fishing pier and the best donut experience of my life.

An actual Britt's Donut - crack

Let's really bite into that donut comment (pun intended). I am not a huge donut person. Not even the Krispy Kreme hot light really does it for me. Will I eat donuts? - of course. But there's not a whole lot of sugar confections I wouldn't eat, so that's not saying much. But then I had a Britt's Donut - the #2 donut in the nation, and I became a born again donut-enthusiast. This crispy on the outside, warm and doughy on the inside, perfect ring of heaven is truly a dream. Unlike a Krispy Kreme they don't have that overly sugary after-taste - instead they perfectly frost the golden brown surface and with one bite the initial crunch melts in your mouth. Which might explain why I justified having literally 7 donuts during the span of the trip. But I could have totally Man v. Food 3 dozen with a smile. Britt's donuts should definitely be on everyone's bucket list, sweet tooth or not. It was a divine experience that I am woofing off at the gym every day this week. Good times, but so worth it.

Go get a snack - we both know your mouth is watering.

Okay - now that you are munching, let's continue with a less salivating topic - the weather! Despite an iffy forecast, the sun was shining the entire trip - not one drop of rain, which is a miracle at the beach, especially when a tropical storm is on the brink. The temperature was truly perfect - not too hot, not too cold, and just the right amount of wind. Okay - the wind was in fact questionable for a few reasons:

David's thoughts: Hm, that's one mighty birthmark

1. On the first day, the wind was a sunburn's most trusted accomplice, masking me from feeling any heat, and therefore allowing the sun to scorch me without notice until I stepped inside. And what did I find? That I accidentally neglected to sunscreen one very large bizarre section of my shin that ended up resulting in a self-diagnosed second-degree tomato-red burn pattern. David noticed this on the beach but thought I had one of those large birth marks and didn't want to comment - awesome. And so I had a cameo style burn pattern all down my right shin on the first day and had to fashion a "shin guard" and wear SPF 70 for the rest of the trip when exposed to the sun.

2. On the second day, the wind whipped up the sand like a dessert storm and laying out on the beach was kind of like being at war. I stayed out with my shin guard for a bit, but shortly after decided the sand attack was not worth the burn I was bound to get since the older I get the less I tan. And because the sun felt like a red hot on my shin.

3. We tried to put up a cabana on the first day for shade - which would have really helped prevent the "birthmark" situation. But the cabana was was pretty much on it's last leg to begin with and the wind did not help matters. By the end of the second day it slowly collapsed until we decided to abandon it completely and leave it on the beach as an ornament for all to envy.

But it didn't rain! So overall, hallelujah to that.

More tomorrow for Part 2 which will include stories of the parents meeting, as well as my first fishing experience on the pier! And I might talk about the donuts again, because they are just that remarkable.