OCEAN ISLE PART I: THE SOUND

I had never been to Ocean Isle in North Carolina before, but a friend introduced us to the place and that friend and four other families somehow managed to get ourselves down there altogether at the same time for a getaway. It felt miraculous that we were there together because all of us have busy schedules, jobs, kids, but somehow we made it work and I am so glad we did.  It was relaxing, soul restoring, and made me even more grateful for the friendships that I have. Going through photos of this trip I realized that I have a lot so I am warning you all in advance, there are going to be a lot of post with trip photos coming up. 

I first wanted to share some photos of the sound. The house we stayed at was right on the sound, across the street from the beach. Essentially, the houses in this area are on a strip of land and the beach is on one side and the sound is on the other. Being on the sound side was incredible. We got an awesome view and we got to see the scenery change as the tide came in and then went back out again throughout the day. When it was low tide, enough land surfaced so that we could go walking around, and when the tide was high we could take rafts and kayaks out.  I think my favorite part of the day to see the sound was in the very early morning. I posted a picture of what that looks like in my previous post;  it was slightly grey and misty, ethereal and mysterious. 

The first thing we did when we got to the house was to explore the sound. Sloane never wanted to go too far out (there was a crab that pinched her toe on her first venture out) but other families with older kids went hundreds of yards out and got to see deer footprints, birds and all sorts of rocks and shells. Closer to shore, we got to see hermit crabs, blue crabs and their babies, and patterns in the mud. I miss waking up and going to sleep next to this beautiful place.

The crab that gave Sloane a nip in the toe!