From the mountains to the sea

...and back again.

We've come home to a rainy, foggy day. And two 65-pound puppies that seem to have gained 5 inches in height in our weeks' absence!

There happened to be a sofa in the way when Samson sat down. 

The rain is making for a dark and drowsy afternoon. The dogs are spending it napping and even went into their kennel corral on their own. As you can see below, they're quickly outgrowing it. In fact, it's really only a technicality as they can both climb right over the back of that chair whenever they wish. (Which is exactly what they did several times while we were gone and my brother and sister-in-law were home with them. They apparently missed us and acted out like brats. To protect the house, we had our welcome home moment last night on the front lawn!) We only use the kennel for bed times and when all humans are gone.

We managed to fit a trip to the beach into our weekend. Wilmington and several beaches on the Outer Banks are about 2 1/2 hours from Sanford. We chose Kure Beach, which is actually the Fort Fisher State Recreational Area. It's one of my favorite areas because of the nearby historic Fort Fisher and the N.C. Aquarium, but the beach itself is perfect. The sand is almost white, it's pet-friendly, there is a regular park ranger presence, plenty of free parking, and it is overall just a very clean, natural beach. It wasn't very crowded, but this weekend marked the very beginning of the season. On the other hand, from my experience, this beach is never as crowded as Wrightsville or Carolina beaches that are further north. Here's a slew of pics:

The beach colors were a beautiful palette. I am pleasantly surprised at how well the beach pictures came out because the sun made the digital view screen on my camera useless. It has been many years since I've used the normal view finder on a camera! Too many years. I need to pull out my old Canon Rebel EOS that takes film. I just don't know what one of a hundred boxes it's hiding in.