Memorial Day Weekend with Mom

For my Mother's birthday in January, my father gave her the gift of a trip to come to North Carolina to visit us! When we heard the news we were elated and over the past few months we worked on arranging the perfect time for her to visit and the details of how to make her stay memorable.

She finally came a few days before Memorial Day to get a firsthand look at our lives in rural North Carolina. We eagerly anticipated her visit and meticulously planned an itinerary to ensure a good time. The day of her flight she called to let us know that the weather in he Midwest was crazy and she was unsure if her connecting flight would leave that evening. There were tornado warnings, intense storms and the airport was looking more and more like a refugee camp. Despite all of that, her flight only arrived 3 hours late. Unfortunately for us, that put her arrival time around 3:00 am. On a school night.

The first few days were dedicated to rest and a tour of Oxford (where we live) and Henderson (where we teach). She enjoyed the Revlon factory store, Cookout, and plenty of time to relax while we were at school. Friday, right after work we headed out on our adventure to the beach. Anticipating overwhelming crowds and horrendous traffic at the more popular beaches of the Outer Banks and Wilmington, we headed to Atlantic beach. It was perfect.

The drive was less that three hours and we traveled on a highway, not a freeway so we passed through beautiful scenery, rural towns, and saw about 15 Bojangles restaurants. Our hotel was brand new - so new in fact that the road to get to the hotel actually passed through a gas station parking lot. No joke.

During our beach weekend we enjoyed fresh seafood, amazing weather and all of the perks of being on the coast. We spent most of Saturday on the beach. The sun was out, the water was warm, the sand was amazing and the waves were just big enough to knock us over. At one point we were all in the water playing in the waves, and we got further and further away from our spot on the sand. As we tried to make our waves back, fighting the waves, mom got knocked down over and over. At one point as she was being knocked and she exclaimed "I give up!!" I walked over, took her hand and we eventually made our way back to where we needed to be. It was hilarious.

Mom and I enjoying the sun at Atlantic Beach

The board walk in Beaufort - tons of sailboats!


Where we enjoyed an amazing dinner overlooking the Harbour


A town just north of Atlantic Beach on the Southern Outer Banks

Downtown New Bern, the town we stayed in

Mom and I after a day at the beach in New Bern

Enjoying the sunset in New Bern

Mom and I throwing the frisbee

Jackson with the "bee"

After traveling home we spent Monday in Durham and enjoyed a Bulls baseball game and walked around Duke Campus.

Mom and I at the Durham Bulls game

It was tough going back to work on Tuesday, but it was nice to come home and still be able to spend an hour with Mom before droppig her off at the airport. Mom, thanks for coming out! We had an amazing time and hope that you'll come back soon!