A Girls Beach Weekend

Yes, I have really been missing in action. A week ago today, I was starting my day watching the sunrise over the ocean. Seeing the day begin made me even more grateful for a kind friend who invited 7 of us for a *girls weekend* at her beautiful beach house in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

The house (with its 8 bedrooms and 7 baths) is rented throughout the summer, but our friend and her husband make it their home from September to about May. So many homes like this are solely rental properties. So, how nice for them that they get to enjoy this beautiful and comfortable home with its ocean views, and how nice that we got to enjoy it too.

We were treated to the best of weather, and a trip to nearby Cape Hatteras to see the lighthouse that was given its famous black and white stripe daymark pattern in 1873. The Lighthouse Board assigned each lighthouse a distinctive paint pattern (daymark) and light sequence (nightmark) to allow mariners to recognize it from all others during the day and night as they sailed along the coast. (Who knew?) 

On another day we went to Rodanthe Pier to enjoy yet another ocean view. The weather was calling for clouds and rain, that certainly was not what we had. 

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Honestly, I just couldn't get enough of the ocean views. I took so many pictures with both my phone and camera.  

The weekend was truly a whirlwind of fun. There was plenty of great food, great conversations and being spent with friends, it could not have been any better, even if it had rained. But I'm glad that it didn't! 

**Photo below is our last night - dinner and a show watching the kite-surfers at sunset on Pamlico Sound. 

Finally .... Leaving Hatteras Island. This is why in a hurricane the island gets cut off, because the ocean is on the other side of the dunes. You can even see in one photo where a wave or two came over the top. 

The dogs were all in good spirits when I got home. But I was so tired and was glad that I took an extra couple of days vacation to rest up from this little vacation. 

The Weekends

Last weekend, Ophelia, a tropical depression impacted parts of the mid-Atlantic after its landfall early Saturday with heavy rain, strong winds and even some flooding. It put a bit of a damper on the annual Oktoberfest that the town that I live in has every year. 

Ophelia delivered about 3 inches of rain for us. The clouds stayed around through the week, but we didn't get much more rain and we're still in a drought and short about 10 inches of rain. 

I was off to the vet again with Iva to have her ears rechecked. The infection has cleared up pretty well, but not enough for the vet. So, Iva's ears were cleaned and 'reinfused' again with an antibiotic. Another recheck in 3 more weeks. 

We did get some good news, in that Iva has lost about 6 pounds since her last vet visit. Her diet of canned pumpkin, green beans, and a little bit of dry food is doing the trick. The vet was very happy with that, although I can't help but joke and hope that she didn't have a foot off the scale. 😊

I've not mentioned Todd much because I'll admit to being a little bit superstitious and I don't want to jinx anything. 

But he's had a couple of bumpy days this past week because he's been spending more time outside and he has loved every minute of it. However, I should have known better than to let him stay outdoors for hours at a time, because its triggered his allergies a bit, and he's had short bouts of sneezing and coughing - But thankfully it has been nothing like it was in the spring with his having a totally clogged up nose -- knock, knock, knock on wood that it stays that way.