The Hubster and I headed to the beach at the end of July for a quick vacation with his family.

We’d all been super excited to spend some time at my brother-in-law’s new hometown. It got a little crazy when my dad got sick and we weren’t sure if we were going to make it, but we were able to go and it was the perfect way to relax for a few days.

We decided to take the backroads to the beach and the views did not disappoint!

West Virginia is beautiful!

When we got into Carolina Beach, we met up with everyone at Celtic Creamery.

The Hubster got this sundae that had apple pie and ice cream and caramel sauce.

He was a happy guy!

Our house was right on the beach and listening to the ocean every day was one of my favorite parts.

After a day spent at the beach (where I apparently took zero pictures), we got ready for a low country boil.

The guy showed up with all the stuff, a table included, and started on this giant seafood dinner. Right in our own yard!

I’m not a huge seafood fan, but on my gosh, this food was amazing!

I pretty much ate all the potatoes and corn and cole slaw.

Vacation me was a happy girl.

I even got to share in the kid cocktails! 🙂

Carolina Beach has a really cool aquarium that we all went to visit for an afternoon.

I love seeing sea turtles.

All I could think about when seeing these jelly fish was that scene in Finding Nemo when Dory bounces on them.

And they have a nature preserve outside, so we got to hang out with this bald eagle!

There’s a pretty nice arcade on the boardwalk and I got to polish up on my skee-ball skills.

Man, that game is addicting!

Some of us were really really really excited about how many tickets we were winning.

But of course, we didn’t win enough for the big prize – a scooter.

We did get enough tickets between 8 adults and 3 kids to win more than just a few tootsie rolls and stickers. However, the stuff the kids did end up with probably cost about $30 at Walmart. Let’s just say we spent a lot more than $30 on tokens.

But hey…vacation.

On our last night at the beach, we headed into Wilmington for dinner.

We found this spot on the water and it gave me such Dawson’s Creek vibes.

Which was filmed in Wilmington.

So next time I’m down there visiting, I’m going to force The Hubster to take a Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill sightseeing adventure with me.

I’m sure he’ll be thrilled. hahaha

I’m the luckiest to get to be an aunt to these adorable girls.

On our way back home, we stopped for dinner in Mt. Airy, which is the inspiration for the Andy Griffith Show.

Oh my gosh – the town was adorable. It had about 8 million ice cream shops and I’ll never complain about that!

Just ran into Barney Fife in town! 😉

And that wraps our super quick trip to the beach!!!