Down time

It has been a rough two weeks at work, so this weekend was a nice way to wind down and get some time to relax. Hubby had some work to do and couldn't get away so the girls and I drove ourselves down to Wilmington, NC. I had some work to do, finishing up intern training on Friday afternoon and a wrap up session on Saturday morning, but the rest of the time is free. It took us about two hours to drive down here. Normally, the drive takes about 2.5 to 3 hours, but surprisingly, even though it's the day before a long weekend holiday, the roads were free of traffic and what little traffic there was was moving speedily like everyone was in a hurry to get to the coast. So were we.
We got here at noon and immediately went to the beach for a quick lunch before I had to go to work. Our first stop is Robert's Market in Wrightsville beach where we got some munchies and drinks while we sat on the beach for a little while. Robert's is an old fixture in Wrightsville Beach where you can get a sandwich and if you're into surfing, can check on surf reports. It has this very beachy mural on the side of the building, and you can walk down this alley to the beach.

When we got to the sands, we found there were already quite a few people enjoying the sun. We found us a spot and had our lunch while listening to the waves and getting some sun. The clone wanted to go in the water and get wet, but we couldn't settle in yet as I had to go do a few hours work still. It was a nice tease, but we sure hated to get up and leave after our lunch.
If you noted, as my girls did that the beaches here are not as wide as others in the world, that is because Wrightsville Beach is a barrier island. It is an island that juts out from the mainland's coast. The intracoastal waterway runs in between the mainland and the barrier island. The beaches are subjected to erosion and are slowly getting narrower every year. There is a beautiful resort at the tip of this island that is in danger of being eventually claimed by the ocean.