Sweet Getaways.

So this post is long long long overdue, but I saw these pictures and thought I would recount our little getaways from this summer.

One thing I really love about living in North Carolina is the fact that there is quite a bit to do within a drive-able radius. I mean, obviously the ideal situation would be to live just outside a large, cultural city on a mountain overlooking the beach (Barcelona? Monte Carlo?). But that probably will not happen anytime soon. So for now we can make due with driving a few hours to the beach or an hour to the mountains, an hour to Charlotte or 5 to D.C.

This summer, in lieu of a crazy vacation extravaganza like last year, we opted to go to Hilton Head Island, S.C. and stay a nice hotel on the beach, which, funny enough, we had never done before. Why did we always think paying $20 less to stay NOT on the beach was a good idea? Don't ask me. We won't make that mistake again!

The trip was basically awesome. We could lay in bed and see the ocean. We could walk downstairs, out by the pool, and then into the sand. We didn't have to search for hours for a parking space. The hotel actually gave us a $100 credit to eat on-site at their restaurants, which were great.

We rented bikes and rode along the beach to the main shopping area.

Eric went crazy on some crab legs.

It was the perfect relaxation trip after a long summer of work.

[Views from our room]

Labor Day weekend we trekked over to Blowing Rock, NC (which we visited again with my parents in October). The actual "Blowing Rock" was kind of a letdown. You pay $6 to see this [very small compared to the pictures] rock. Supposedly you can throw something off the rock and it will come back up to you boomerang-style. It didn't work for us. At least the view was pretty though!

The town of Blowing Rock (not to be confused with the actual rock) was REALLY cute, however. It has a lot of little shops and restaurants, pretty stone churches and buildings, and was just a fun place to explore. 

Not too bad for a day away, right? Hopefully we can find more [places and time] to explore soon!