Wrightsville Beach, NC

Our friends, Kevin and Heather invited us to join their family at the beach for a couple days this week. We were only planning on spending one day, but when we got there, we forgot how much we missed the coast and decided to make arrangements to stay an extra night.


We took the kids to the beach right after checked in to our hotel. I couldn't help but try to figure out all of the differences between west coast beach VS east coast beach. There were a lot of differences to my surprise. The first thing I noticed was the sand and what they call "sea oats". There's a lot of the same sand we're used to in SD, but when I got closer to where the tide came in, I noticed that the sand was made up of lots of really tiny pieces of smooth rocks and shells, and they really did look like "oats".



Another thing I noticed was the difference in vegetation. There was a lot of long grass and banks of sand.



It stayed about 70 degrees while we were there, and although the kids didn't mind stripping down to their suits, we kept our sweat shirts on for most of the time. That didn't keep us from hanging out there for most of the day! There aren't as many shops as there are in SD, and it didn't seem like there's as much partying, but I think the college kids all come out more in the summer time.


The biggest similarity of both east coast and west coast is, hands down, the "BIGNESS" of the ocean and God...and the way I feel so small when I'm there! Amazing!


There were a TON of surfers. I would say these guys are pretty die hard, considering the water was 10 times colder than the COLDEST beach water in SD.



The kids played really well together, and we even had grown up time after the kids went to bed!




To make the trip even better than it already was, Heather found this surf shop with TONS of stuff on clearance since it was off season!! SOOO cool. I got a ton of stuff for NOT a ton of money!!

Here are a few more pictures of the boys and the view of the harbor from our room.








We had an awesome time at Wrightsville beach this week. We're hoping to make the same trip at the same time every year! The ONLY thing that would have made our trip better than it was is...my Riley boy. I miss him so much and am so glad he's coming home next week!