Topsail Island (Part 2)

Now that you've read the boring part, our car trip there and practically every detail about our house, let's get to the good stuff, the beach!

We all loved that the beach was just steps from the house.  We also loved the non-existent crowds.  Pretty much the beach that was right off our steps was our little section of beach.  

This picture was taken off our deck at or near low tide (that's our line of chairs).  You'll see a picture later how far high tide came up.

What vacation do we ever take where we don't go souvenir shopping.  This vacation was no exception to that!  One store had an alligator you had to walk through to get inside...

There were a few more touristy type souvenir shops plus a couple of stores that sold fudge, Kristin was happy about that!  Both of the stores that sold fudge gave free samples too, as many as we wanted.

One time after shopping we stopped at the Soundside Park in hopes that we would get to see the swing bridge open on the hour.  It was right before 7:00 and we stayed until about 7:05 but the bridge didn't open. What a disappointment for Zach!  He did however get to play while we waited.

While I was waiting I snapped a picture of the bridge.  This is the bridge that decided NOT to swing open for us.  It was just not meant for us to see.

Since Zach really wanted to see it open I found a YouTube video of it to show him.  For all you here's a picture I copied off the internet of it...

Back to talking beach since that's where we spent most of our time...   The girls and I all had books to read.

Sometimes we would listen to music...

Other times we would just sit there...

Zach met some new friends from Ohio, Jackson who was 6 and Jacob who was 8.  He's playing football with Jacob in this picture...

Sunday and Monday were very hot so cooling off and drinking water was a must.  We were under a heat advisory with the temperature being high 90's but the heat index was 105!  The heat and humidity were bearable when sitting on the beach because we had the ocean breeze.

Of course staying in the ocean made us cool too...

Here's what our house looked like from the ocean side.  Not a big house by any means but it was perfect for our family of 6.  There was another small house to the right of us and then a bigger 2-story house to the left of us.

The hot tub was not just reserved for the evenings/night time.  The kids gravitated towards it during the day too.  I wasn't too fond of getting in a 104 degree hot tub during the heat of the day but whatever.  The view from the hot tub was fabulous!

I was in the house when Paul came inside and said we have a little friend outside.  I immediately thought of a snake and if that was the case I was taking the kids and moving to a different house!  Luckily I didn't have to do anything drastic like that because it was this cute little lizard.

It's a Carolina Anole and apparently it can change color from green to brown based on body temperatures and activity.  Green signifies activity and bright light.  This one is a male because it has a red dewlap (that thingie on his throat!)  We saw it a couple of times that week.  I don't normally like lizards but this one was cute.

We had a couple of rain/thunderstorms that week.  Quick little storms that blew in and out.  Paul was caught in one which was frightening at first but then he produced this rainbow.

I'm going to send him outside during storms more often!

Zach tried to produce a rainbow too but his was a little off.

By the time Zach tried it I could barely see the rainbow on my camera screen because the sky had lightened up and the rainbow was fading so I just had to guess.  Oh well, it's close.

One of the storms that came through produced a cool front so now temperatures were just in the upper 80's, lower to mid 90's with no heat index.  You could definitely feel the difference in the air.  We didn't have to go in the water quite so often and could sit for longer stretches on the beach.

For the most part Zach either played with his new friends from Ohio or he was in the water jumping waves.  He rarely played by himself on the beach.  Here's a few rare photos that I have of him playing in the sand.

We brought a football and frisbee to play with on the beach but the football got played with much more. Lauren and Paul tossed it around one day.

Another outing.  This time it was to look at some of the souvenir stores that were closed on our previous outing.

We stopped at some shoppes, fed the koi and then posed for a picture.

We mostly cooked dinner each night at the house but we knew we wanted to enjoy southern style BBQ one of the nights we were there so we picked up food from Surf City BBQ.  We got pulled pork, baked beans, fries and flatbread which was a fried cornbread.  It was delicious and surprisingly cheap!

We also had to have a seafood night so we found Surf City Crab Seafood Market.  We decided on tuna, salmon and snow crab legs.  While we were waiting Lauren and Zach looked through various shells they were selling.

Megan and Zach took a souvenir photo of them as crabs.

Zach took some quiet time to look at the water on the dock that was behind the market.

There are no parking garages to be found on the island but there is this really cool boat garage...

I just had to snap a picture of it while we were waiting on the seafood because it's not something you see everyday.

So the seafood is bought and Paul fires up the grill.

The tuna and crab legs were good but the salmon was amazing.  I seriously have never had that good of a salmon ever.  Too bad we got mostly tuna and only a little bit of salmon.  If we ever go back we're getting all salmon!

One night as the girls and I were watching a show on tv Paul and Zach were outside on the deck playing on the iPad.  See the view we had?  This house had the most amazing view of any house we've ever stayed at.

I mentioned earlier that you would eventually see a picture of high tide.  Well here it is.  This picture was probably just a little after high tide but you can see how high the water line got.

We always go out and eat at least once while we are on vacation, usually at an all-you-can eat type place.  I couldn't find any of those in the area so we chose to go out for burgers instead at Hwy55.

Zach's kids' meal was served in that cool car.  Oh by the way, the burgers were really good so if you ever happen upon a Hwy55 (it's a chain type place) stop and try it.

We're almost to the end of our week when Friday we wake up to rain.  Not just a little drizzly rain but heavy rain.  The rain stops early afternoon but it's still overcast when we decide to take a little road trip.  We really had no idea where we were going, just headed towards Wilmington, NC.  We thought about visiting the zoo but since they close at 5:00 and it was already 3:00 we ditched that idea pretty quickly.  We ended up exploring...

This was another place I researched and a was a possible vacation spot for us.  It's a little pricier than Topsail and I couldn't find anything reasonable for us so I ended up ditching that idea.  I'm glad I got to see it though.

It's a much wider beach and most likely more crowded though you would never know it the day we were there due to the weather.  After checking out the beach we visited a souvenir store and then it was time to head back.

Can you believe that I never once took a group picture of the kids on Topsail?  I now have one of the kids standing on Wrightsville beach so I can't go home without one of them on Topsail.  So the first thing I did when we got back to the house was to get everyone to pose for me.  

The first thing I had wished I had done instead was have everyone change their clothes so the pictures look different!  Oh well.

Thankfully there was no more rain that evening and we got to enjoy the hot tub one last time.  Actually, even if it had been raining I think we would have still all gotten in it.

What a fun morning it was packing up the car Saturday in the rain. This is the first house we have stayed in that didn't have parking under it so there was no protection from the rain.  We ended up not using the top carrier for the ride home, just the back carrier.  Here's a picture from the sun room.

The inside of the car was a little more crowded this time but not unbearable.

During the first part of our ride we encountered a massive downpour.  You could barely see the rode, some cars put on their 4-way flashers, others pulled over.  It was terrible.

The downpour maybe lasted 5 minutes but there was rain off and on for the first couple of hours before we finally got out of it.  Once again our trip lasted about 9 and 1/2 hours due to traffic and a couple of stops.

I'm not sure I like the distance of going to Topsail Island but I do really like the quietness of the place.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves and it was nice to get away from everything, no cleaning, very little laundry, not fixing anything.  Just sitting on the beach and listening to the sounds of the ocean.  Very relaxing! It's similar to the Outer Banks but with less people and not as many things to do/see.   If you want strictly a beach vacation then Topsail is the place to go.

Oh, one last thing I want to mention before ending.  How many of you were pronouncing the place we stayed as "Top Sail?"  If you want to sound like a local you need to pronounce it "Tops'l."  You'll fit right in if you do!