My conference ended at noon on this Thursday, and I quickly made my way back to the hotel to gather up the family. But first, ordered some amazing croissant donuts (Like Krispy Creme and a Croissant had a baby) they had at the conference marriot hotel to take back for pre-lunch snacks. Magan and the girls had everything pretty much packed up on a roller cart and ready to go. So we checked out and headed to the beach for the rest of our vacation. This was my plan from the beginning when I heard that this trip aligned with Spring Break. The girls loved the one night at the beach we had last year, and I wanted to take them to Oak Island, NC, where I had worked for a couple of weeks at a Duke nuclear plant a few years before. I remembered taking a 30 minute drive from the plant down to the beach passing some villas along the way, and said...I want to bring the family here one day. That trip is in the blogs titled "North Carolina", but because Belle and I had recently read Nicholas Sparks book "Safe Haven", I also wanted to share with the girls some of the places it was filmed in Southport. Our only stop on our travels was at a KFC for lunch, and while the food was pretty good, the water tasted like dirt.
Our beach villas were through VRBO, and it was a nice two bedroom two bath condo with a balcony view to the ocean. Perhaps not the newest or most luxurious, but I wanted something on the beach close to Southport, and this place was perfect. It was tho three floors up with no elevator, and no luggage carts, so it took a while to move in. And it was the exact villas I remembered passing and wanting to stay at many years before. Once we entered, we immediately made use of the clothes washer and dryer, then started getting ready for a couple of hours at the beach before the sun went down.
The water was freezing, but the sun was out and the temperature was in the 70s, so it was not too bad. We wrote our names in the sand, we walked to the pier for a picture, me and Ruby raced along the beach (She won, and as Belle told Magan, my knees were hurting later), and I started a running joke of writing IPN2DC in various places on the sand. I knew Ruby wanted to get in more than just our toes, so we finally walked out into the ocean, and then I committed and jumped in....WOW, it was cold. But I then "committed" Ruby, by throwing her in with me. I don't mind the cold water and waves, and we had a good time...as long as I know the next step is going back to the room.
Next, we headed into Southport (about 20 minutes away) to see the restaurant filmed in the movie Safe Haven. Safe Haven (2010) by Nicholas Sparks is a romantic thriller about Katie, a woman fleeing an abusive, alcoholic Boston police husband, Kevin. She finds refuge in Southport, North Carolina, building a new life and a blossoming romance with widower Alex Wheatley. When her past tracks her down, Katie must fight to protect her new family, discovering trust, love, and a supernatural connection along the way.
That night for dinner, we headed to the bar where "Katie" worked in the movie. It was pretty cool to see it, then walk around to the bar area featured in a few key scenes. I took a picture of the girls, but inside was super happy when Belle asked for a picture of just me and her. She read the book first, and then waited patiently for me to finish. And the ending was a bit mind blowing and really the best part of the book. I still remember us screaming together at the end as I ran out of the room to tell her I finished. We later watched the movie with Magan, and since Ruby had not seen it, we plan to watch it while at the beach again.
The bar tho was not a good family place, so we went next door to the Frying Pan restaurant for dinner. Ruby had been saying she was so tired of fried food, then we all laughed that we came to a place called Frying Pan. .We laughed alot that night, mainly with a sudden move hurting my ribs. Magan said that Nanny called that a "liver flip" and I have always described it as my "fat rolling over my ribs", in either of those cases, it is funny unless it is happening to you at the moment. I ordered the Safe Haven platter, and the young server said that "I think that is a movie that was filmed around her somewhere". He looked like he was probably Davis' age and probably missed that one when they were filming. Before heading back to the condo, we stopped at walmart to pick up a few things, one of them being some of the frozen sour grapes that Belle said we should try. Well I did, and magan captured my face in the dark picture below. No No No...if someone says you should try these...how bout you don't. Wow, that was sour.
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