Bald Head Island

This year my mom got to visit us for two months in the spring. She arrived right before our spring break in early April, just in time for the weather to definitely be warming up. She leaves before the kids get out of school and life gets really hectic (with kids being home a lot of the time and me needing to pay more attention to them;)). 

This year, as a special day, I took her to Bald Head Island in North Carolina. We left around 8:30 am just right after Mark left for school and drove to Southport. Technically we arrived right on time for the 12:00 ferry (I read online that they go every hour on the hour) but it just so happened that they take a break at 12 pm for lunch, and so the next ferry was going to be 1 pm. And so we had to wait from around 11:30 am till 1 pm to get on the ferry....which was a bummer since we were going there for just a few hours anyway! 

The ferry is not cheap either, I think it was $22 roundtrip per person, and takes around 30 minutes. My mom was loving every minute of it which made it all worth it--crazy wind and all:)) 

Once we got to the island, I was one of the first people to get off and walk really quickly to the kiosk to rent a golf cart. See, there are no car traffic on the island, which is what makes it very special for visitors and a few people who actually live there. I was very fortunate that I was one of the first two people in line and was able to get a cart right away. Again, I had to get a cart for a whole day as the only other option was for 2 hours, and that wasn't cool. 

Let me tell you, it was my FIRST time driving a golf cart and I did great! We were dying laughing rolling around the island, backtracking and "getting lost" a bit on pretty much one road that goes around the island (I know! Who does that??) 

After a couple of hilarious attempts we got to one of the more remote parts of the island where we parked at a beach access and spent a few hours. My mom loves her fancy bright hat-hahaha.

My mom loves the beach! Loves it! She would live on the beach, if she could. She would probably swim in the ocean every single day if she could too. The problem with these beaches on the Atlantic coast is that most of the time we come, it seems, that the waves are kind of crazy and we end up just jumping in and out but not swimming at all. 

We walked down the beach....saw a bunch of huge jelly fish washed up on shore. 

People thought my mom was too brave to even try to get into the water. And it was COLD. This was the middle of May but for some reason this particular spot was colder than we expected. 

We had so much fun taking goofy pictures and some that are not! Laughing and laughing...my mom just thinks so many things I say are funny and I am funnier with her around too, maybe just using some of the special nuances of our language or remembering common memories. 

We had to give our golf cart back to the kiosk before they closed at 5:30, so we headed back to the port shortly after 4:30. We stopped by the Old Baldy Light House.

We got on the 6 pm ferry back to Southport and the found a beautiful places to eat for dinner. The view over the ocean was beautiful! 

I realize we drove there and back for the same amount of time we actually enjoyed the beach, but it was still a wonderful experience as we got to spend some quality uninterrupted time together.

Lyana.