Finalmente in spiaggia!

Two weekends ago (wow, again too much work!!!!!! Not even time to write about this...), Lucas and I went together with our friends Marco, Antonella and their children Simone and Luca to the beach! On Saturday, Lucas and I woke up very early, in order to be at Oriental in the early morning. Marco and Antonella share a sailing boat that is kept in Oriental and so we met them there. It's about 3.5 hours east from Raleigh, and even if it was Memorial day weekend, we didn't find a lot of traffic.
After a nice swim and playing in the water of a swimming pool, and a nice sandwich + home made guacamole&chips lunch, we began the sailing! The boat is called 'pepper'. Here is one of the sails in the wind:
And the Italian flag waving to show that Italians were on board:
Marco was our able captain. I loved it. It was exciting and relaxing at the same time. I had a wonderful time watching them manover the boat, feeling the wind, and sleeping in the sun :)

In the afternoon, we relaxed again on the porch, enjoying the peace of the landscape and the funny things done by Simone and Luca. Then, Lucas and I went to our hotel, 'The Inn at Oriental'. It's a wonderful place. Anyone who wants to spend a night in Oriental should consider this place. The rooms are really nice, as you can see on their website, and it's held by a couple of wonderful people. They offered us wine and food that they were sharing with some friends (they live in the same place), and after we came back from dinner, that night, we had an interesting political discussion.. I enjoyed it a lot - maybe because we shared similar opinions. :)
In the afternoon, I went to Mass - I always like to go to Mass in different places, it's a way to know a little of the place where I'm visiting. In this case, I went together with the lady of the hotel, she wanted to go to the same church, by chance. It was interesting - I liked the priest's homely and it was nice to see that they sang and said parts of the Mass in Spanish, due to the high level of Spanish population.

The day after, after a wonderful American breakfast at our hotel, we left for the Outerbanks. I was so excited! For the first time, I could see this part of North Carolina coast, which is a unique environment in the whole world. The Outerbanks are stripes of sand just a few miles away from NC coast, and they move, pushed by the wind and the waves.
So, from Oriental, we arrived at Minnesott Beach and we took a ferry. I love ferries, I never used them before coming to the US, and they are just fun. So I took a lot of pictures, and here are some:
The cars on the Ferry
Our twin, going in the opposite direction.
Then, we arrived in Harkers Island, where we left the cars and rode on a skiff to get to the Outerbanks. Also the skiff was exciting!
The plan was, from there, to get a little truck and arrive to Cape Lookout, but unfortunately, there were not trucks available, so we decided we would just stay on the beach and enjoy the ocean on one side, and the bay on the other side.
So, let me show you something:
The ocean side. In front you can see one of the cutest birds in the world, it's so tiny and fast, and it eats little seafood when the waves retire, then runs away and is never caught by them!
The dunes, with seagulls in front.
The bay side. The water is much calmer. It was more fun to play with the children in it. :)

After we left the beach, Lucas and I went to have a nice romantic dinner in Beaufort. It's a beautiful little town on the bay, with a nice walk. We ate in a restaurant on the bay, wonderful seafood that inspired one of my next dinners, that I'll describe soon. :)

So, it was a wonderful break, during this stressful work period. I really want to go back now! Next time, we'll camp on the beach, and hopefully see the point of the island (Cape Lookout), where there is what Marco thinks is the best beach in NC.

If you want to see more pictures of this trip, go to my picture website.