"Water...I'll come to you."

Well, Adam finally had his second day off this summer. That's right, the SECOND. At least since summer school started back in May. If he has the day off of school he has to work, and vise versa. Since these special days are such a rare occurrence, we don't waste 'em. We were invited down to Kure Beach by our friends Jim and MaryJane, our hockey friends. They are in the process of purchasing an AMAZING beach front house, and decided to stay there to allow them time for a personal inspection. It passed with flying colors.
We went down Friday night after work and came back Sunday morning. We spent just the right amount of time out on the beach (not too long), went to the Fort Fisher aquarium with Harper, then, even coerced their kids to babysit while we had some adult time. It was the best 36 hours we've spent in a long time.
Harper is definitely a girl after her mom and dad. She enjoyed the beach a lot more from the balcony. She didn't like the dry sand, the wet sand, or that eerie water that attacks without personal consent. There were times of enjoyment during dads distractions and nap time, but the overall conclusion was....Harper is a lake girl. Nice, clean, friendly lakes, with boats, and docks, and water that you come to instead of it coming to you.
Along with finding one of Harper's dislikes, we happened upon one of her likes no...loves. We went to the aquarium on a whim, questioning whether Harper would have any interest at all, and she absolutely loved it. She was attempting this adventure with a bad nights sleep, teething, and barely a 30 minute nap, there was question in the air on the sanity of our decision. She was immediately cured of her funk the second we walked in and she saw a water fountain, the fish in the next room were just icing on the cake. She plastered herself to every window she could reach, face on the glass, even knocked over a couple of kids chasing a sea bass.

The Barones don't do anything small. Jim drove down in his truck, towing his flatbed which was carrying his jeep, his new Camaro golf cart, and their new scooter.

Adam getting a handle on the scooter.

We all had the best time on our adult night out. We bar hopped to some really interesting places (hiding the fact that we were all in our 30's with kids at home). This bar was a hole in the wall. You walk in the front door, to the back of the bar where they have a walk in refrigerator, and pick your beer of choice. You then proceed to seat yourself on one of the many lawn, rocking, upholstered, or dining chairs they have as furniture. It looked like a bad garage sale but was the coolest place.

Bye Bye ocean. You are so much prettier from here.