1st Vacation of 2009

Jon and I have determined that we're not week long vacation people....not that we don't relish time away from work and "the grind"- but we seem to have the most fun in short spurts. Our 1st spurt of 2009 started on Friday.

Jon has these wonderful memories from his childhood of going to Topsail Island and hunting for sharks teeth. He has a gallon bag saved all these years full of them and Cooper has been obsessed for a few years. His obsession was fed last year when they had a "shark tooth dig" in his kindergarten class. Cooper was a star "archaeologist" and helped other kids to find the teeth- his teacher said that she'd never seen a child be so determined to find something as he was.

We found a hotel that allowed dogs, set our new GPS for the course, and told Cooper that we were leaving on an adventure. The look on his face was priceless- the first of many on our journey.

We traveled to Wilmington, NC and took a tour of the USS North Carolina. Another childhood memory of Jon's. I love that he remembers things like this- and that he's willing to share with us. We talked a lot about his mom and dad- and I think it helps to keep them real for Cooper.

The ship was enormous and since we arrived towards the end of the day, there were no crowds and we had the ship almost to ourselves.




I've decided that there are too few pictures of me- and although I'm so not photogenic, I do really want there to be at least some proof that I exist. I've been working with Jon and his photo-taking ability. I think this one passes the test.


We left the ship and headed to our hotel. Nothing fancy- but it was comfortable and clean and suited us just perfectly. Traveling with a dog is tough- but she's getting old and we wanted to take her to the beach with us. She was also a fantastic back seat companion for Cooper- they made us laugh on the trip south! We ate along the rivers edge and then walked on the boardwalk with Savannah in tow. The weather was perfect for an evening stroll- and with our day complete we let Cooper in on our plans for Saturday- hunting for sharks teeth! Another priceless look and a squeal that I've never heard before. It doesn't get much better.

We had a slow start....but once he found his first the fun didn't stop!


I loved watching them search....



Even I found some!! It was addicting (just like Jon said it would be!)


This is my favorite picture. I love how this shows him so intent- he's defined his search area and the kid didn't move until he had picked over the whole thing. I also took my dad's old 35mm to experiment and I'm hoping that I'll have some other great ones. There is nothing like the light at the beach.


Our day came to an end as the light began to fade- the memories will be there always. We'll also have 91 sharks teeth and a collection of shells, rocks and sea glass to remind us.





We talked about what was the best part of the trip for each of us. Cooper said, "The parts that I liked the best were the ship, the hotel, and looking for sharks teeth. I had so much fun on our vacation". So did we buddy, so did we.