Our Trip: Part NC

It is family vacation time! We spent Friday and Saturday driving from Michigan to West Virginia to North Carolina. We were very impressed by the beauty, greenness and hilliness of the Appalachians in West Virginia. (Remember we don't live in Utah anymore - just Michigan. Any sort of hill is impressive!) We stopped at the Raleigh North Carolina temple on the last leg of our journey for a bit of a break. It looks just like the Detroit temple.
After a couple days that included 15+ hours of driving time, we arrived in the Outer Banks of North Carolina to a beach house we rented with friends from NY and GA (actually we are all from Utah, worked for the same company and have relocated)! What a beautiful place and great company. Here are a few highlights:

An aquarium...
The beach...It was wonderful. The water was warm! (We still love Lake Michigan, but sometimes the 58 degree water just doesn't quite cut it.) The third picture is Briton in a hole. You can't tell from the picture, but it was just about as deep as he was tall. Natural containment.
Our friend, Marian, planned a treasure hunt for the kids. It was a lot of fun for them. Here they are posing along the trail and the second picture is the kids digging for the treasure. The shells you see were the "X" marks the spot.
On the last day we drove to Beaufort, NC. It is a historic resort-y town. Here we are at the maritime museum. Some members of the family were happier than others.
We posed for pictures while we were waiting for our lunch at this dock side restaurant in Beaufort. Unfortunately, we could've done an entire photo shoot while we waited for our (mediocre) lunch. We had a very nice view (and conversation) while we waited though. After lunch we got a picture of the 14 of us.
This was such a great trip! We had a marvelous and relaxing time and are so glad we could spend it with wonderful people! We are now in Washington, DC and will update soon...