Lisa Beth

Well, for those of you who are my facebook friends, you’ve already seen the rest of the Outer Banks Photo Album, so these next 2 posts might be anti-climactic, but I couldn’t wait to post the album on fb.  It was one of those, “think-of-it: do-it” moments.  So I will write some dialogue to maybe help keep it interesting for those of you who have already seen these images… and for those of you who have not… and have been waiting in suspense (haha), here is Day Three:

We woke up the next morning and saw this sight at the campsite next to it, and I couldn’t resist a shot of all the yuelings  I guess our neighbors enjoyed themselves last night! We enjoyed another sausage and pancake breakfast made on our little charcoal grill and packed up our tent to head North for our next stop:  Bodie Lighthouse.

There was much deliberation about whether it was pronounced “Boh-dee” or “Bah-dee”.  At the gift shop we heard someone ask the clerk behind the counter, and he said it was “Bah-dee” pronounced just like Body.  So there you have it, in case you were curious.

the Bodie Island Lighthouse was built in 1872.  It was not open for climbing, but this house was a museum and gift shop with original artifacts from past lighthouse days as well as tales of bravery and stories about the shipwrecks and rescues.  I bought 2 postcards here to mail to my parents My mom loves lighthouses.

This next stop was a “must see” for us.  Eric LOVES everything to do with flight and planes and would love one day to have his license and be able to fly his own plane.  And of course, our “first in flight” motto that is on all our NC license plates hails the Wright Brothers as something North Carolina is proud of.  It was only $4 a person to get in, which was a much better deal than $7 per person just to climb a lighthouse  We enjoyed a very informative and extremely animated presentation from a park ranger (who had a strong minnesotan accent, very fun) telling the story of the wright brothers and showing us a full-scale reproduction of the 1902 glider and the 1903 flying machine they built:

She did such a great job that I felt on the edge of my seat the whole time with rapt attention, like a little kid being told a story  She spoke of the perseverance of these brothers, and hearing their story really inspired me to not be so quick to despair or give up hope when situations seem impossible.  But rather to press on, and not give up and the end result will be all the much more gratifying and exciting and rewarding!

Below is a picture of me balancing like I’m flying on the strip where the first plane left the ground on December 17, 1903:

Then we climbed the long hill to the Wright Brothers Monument on top of Kill Devil Hill.  I chose to have my picture taken in front of the phrase “Unconquerable Faith” because that is what I was most inspired by them to have.  That is what I took away as a lesson from my day there.

Now, Eric never wants his picture taken, but when I saw this, I could NOT resist, and he –surprisingly–haha, let me take his picture in front of this:

His mom always called him her little “evil genius” when he was growing up, so I thought she would get a kick out of this too

Our next stop was to visit the Currituck Beach Lighthouse in the town of Corolla. We passed through the town of “Duck” on our way and I really thought it was quite quaint and beautiful and that I’d come back to spend more time there and visit again.

Here, Eric put his creative talent to work by taking a picture of the lighthouse in the reflection of a window of a house in front of the lighthouse.

It was nice to be able to take our time and relax and enjoy some front-porch-sittin’

We were taking our time, as we had nowhere to be until 6pm when we were meeting up with my friend Erin at a beach house that she had rented for the week while she was on her R&R break. (She is the friend who gave us her motorcycle… the one who is in the Army, and was deployed to Afghanistan for her 2nd time) She “just happened” to be on her R&R and to be renting a beach house on the OBX for her family and friends the same week we were going to be traveling through the OBX.  What a blessing to be able to look forward to staying in a beautiful beach house after sleeping in a tent for 2 nights

We had a few more hours to kill, so we stumbled upon this walkway through the marsh at the Currituck Park and out to a pier where we saw different kinds of birds and blue crabs too…

kind of liked this close up shot of a fuzzy caterpillar.  Then we followed signs and came upon this cute house/coffee shop type place that also sold home made goods, wines and cheeses.  It was fun to just meander to the next place and not really have a plan, just to go where the signs took us and explore and stumble upon these places as we went…

As you can see, Eric was LOVING this little photo shoot I was doing…

Well, I guess I’ll close and let that sign speak for itself:  ”Come back for more later”…. as I will blog the final Day Four of our trip to the Outer Banks and our last day enjoying time w/Erin and her family at the beautiful beach house…

Day 2 of our trip began with a pancake and sausage breakfast that Eric cooked up on our grill along with a fresh pot of morning brew  We didn’t really sleep well to be honest, because of the sand gnats that got through the mesh netting of our tent and bit us all night long  (well, I should say they bit ME because I was covered in bug bites, but Eric somehow came out pretty much unscathed by the gnats)  I guess you take the good with the bad when tent camping at the beach:  the good part being that we fell asleep to the sound of the ocean waves and we could see the moon glowing through the window of our tent.  The bad part being the bugs and the fact that we were really “roughing it” and had only our sleeping bags–Eric insisted on doing it ‘right’ and not bringing an air mattress or any kind of foam roll-up padding to put under our sleeping bags, so we kind of tossed and turned all night.

Eric braved the cold spigot showers, but I opted out of that showering option in hopes that our next tent camping site would have better shower ammenities  We took the short 20 minute ferry from the island of Ocracoke and headed up to Cape Hatteras to explore the light house there.

Cape Hatteras was built in 1870, and is the world’s tallest brick lighthouse at 198.5 feet.

We paid the $7 per person to climb to the top.  It was equivalent to walking up 12 stories and I think there were 200+ steps.

We continued North up the coast and decided that we wanted to spend our next night in Rodanthe.  Some of you may have heard of the Nicholas Sparks book, “Nights in Rodanthe” that was later made into a movie starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere.  We thought it would be fun to spend our 2nd night camping in that town, so we wanted to secure a site since we knew most places would again be mostly booked up and a lot of tent sites are first-come-first-serve.  But it seemed that every campground we stopped at was “No Vacancy”.  The only option was a KOA that was charging $65 per night for a tent site!! Highway Robbery!! (We paid $23 the night before in Ocracoke for our tent site)

We were starting to get nervous that we’d be sleeping in the car, when we found this family owned campground and they had only 3 sites left, and the price? $25!

We quickly made our reservation, and as we did, the friendly woman who checked us in invited us to come to a pig roast they were having that night on the water front.  She said there would be fresh caught shrimp and crab legs too–a real southern feast!!  We thought maybe we’d check it out and see how much they were charging per plate, but we had already decided that we weren’t spending any $$ on food while we traveled… we had planned and grocery shopped ahead of time to try to save money.  But maybe we’d swing by… I mean, it’s not every day that you’re invited to a water front pig roast and seafood smorgasboard!

Our tent site wasn’t nearly as picturesque as the last site, as you can see:

but the view of the sun setting on the sound side of the island was pretty:

But I’m getting ahead of myself! After showering in the nice HOT showers we went into the town of Rodanthe and parked our car next to the dunes near where the ‘famous’ beach house that was used in the filming of the movie “Nights in Rodanthe”.  We climbed the dunes…

…and headed over to check out the Rodanthe house.  We weren’t the only ‘tourist’ who wanted a picture of the house.  We met this nice lady who told us that she’s watched the movie 5 times

It’s crazy the way the foundation has been eroded away and the whole house appears to be on ‘stilts’

We laid out on the beach next to this house for a bit, and watched a group of people kite surfing.  I read some of my book, “My Life in France” –the story of Julia Child.   Then we decided to check out this wild life refuge we had read about in one of the brochures we picked up.  It turned out to be this beautiful nature trail that lead you through a wildlife preserve on Pea Island.  We strolled hand in hand along the trail and it ended at a look out with binoculars so you could view the birds and other wildlife in the marshes.  We sprawled out on the deck and laid in the sun just soaking in the peaceful sounds of nature and enjoying just being together, even though neither of us were talking.  It was SO restful.  Eric kept saying how peaceful it was there.  With how busy our lives have been lately with the opening of Hope Cafe and our new church, it was a much-needed break and so refreshing.

Then we wandered back to our car and went back into ‘town’ and enjoyed blizzards from DQ We went in search of a small portable charcoal grill since our campground didn’t have grills at each site, and we wanted to make s’mores and grill up the rest of our meat in our cooler before it went bad.  We tried to plan ahead and pack all our food so we wouldn’t spend $$ eating out.  We had pb&j sandwiches and carrots for our lunches  But even after 1 day of grilling, I was starting to crave other foods, but I knew that we had to be careful about spending.  For some reason, I kept craving potato salad, but when we went to the store to look for the grill, I decided to ‘be good’ and stick to our plan not to buy other foods so I passed up a tub of potato salad I saw at their deli.  God, again, provided another “last available”-type blessing when we go the last grill on a back shelf.  It seemed to be a theme this weekend…. last car on the ferry, last beach front site in ocracoke… one of the last tent sites in Rodanthe under $30, and now the last grill in stock!!  I continued to marvel at the small ways that were really a big deal that God was providing for our every need during this trip.

When we arrived back at the campground we cooked up the rest of the meat but started to notice that there was a gathering starting over by the pig-roasting pit.  We decided to meander over and check out the scene.  As we approached the gathering, a man came up to us and put his arm around Eric like he was his uncle or something… like we were family and had known him for years.  He told us to grab a plate and help ourselves to the feast!  I could have cried as I realized that these people were GIVING us a FREE feast!!  We later found out as we asked around that the man who had welcomed us in was Irvin, the owner of the campground, and that many of the people there were his family, but he also wanted to invite all the campers that were staying there that night to celebrate the end of the summer/Labor Day Weekend.  The pork was AMAZING! succulent pulled right off the pig from the pit! True southern cuisine.  I still felt hesitant, and then Irvin came right up to me and told me not to be shy! He directed me to a picnic table that was covered with sides and more food that his family and friends had brought.  As I browsed the options, all of a sudden I saw it:  a huge TUB of POTATO SALAD!!  It was at that moment that I paused and smiled and knew, as I scooped a HUGE helping onto my plate that God had placed it there just for me.  Eric and I took our heaping plates of free food over to the pier, and sat with our legs dangling, taking in the scene before us:  friends and family mingling and laughing and eating under the glowy lights that were strung up around the tents and tarp pavilions…. someone turning on some country music….. little boys playing and chasing each other around…there was a young man with downs syndrome who was a cousin of Irvin who started heartily singing Sugarland’s songs at the top of his lungs while happily swaying along with the rest of the crowd and I joined in along with him.  It was one of those moments where I wanted to run and get my camera to try to capture it somehow, but I knew that I should just try to take it all in and make a mental picture in my mind that I could bring to mind often, remembering the night that we felt we were a part of someone’s family after meeting them in 5 minutes.

Isn’t that how church should be?  Welcoming.  Music.  Open arms.  Food.  Acceptance.  Love.  Feeling like you belong.  Family.  Eric told me that it made him miss the days when he was a boy and his whole family would gather and there would be food and laughter and so many people.  He told me that he wants to come back to this campground every year now, and be a regular.  It was just something that drew you in.  Something you wanted to be a part of.  I was inspired by Irvin and his family and their hospitality.  It made me want my home to always be a place where people feel they can be themselves and come as they are and be welcomed with open arms.  This was actually a part of my wedding vows to Eric.

So Day 2 was pretty amazing.  Stay tuned for Day 3!!!

This year, for our 3rd Anniversary, Eric and I decided to tent camp our way up the Outer Banks!  We had SUCH a great time and such a wonderful adventures along the way.  I decided to blog about our trip up in 4 separate posts, so stay tuned for Day 2, 3, and 4 soon to come!

We left Garner at 5:30am on Friday morning and made our way to the Ferry that would take us to the island of Ocracoke.  We knew there was a 10am Ferry and the next one wasn’t until 2pm, so we wanted to be sure to allow enough time to get there and make the 10am.  What we did NOT realize was that you can make reservations, and with our trip falling on Labor Day weekend, the 10am Ferry was completely booked.  We found this out when we pulled in at like 9am.  Then we found out that the 2pm was also booked! So I began to pray that there would be some way we could get on the 10am ferry.  We were 3rd in line to get on if people who had made reservations didn’t show.  Well, God answered our prayer, and we were literally the LAST car that was allowed onto the 10am Ferry!

Our first priority once we got to the island was to find a tent site!!  We didn’t make any reservations ahead of time, as we kind of wanted to ‘wing it’ and find places to stay as we went.  Again, God provided the LAST ocean front tent site and we set up camp

As you can see,  our site was right in front of the dunes and a path that led straight to the ocean.

We went exploring in the quaint fishing village town of Ocracoke and saw our first of 4 lighthouses along the outer banks’ coastline

As we were walking along, we saw this General store, and Eric, seeing the sign, said that we should go in

So we did, and had a nice visit with Albert   Eric bought a rootbeer in a bottle, and I got a coke in a bottle and we enjoyed sipping our sodas while sitting on the front porch of the general store.

That night, back at our tent site, we made french press coffee over the fire in this cute blue teapot I bought.  Then we took our camping mugs full of steaming hot coffee,  a book to read and of course, my journal and our camera across the dunes and set up our chairs in the sand and enjoyed a relaxing evening, ending with a beautiful sunset!

I have been sadly behind in the blogging aspect of my life.  So many wonderful things have happened and been experienced since my last post, and I’d love to share a few of those with you.  For starters, a few weekends ago, Eric and I took a road trip up to Pennsylvania to attend the release party and book signing of “The Almost True Story of General Sherman”, written by our good friend Danielle O’Keefe and illustrated by her brother–also our good friend– Devon O’Keefe.  And published by Consumed Ministries.

So many of their friends and family came out to support them, and Devon and their other brother, Dustin actually wrote a song titled “The General Sherman Song” and performed it as well as some other of their original music.  Their younger brother, Dylan played as well, and before we knew it, other musicians that were bicycling by or walking by, stopped and joined in with them.  It was one of those experiences where we were all truly celebrating our friends’ accomplishment and it definitely felt more like a party than just an every day book signing.

Danielle’s Family had provided juice and an assortment of cookies for the guests, and they also had t-shirts made to give out to the first people who bought copies of the book.  The Party was held at GreenBeing, an eco-friendly store in downtown Scranton where all the items sold at the store are environmentally friendly.  Danielle wanted her book to be a “green book” and it was made from all recycled paper, so having the book signing at this store was very fitting.

Some of our close friends came by to see us while we were in town, and we all enjoyed lunch at a vegan bistro right next to GreenBeing.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the vibe was so chill yet there was this energy too… I loved just being able to be a part of this big day in their lives.  It’s so exciting to see people succeed and to see their talents on display.  To see hard work and creativity produce this end result product that the creators can be proud of, and that others can in turn, enjoy!  What a cool feeling it must be to autograph a book you’ve illustrated or written!

And to have the support of your friends and family, cheering you on, coming alongside you and celebrating who you are and how God has gifted you.

Today my husband turned 28.  I love birthdays and I love surprises, and so even though Eric doesn’t flip for either of these things, I got to experience it anyway by planning a fun evening of surprises for his birthday.  Of course, being Eric, he guessed each thing before it could actually be a surprise, but I pride myself in at least keeping it all a surprise until the actual day.

First event I had planned was dinner with a bunch of our friends at one of Eric’s favorite BBQ places down here in the south… Holy Smokes BBQ!

Then we all headed over to our apartment for dessert and coffee… but first Eric had to stop and admire our friend Bryan’s motorcycle

I was so excited about the dessert because one of Eric’s favorite cakes is German Chocolate Cake.  Well, I had mentioned this at work, and one of the dentists I work for said that she has this German Chocolate Cake recipe she’s been wanting to try.  She asked me if she could make it for Eric, so this morning, she brought it in to work for me, and I carefully transported it to my refrigerator.  It turned out beautifully and I couldn’t wait to present it to Eric.  Which we all did with a loud boisterous Happy Birthday Song while he blew out the 8 candles

Then the guys enjoyed some quality time out on our balcony smoking their cigars and pipes…

At one point during the evening, my friend Kelly and I looked at each other and smiled… we shared how it was just so nice to look around the room and see everyone interacting and laughing and to have our apartment filled with people.  I loved hearing everyone’s voices sing loudly to Eric and the happy look on his face being surrounded by such great friends.  I loved looking out onto the balcony and seeing him be able to laugh and enjoy relaxed conversation with some quality guys.

We SO much miss our friends in Minnesota, especially on Eric’s birthday when we had some very special birthday traditions with our friends there who shared his birthdate.  When I told Eric I had a surprise for him, he actually asked, “Did you fly out the Petersons and the Millers to have dinner together w/me on my birthay?!”  But I am so thankful to God for the way that He has provided us with some great friends here in NC too.  Rekindling old friendships and discovering new ones.

I love you, Eric Hosiah! I’m so blessed to be married to you and to spend your 28th year with you and see all the adventures God takes us on this next year!