Wayne and Erika Pfeiler

So I'm a bit slow to post this, but that's ok.

The weekend before Labor Day, we took a trip with Michelle and Phil to Carolina Beach State Park, just south of Wilmington, NC. It's about 2.5 hours from Raleigh along I-40. We got to experience the end of I-40, which was interesting... You're driving along and signs say the interstate is about to end, but the road doesn't. You just start to see traffic lights and the road become a four-lane highway.

Anyway, we got to the park and had a little confusion about how to rent a campsite. Erika and I had both separately called the park to get camping info, but we each were told a different story. The CORRECT way to do it is drive into the campgrounds, choose a site with a green numbered tag hanging on the post beside it, and bring that tag to the marina, where you can pay the $15/night fee. For the record, Erika was right, and I wasn't. We pay the fee, buy from firewood, and were probably the last customers before the marina shop closed for the night.

So of course, it's dark by now, and we need to set up the tents. I drive our car close to the campsite and leave the headlights turned on to give a little light. The tents go up, no problem. But it took a while to set up the tents, and I notice the beams from the headlights on the car look a bit more yellow than normal. So I try to start the engine, and sure enough, the battery's too low. Fine, we have jumper cables, we'll worry about it in the morning. We're all pretty tired so we get to sleep pretty early.

The next morning we load up the dogs and drinks and drive a little to the beach. They have lots of pay lots within easy walking distance. So we stop and pay $5 for one lot and walk out. Unfortunately, we should have read the sign first before paying to park, because this part of the beach doesn't allow dogs. Drat! So I talk to a lifeguard and find out there's another beach close by which does allow dogs. We drive over there and unload our stuff. This part of the beach was intended for car and trucks with a high ground clearance and four-wheel-drive. As we walk out there, we see a bunch of cars parked and people basically tailgating at the beach. It's kinda cool.

We get out in the water for a while, and give the dogs a chance to jump around in the water. Annie was at first interested, but I think the waved scared her. Erika carried her out once or twice and Annie just ran/jumped back ashore. I tried snorkling, but the water was way too murky green to see anything, and there were lots of kids surfing and not watching out for anybody else. I tried letting Annie walk up to the water on her own when Erika was wading. Annie got pretty far out (relative to her height) and then a lot of water came in and Annie was suddenly swimming. She seemed to do just fine - we'd never seen her swim before - and she headed back to the shore and proceeded to roll around in the sand.

It was pretty hot, so we didn't stay at the beach too long. We went back to the campsite, got some lunch and rested a while. Later we went on a short hike and saw some cool stuff, including a really big spider. We cooked dinner and stayed up late talking around the campfire.

The next day we cooked breakfast, packed up and headed home. It was a fun trip, but I'd suggest taking it when the weather's a bit cooler. Take a look at the rest of our pictures.