Love for Bald Head Island

How we love Bald Head Island. The obsession started last year, and we wondered if we would feel so strongly about the beach one year later? Yes! The island is beautiful, interesting, and fun, and I really loved everything about it.

I requested months before our Bald Head Island vacation that we start out our trip with another lunch in Southport at the Provision Company. My wish was granted, and this time Dad and Heather were able to join us! We dined on shrimp, crab cakes, conch fritters and lots of sweet tea while feeling the breeze off the water and watching the boats go by. It's really the perfect setting to get into vacation mode! 

The girls were so excited about the ferry ride this year. They had been randomly asking for months to go on a ferry ride. We'd be confused and say, "where"? And they'd say, "Bald Head Island!" like it was so obvious. I have to admit the ferry ride does add a lot of anticipation to the trip. I love leaving your car and worries behind in Southport and heading for that charming island by boat.

Besides the ferry, their bunk beds were the other most-talked-about part about our upcoming vacation. We had decided that Addie was old enough to handle sleeping in a big girl bed for the first time on this trip, and the girls had already planned for Collins to sleep on top and for Addie to sleep on the bottom. 

We set everything up, and then Addie was a disaster in the bed. She rolled around, played with the blinds, climbed out almost immediately, kept yelling for me, and kept Collins from falling asleep. It became evident pretty quickly that we were wrong- Addie was NOT old enough for a big girl bed! 

Luckily, the beach house had an extra crib in storage so Addie got demoted. But I should have realized this was a preview of what was to come. Addie slept terrible the whole week- she woke up about 5 a.m. every day and would wake up Collins too. It got too stressful, so luckily Al accepted Collins as her new roommate (she had bunks in her room too). 

Brian was a trooper and would get up with Addie early in the mornings. On one particularly bad morning (she had thrown a tantrum about something), he literally ran out of the house with her screaming and whisked her away in the golf cart (in an effort to not wake the whole house). They showed back up at the house later with Addie and her watermelon nightgown covered in chocolate muffin. :)

Because our house, "Lost at Sea" was ocean front, you would think we would spend all of our time on the beach but strangely enough, we did not. It was so convenient to just pop out to the beach, but there are so many other activities at Bald Head that we wanted to try. Despite our "busyness", we still got some good beach time in...sometimes even in the early mornings in our pajamas. 

I love the ocean on that side of the island- the water is always sparkly, there are always lots of boats to watch going by, and the waves were manageable for the girls. I was a little concerned about sharks (had heard some talk that there were a lot at Bald Head) but luckily there were no fin sightings. And the girls loved just running out to the beach on their own!

Climbing to the top of Old Baldy was a must-do on our list of scheduled activities at Bald Head. This year, we decided Addie could handle the challenge too. Of course that meant that she took about 10 steps of the 108 to the top and Brian carried her the rest of the way. But she was still pretty proud of herself that she made it to the top! It really is an amazing 360 degree view from up there.

I adore the little chapel next to the lighthouse. This is the view from the back...

and from the front.

There weren't that many bike rides this vacation because it was much more fun (and easy) to travel by golf cart! The girls got attached to the same pink golf cart from last year, "Tweety Birdy," and the rest of us had to make do with "Chicken Armpit". :) But a traumatic thing happened the night before we left...we had all piled into Tweety Birdy and were headed home from the marina when she came to a complete and total stop. We were stranded! The girls got very upset that Tweety Birdy was sick, and that they weren't able to say goodbye to her the next day because she was in the shop. I am not kidding...they loved that golf cart!

I'm pretty sure we explored every inch of that island by golf cart. And when weren't trying to find a cool new spot, we were just having fun tooling around...

We heard that there would be a turtle release into the wild while we were there. We didn't want to miss that! We headed down to the assigned beach access and waited for the "show" to begin. The girls took this opportunity to jump in the tidal pools/ocean full clothed...

You can tell turtles are a big deal on this island because there were a ton of people there to watch. The turtle conservation workers know when to expect the hatchings and dig down into the sand to find the nests. Then they bring out the babies for everyone to see and then release them to the sea...I mean how cute are these guys?

Not a good picture, but here are the little guys heading towards their home. We were all cheering them on when a couple of sea gulls swooped down and tried to grab the baby turtles! The crowd gasped and started shouting at the birds to scram, and eventually the bird who had picked up the turtle dropped it. But we were all a little traumatized at this point and decided we couldn't watch this delicate process of survival anymore. 

As we were walking back to the golf carts, Collins astutely pointed out, "It was quite alarming when those birds dove down to get those turtles." :) Truth, Collins!

We also spent time exploring the other end of the island. We headed to "the cape" to hunt for shells and cool pictures. 

We also tried to walk to the northern-most point of the island. Turns out, it's a lot farther away than it looks, but it was a beautiful and raw stretch of beach that was really fun to explore. The girls didn't make it too far, but had a good time playing and acting silly.

Kayaking was so entertaining last year, we decided we had to give it another try this year. And why not throw Collins and Addie in the mix? Not risky at all. :) But guess which pairing of Brian/Collins/Addie, Dad/Heather, Brooke/Alli "won" the race around the marshy loop? That's right, the boat with the little girls! Collins really showed her competitive side upon our return. We asked her what she thought of kayaking, and she said, "It was hard because I wanted to eat my peanut butter bar, but I wanted to win more." :)

Of course, Collins wanted to be at the pool any moment she wasn't on a golf cart or a bunk bed. We all agreed it was a good option...

especially when we discovered poolside dining.

Poppy had the good idea to spend one morning having a photography contest. We all got out our devices (Collins really got into taking pictures on her iPad on this vacation) and hopped in the golf carts. In perhaps the most complicated rules concocted ever, the contest began and ended with many laughs and one winner later...Collins! Still not sure how she beat the professional photographer, but she was pretty proud of herself.   

Addie took this one with my phone...impressive right? 

and this one...

And there was the daily entertainment at our own house...watching the big barges come in and out of the Cape Fear River. Brian educated us all about the pilot boats and how the operation works. I was fascinated by the whole thing for some weird reason. We chased one of the ships as it was heading back out to sea and got to see it up close and personal. So cool! 

At the house, there was also lots of deck running...

lots of bubbling...

and even a dramatic medical emergency one night. I made the mistake of breaking a wine glass earlier that morning and then putting the broken glass in the trash can. I wasn't even thinking when Brian offered to take the trash out after dinner. He came back upstairs with blood everywhere. It was so scary! He had cut a huge gash in his knee, and it seriously looked like a murder scene. 

Al and I made a run for the grocery store for bandages and antibiotic. Talk about one crazy ride...in our haste/panic, we couldn't locate any golf cart head lights and took off in the dark into the scary forest. It was terrifying! We finally made it to the store and got the supplies, and headed back (pondering our celebrity sighting which Al finally figured out was comedian Jim Gaffigan thanks to her social media stalking skills). I might have run off the road a couple of time, but we made it only to find out that OF COURSE every golf cart has head lights. Hmm...mental note for next time. Brian was okay, but it was a bad cut and it took a long time to heal. The girls were very interested in the whole medical drama the next morning (with Collins needing to document the moment with her camera). 

We already knew that our spot on the island made for incredible sunset viewing each night. But thanks to Addie and her inability to sleep past 6 a.m., we also saw some pretty fantastic sunrises. 

And don't let us forget there was ice cream, lots of ice cream (and ice cream sandwiches).

I made the tough decision to leave a night early because of a wedding I was attending in Asheville the next day. So the girls and I packed up and headed towards the ferry Friday night. But turns out I forgot to check the ferry schedule and made the wrong assumption about when it would leave. But lucky for us, that gave us extra time for pictures by the lighthouse. :)

Turns out, it was not easy for Collins to board that ferry to come back. She kept melting down and could not pull it together as we headed towards the boat. Turns out, that was a hard way to say goodbye to everyone. She eventually got distracted by taking pictures with her iPad and was okay. 

But I get it. Bald Head Island is not an easy place to leave. It's been a month since our vacation, and Addie is still asking to go back. Whenever Addie pretends to drive someplace, we ask her where she is going and she responds, "Southport!". Dad and Heather, we can't thank you enough for a wonderful week on our special island! We could not have loved our vacation together more!

And for the grand finale of this VERY LONG post, I wanted to add Al's photos from the trip. As always, they are amazing!