Summer's Over - But First, the Beach!

Well, summer's officially over.  Hope you made the most of it!  Josh and I have been so busy lately, it definitely seems like the summer's flown by.  And unfortunately that's not because we've been having so much fun ...  So we decided to go out with a bang by heading to our friend's beach house in the Outer Banks over this past weekend. 

 

Josh still had to work Friday morning, so I spent that time doing some more unpacking, and mixing up some delicious brownies to share at the beach.  I used ground flax seed as an egg substitute, which worked out great, but otherwise followed the box instructions.  Even though it was just a box mix, people couldn't stop raving about the brownies!  I'll definitely have to make these again soon. 

 

At the beach we spent most of the time lazing around, which was just what we needed.  Josh surfed a bit, while I lounged on the beach and swam a bit.  Unfortunately, the currents in the Outer Banks are really strong, so I was too scared to do a whole lot of swimming.  But I certainly got some sun!  (Hopefully the burn on my back will fade soon ...)  And of course we also enjoyed some beautiful sunsets looking out over the sound.  We also ate a ton of burritos - thanks to a delicious deli a block away that puts french fries in the burrito!  Yum. 

 

Among other adventures from the weekend: me crashing a vespa, me crashing a skateboard, and giant waves crashing into me ...  Yeah, there was a lot of crashing going on for me :/  Lots of bruising going on.  Fortunately I had some beautiful scenery to make up for it. 

 

We also spent a while watching two guys get set up for kitesurfing.  It took them quite a while to get ready to go, but once the one guy was all set he really took off. 

 

It looked like a lot of fun and really made me want to try this sometime.  I'll probably crash pretty hard onto my face in the water, but it still looks great. 

 

The drive from Silver Spring to Baltimore (with stops to pick up others along the way) takes a really long time, so we stopped at Sonic both on the way to the beach and on our way home.  I felt pretty bad that I was missing out on their delicious milkshakes, but I made up for it by grabbing a strawberry limeade and tater tots on the way to the beach, and a lime limeade and pickle-o's on the way home.  Yeah ... the pickle-o's turned out to be a big mistake (as could easily have been predicted), but the limeades were pretty good (if not particularly lime-y either time). 

 

Plan for future post: vegan car snacks and better road-side stops!  Now I just need to plan another road trip ...