Not long after coming home from Colorado, we celebrated The Daughter’s first college graduation — Associates Degree is complete! The next weekend, the van was packed and we were on the way to the lovely Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina. This has been our go-to beach for years and years and we couldn’t wait to return for another week of fun in the sun.

A couple of days before leaving, I got a call that our rental home wasn’t going to be available for our stay. 😱After a couple of minutes to process what was happening, I hopped online to find a replacement. It was nothing short of a miracle that there was a fantastic option still available and we had it secured within an hour or so. Phew! Crisis averted. Just a brief panic attack, no biggie.

Arriving at Ocean Isle is like coming home every time. The familiar sights driving into Shallotte, going over the bridge to the island, and then looking at all the house numbers until you find this year’s home base… gotta love it. We hit the jackpot with the last minute house swap. The original one was being renovated and the renovations were running late, thus the reason to have to move. Our replacement was just about a block from the original but the replacement was oceanfront! In all the years we’ve gone to Ocean Isle, we have never stayed oceanfront and it was divine! S-P-O-I-L-E-D now! 😎

So the house. Oceanfront. Very newly renovated and beautiful. Six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a gorgeous view of the beach, and three outside cats! We are all a bunch of huge cat fans and to find three beauties hanging out at the house was a treat! You can bet they were well cared for during our stay with a big bag of food left for the next guests (I hope they did their duty!) The bedrooms were huge, ours had a king bed and a full bed and still had room to walk. With everyone having their own room and bathroom, it was plenty of space and then some for our party of eight. Technically the house sleeps 22 guests but that’s a whole lotta people to have in the same space for a week. Being able to get up in the morning and walk down our own path straight to the beach was incredible. Then coming back to the house afterward and having our own gazebo to drop our supplies and a few different outside shower options was so nice. The homeowners really thought of all the little things that help you have the best time possible. My only real complaint? The refrigerator, lol. It was one of the side-by-side style and it just didn’t hold much. I can’t imagine 22 people using that fridge, that’s for sure. The eight of us had it packed full. If that’s all I had to complain about, then I’d say we were doing pretty good. 🤣

We had several nice meals out, probably my faves were Lucca in Shallotte and The Boundary House in Calabash. Lots of Sunset Slush italian ice was consumed by our crew too. The Town of Ocean Isle has been working on a fabulous new town park and it had the grand opening right before our arrival (what timing!) and we enjoyed visiting that a few times. It is a great space for families and groups to come together for some playtime on the climbing and zip line equipment, at the bocce ball court, in the fountains at the splash pad, or at one of the performances or festival events. Kudos to the town for putting that in. When we visited a lifetime ago, that spot was where the Ocean Isle Beach water slide was located and it has been gone for years. I’m happy to see it being used for the new generation of visitors.

Another wonderful beach getaway is in the books and we already have our time (at that house!) reserved for next year. Can’t wait to be back at OIB!

xoxo,

Amber