Due to a competition at work, I ended up with July 3rd off as well as the 4th.  Matt and I both decided to also take Monday off so we could have a long weekend at the beach.  As the week started, a tropical storm formed off the coast.  By Wednesday it was headed for the beach but looked like it should pass by late Thursday and be out of our way for the weekend.

Thursday morning we woke up to discover the storm was ahead of schedule and it looked like we would probably end up driving through it.  Ooops.  We got the car packed and the kiddos in and we headed out. We hit one really rough patch of rain about an hour outside of Raleigh but it was over about as quickly as it started.  By the time we got to Wilmington though, Hurricane Arthur was getting closer.  We drove into the rain and a tornado warning.  Thankfully the rain wasn’t too awful and we never saw the tornado.  We arrived at Matt’s parent’s house around 2:30ish and sat back and watched the storm.  And by watch the storm, I mean we watched the rain.  It wasn’t until about 6:00pm that the winds really picked up but at this point, we were only getting the backside of Arthur.  Seeing as we had driven through a hurricane to get there, I was determined to go and check out the beach. About 7:30 the winds had died down enough for us to head out.  I was pretty disappointed at how calm the sea was.  I mean it was rough, but not what I expected it to look like right after a hurricane.

Friday was just gross hot.  Matt and his dad played golf while his mom and I went to the pool.  We only stayed about 2 hours before it was just too hot to stay out anymore.  Saturday and Sunday were both amazing, low 80’s and partly cloudy.  Matt and I lounged on the beach most of the afternoon both days.  I didn’t get quite as much sun as I had hoped for.  I was a little overzealous with the SPF 30. 😉  I do at least have a bit more color though.

I managed to remember my camera this trip so I have quite a few pics to share.  The first few are driving into the storm and after the storm.