Rodanthe, NC

Last Monday Mark's brother was married down in the Outer Banks. The actual location was Rodanthe, NC where his sister and her husband own two beautiful homes right on the beach. Rodanthe is on Hatteras Island and is a quiet, beautiful place. We stayed in their house that technically sits one back from the beach, but has views of the ocean from every room. Below is the view from the deck outside the bedroom we stayed in.



Going to sleep and waking up to the soothing sound of the waves each day was so relaxing. If only I could have avoided having to wake up several times a night to feed Mia who had been sleeping through the night before the trip, it would have been the perfect.
Regardless, I love, love, love being at the beach. Having partly grown up in Florida it provides me with some great memories, peace like hardly any other place and of course a nice tan. If I didn't have so many pesky responsibilities I could just sit and relax listening and watching the waves all day long.
Here was another view of the ocean from the other end of the deck, looking down the beach.

Now seriously, can you blame me for staying down there a few days longer than we initially planned?

This is a picture from the deck of the house we were staying in, of their other house and the attached gazebo. As you can see, the railings were still adorned with the flowers and greenery from the wedding. The wedding party and of course, bride and groom, came through the gazebo as the made their way down to the beach for the ceremony.

The day of the wedding was a gorgeous day, the weather was perfect and it brought everyone to see this beautiful moment.

This was my first time attending a beach wedding and it was so special. The picturesque setting and music of the waves is a memory that will forever be cemented in my mind.

The only downfall was that there were some wedding crashers. The Tabanids were annoying, pesky and downright rude. They certainly were not invited and I think it is safe to say that everyone was wishing they hadn't shown up. I know you are probably sitting there shocked that anyone would do such a thing. Well, I must fess up that the wedding crashers weren't people, but insects. Tabanids is the scientific name for day-biting flies. These buggers were EXTREMELY persistent and were even biting the men through their socks. The poor bridesmaids were trying to stand there composed as they constantly had flies on their legs biting them. We are pretty sure that Mark's grandma who is 91 years old couldn't feel them on her stockinged feet. When the ceremony was over we noticed her toes were bleeding from the bites and we had to bury her feet in the sand to keep them from continuing to swarm on her feet. I have never experienced these horrible little creatures at the beach before, so I don't know if it was because of the time of year or time of day. But, fortunately the ceremony was short and that was the only hang-up.

We couldn't be happier to welcome our new sister-in-law to the family and were overjoyed to be present at the wedding.