Sonya's Blog - Day 165 - Carolina Beach and Parade

Sonya’s Blog - Day 165 - December 4th - Carolina Beach and Parade

Blake’s cough is still bad, so we took it easy for most of the day and pumped him full of liquids and remedies. The kids did school work and we discussed Florida options. Florida is a large state with many things to do besides the gong show that is Orlando. I would like to do some of the other things that we have never done before. Everyone else feels like we have come all this way, why not go. The other thing is that it is extremely expensive and one week in Orlando will cost at least triple what a week anywhere else would cost. I just don’t think it is worth it and we were just there two Christmases ago. Furthermore, the kids have been to Disney World twice and Disneyland twice. I think they have been lots and Blake has been lots. It is the same thing as we have seen before, really. Okay, there are a few new things in Harry Potter World at Universal, but that’s it. I would like to go to Crystal River for that week instead. This is where the largest population of Manatees winters and I would like to see them. Those are my arguments, but I think I am out-voted. We will see, the kids were a little shocked with how expensive it was.

We got out of the RV after lunch and headed for Carolina Beach. First we had to stop at a shoe store and get Isaac another pair of runners. We bought him a new pair in Chicago, but he has wrecked those, so he need another pair. There is a discount shoe place (Shoe Carnival) not far from the campground, so we headed there. They had hundreds of running shoes for Isaac to choose from. He was in a Men’s size 8, but those were not fitting him. Blake measured his foot and he is now a size 9, he is getting so big on this trip. They had a special on boots, buy one pair and get another pair 1/2 off. All the boots were already on sale, so I went and checked them out. In the end, I got a couple of pairs of boots, Isaac and Blake each got a pair of running shoes. Everything was on sale, plus we got to spin the discount wheel at the front of the shop for another discount. We feel like we got a good deal on the 4 pairs, which is nice.

Back on the road towards Carolina Beach. The traffic was pretty heavy on the way, so it took us longer than expected. We finally found the city of Carolina Beach and then we found some beach parking and took a stroll. It was really windy and cool on the beach, so we didn’t stay long. Kizmet went crazy running around like a maniac and we walked a little ways. We then piled in the truck and headed towards Michaels Seafood for some supper. There is a parade in Carolina Beach tonight and we noticed that people were already staking out their spots for watching the parade. We found an abandoned building not far from the restaurant, along the parade route, and parked our truck there for viewing. We then walked up to the restaurant, we chose this one because it is supposed to have the best chowder in North Carolina.

We had no problem getting a table and the service was friendly and efficient. The chowder was really good, super thick with lots of stuff in it. I also had the crab cakes and we started with some mussels. All tasty. The owner of the restaurant, Michael, died in 2013 and his wife and two young children are keeping the restaurant open in his memory. He had Cystic Fibrosis and he had had a lung transplant. Very sad. I was happy to have chosen this restaurant to lend our little bit of support to his family.

We walked back to the truck after supper and had a 1/2 hour wait until the parade. We listened to some Harry Potter on CD, we are listening to the first book. Isaac and I also started a game of chess, he is getting very good. I have not played forever, but Blake helped me a little bit. We didn’t finish our game before the parade started, which was upsetting to Isaac because he wanted me to hurry up. Ah well, we will finish it tomorrow.

The parade is called The Pleasure Island Parade of Lights, because Carolina Beach is on Pleasure Island. The parade was pretty funny. It was quite disorganized and there were huge gaps between some of the floats. There was such a large gap at one point, we thought the parade was over. There were some pretty sad entries, it was hilarious. My favourite part of the parade were the llama’s, picture here:

I also liked the group of classic Volkswagon Bugs and the one VW Bus:

The pictures are not the best because it was so dark, but you get the idea.

The parade went till about 9 and we managed to get out pretty quickly and back on the highway. It took us about 1/2 hour or so to get back and then it was straight to bed.

Sonya