Girl Travel – …on the B.L.

11..., Lifestyle

11… Reasons I Don’t Hate Nicholas Sparks

August 12, 2019August 11, 2019 RaeAnna

I LOVE lighthouses!!!! This one is on Oak Island. | Skirt Set | Head Band |

Even with the summer heat of North Carolina, it’s gorgeous. | Dress | Shoes | Sunglasses |

Beaches are my happy place. Top Sail Beach. | Bikini Top | Bikini Bottom | Beach Towel |

201908018832302095628777118 — Dance! It’s the ocean with a forest view! | Swimsuit | Cover Up | Head Band |

My favorite sign ever in existence. Can’t argue with freedom! | Skirt Set | Shoes | Sunglasses |

Spoiler, I can’t stand Nicholas Sparks’ writing. It’s boring, formulaic, and extremely unrealistic. Sorry, but I like my reading material to be somewhat grounded in reality. The one thing he gets right: the setting. Almost all of his books are set in the Carolinas, focusing in on North Carolina. Why? I don’t know, but probably because he lives there. Specifically New Bern, North Carolina, which is a forty-five minute drive from where I visit with high frequency because my bff is stationed in Jacksonville.

This list actually has nothing to do with Nicholas Sparks and everything to do with the beauty of North Carolina. I no longer loathe the writing of Nicholas Sparks solely because the state is gorgeous. So we see eye to eye on one thing. Maybe more, I don’t know the man.

Bald Head Island This is numero uno on the list because it will eventually be on my top 11 favorite places in the world list. Bald Head Island is about as far south as you can get in the great state of North Carolina. You can read more about it here.
Lighthouses I LOVE lighthouses. They are my favoritest things. Maybe not my absolute favorite, but I have an intense fascination with them. I have only seen two in real life, but I’m working on upping that number significantly.
MCAS New River This is actually kind of a crappy place, but I will always have rose colored glasses for it because my bff-for-always-and-ever lived there for five years. Happy memories for the win.
Wild Ponies I have not personally seen the wild ponies, but they exist in the Outer Banks. I love the idea of wild ponies, and hope to see them for myself at a respectful distance someday.
Sea Turtles Sea turtles lay their eggs on the beaches of North Carolina. I have not been able to see the hatching of these miraculous babies, but I have seen the nests(?), which is sand with a sign saying leave this space alone or something to that affect.
Beaches There are beaches all over the world, but I seem to frequent the North Carolina ones with the most frequency. They’re lovely.
Oak Island I just recently found this gem. It is an island right across from Bald Head Island. It has a lighthouse of its own. I can play in the ocean and see two lighthouses. It’s magic. Not really, but it made for a magical day.
Biltmore Estate I’ve never been to this grand place in Asheville, North Carolina, but I hear it is super duper fabulous. I hope to make it there one of these days.
Proximity North Carolina is five hours away from my best friend in DC and four hours away from my close friends in Virginia Beach. Gotta love the East Coast and their tiny states.
Blue Ridge Mountains I have not had the pleasure of exploring these mountains in earnest or at all, but I have driven through them a good many times. They are beautiful. The first several years I drove through them was solely in the dead of night…
Charlotte Douglas International Airport I really love the Charlotte airport. It has huge windows and Adirondack style rocking chairs. Also, they do a fabulous job decorating it for Christmas.

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Travel, Travel Eats

Crawfish Boil 2019

May 29, 2019September 8, 2019 RaeAnna

More people came before and after. We had fun. Can you find me?

Family is one of those complicated things. I have not always been close with mine. Extended family were around when I was younger, but they were never a huge part of my life especially in my teen and adult years. No one person’s fault, life just works out that way. I was also in a weird age bracket. I was the oldest by a lot (my brother not included) of my first cousins. The extended cousins were either much, much older or much, much younger. Now, as I’m nearing 30, my cousins view me as an adult like them [yay, finally!!!], or I get to be the fun much older cousin.

The chef, my cousin, sharing the plunger of honor to cook the crawfish. It’s a thing. I promise.

In March, I went on a cruise for my Grandma’s 80th birthday. I hadn’t seen the aunts, uncles, or cousins in about fourteen years. I fell a little bit in love with them. While I was there, I was invited to my great aunt’s 80th birthday party in Maryland over Memorial Day weekend. The cousins I stayed with in Germany – eight years ago – throw an annual crawfish boil, which made the perfect birthday gathering.

Kelsey pulling her weight in the… kitchen.

I would just like to inform you, my family has this ‘All Are Welcome’ attitude. I found out I come by that trait genetically. There was a swirl of cousins, aunts, uncles, relatives by marriage, friends, and strangers. As an introvert, I am not comfortable in crowds but I also hate feeling like an outsider. I hadn’t seen a lot of my family in a very long time, but they never made me feel like I wasn’t included. I wanted my bestie to see my grandma and also because I wanted someone to be able to lean on and know in a crowd. My family made her feel right at home and kept our plates well stocked.

Precooked crawfish. Still alive and pinchin’.

This part of my family hails from New Orleans. I spent a huge amount of time there growing up, so it feels like home for me too. They moved all across the country; many are on the East coast. New Orleans is known for food. There’s nothing quite as Louisiana as a crawfish boil. Almost 200 pounds of crawfish were brought in fresh and consumed. I can’t really explain the scale of this party because it was immense. My great aunt is loved, so she brought in a crowd. My cousins are loved and make friends everywhere they go. Throughout the course of the afternoon, there had to have been close to 200 people at the party. Everyone had a blast and ate their fill of crawfish, shrimp, sausage, potatoes, corn, and mushrooms. I’m a fan of crawfish boils. Enjoying one surrounded by family made it even better.

Kelsey trying crawfish for the VERY first time.

The food was amazing. The fun was even better. It’s been a long time since I have been to a party quite like that. Even longer since I was surrounded by family. I had a blast. I can’t wait to make it next year.

Travel, Travel Guides

San Diego Beaches

July 15, 2017September 8, 2019 RaeAnna

I meant to post as I was on vacation… Time ran away with me, and I ended up reading far less than I meant to.

I was really feeling myself on the beach at Coronado. It’s a beautiful beach with a view of the ocean and Point Loma. The sand has flecks of gold in it; well, I don’t know if it’s gold, but it seems like it’s gold.

I have loved Coronado since I was little. My parents brought me here when I was very young. I went back by myself at nineteen, which is when I really fell in love with the island. I visited several times during college for vacation. I love staying on Coronado because it is bustling during the day quieting down a lot after dark. You don’t even need a car once you’re there because everything is so close by. The food is great. There are tons of super fancy hotels to choose from. I highly suggest Coronado as a place to stay for a weekend or a month, if you can afford it. I have read many books by the beach here. Also the houses are amazing, so I suggest walking around just to look at the beautiful houses, gardens, and gates.

Due to traveling with my beautiful boxer-mix Beauvoir, Beau for short, I ended up at more dog beaches than people beaches. And by more I actually mean: I only went the the beach once without her. She was a sandy mess, but so worth the exhaustion it brought on!

San Diego is so incredibly dog friendly. Almost every beach in the area has a section that is dog friendly. My favorite dog beaches being: Coronado Dog beach, Ocean Beach dog beach, Fiesta Island dog beach, and Del Mar. All of which are super dog friendly! It’s amazing. Although, it’s not an ideal place to read! Lots of barking. Lots of running around. Lots of fun for everyone but the books! Coronado Dog Beach is West from the Hotel Del Coronado and bumps up against the Naval Base on the island. Ocean Beach Dog Beach is a few blocks away from the main drag in Ocean Beach. Beau really enjoyed this beach because there is an area more inland with very few waves. Beau is scared of waves, so this was a winner for us. The whole neighborhood is extremely dog friendly. There are awesome cliffs to climb next to the pier. Fiesta Island has a reputation for being one of the best dog beaches in the country; it’s gorgeous. Del Mar is North of San Diego. It’s a really beautiful dog beach, but the downside is that dogs have to be leashed during the summer. Beau was a bit upset by this. She couldn’t run around and be her normally social self at this dog beach, but she ended up having a good time anyways.

I had a great time hanging out at the beaches in San Diego. They are some of my favorite, but the ocean is chilly. Be prepared!

One of the best doughnut shops in the country (no exaggeration), is in downtown San Diego. Donut Bar has amazingly creative concoctions and yummy coffee too. I didn’t want to eat in downtown, so the donuts and I went to the beach with Beau! Before leaving, one of the employees brought a treat out for my dog. “No dog left behind.”

Anyways, I enjoyed a book, donuts, and coffee on the beach at Coronado. It was a rough way to spend the day!