Visits to North Carolina & Florida

Our trip back to the East Coast gave us time to enjoy family and friends.

We started off in Concord, NC.
The kids got reacquainted with second cousins at a water park...

... and enjoyed the train ride with Gramps. ☺
Thanks to Mom & Dave for their kind hospitality, taking us to the mall, etc. while we
recovered from jet lag...
we had lots to stock up on! 

We visited Reed gold mine in Concord, dating back to the 1700's.

The mine shafts were cool to explore... literally... 65 degrees underground, and it felt so good on a hot summer day!

The ruins of the old furnaces and factory at Reed Gold mine were interesting.

Marly didn't find any gold, but did find a real four-leaf clover. ♥

Watching the old machines that ground the rock to get the gold ore- still working!

We tried our hands at panning for some gold.

Joyce was the only one who struck it rich and got a gold nugget!

Here's a closeup of that beauty.  Worth about $3, they said. ☺

After enjoying fun dinners, shopping and hanging out with the Poores,
we headed to the North Carolina's Outer Banks for our annual Sodano family get-together.

This is the eighth year we've had the get-together in the Outer Banks.
It's a wonderful time for cousins to get caught up.
The pool is one of their favorite places to do so!

Uncles (and aunts) enjoy catching up too.
Lovely view from the third floor of the vacation house.

Charlie & Denise prepare fabulous meals every year- which we all just love.
They inspire us all!

We have stayed in this particular house for four summers now,
 and really enjoy having Pamlico Sound right in the backyard.
It is really shallow for a long way out, with clear warm water and a sandy bottom.

Everyone enjoyed the sunset views on the Sound.
We had some rain early in the week but things cleared later. 

The daytime views of the sound were often viewed from the pool-
here's about half the gang around it. ☺

Marly enjoyed finding hermit crabs in Pamlico Sound.

Ahh, Family!  So good to get everyone together!

Another beautiful sunset, looking like a painting.

This year Dad showed the big kids how to bake bread... here they are watching it rise.
All their loaves turned out delicious!

We all headed to the nearby beach (Buxton, NC) to play in the waves...

...and watch the Ghost Crabs.

The littlest kids liked getting carried through the waves..

... and we got all the kids together for a photo in the surf...

..before mayhem broke out.

Here's a view of Hatteras Light, seen behind Jamie in the next photo up. ☺

The kids enjoyed digging with Uncle Brian...

...and watching the crabs...

...or just hanging around with the adults. 

Back at the vacation house in Buxton (in the middle background here),
 it was always nice to go for a long walk out into shallow Pamlico Sound.

At low tide the shallow water had lots of interesting crabs, clams and fish.

Always one of our favorite places.

A bunch of us did a fused glass jewelry workshop at a local art gallery.
A relaxing chance to create something unique.

I made a little lighthouse of the glass- here it is before the fusing..

We also had excellent Boot Camp workouts a couple mornings courtesy of Kristy.. need a photo of that. ☺

More fun at sunset time--

It went much too fast and we were all sad to see the week come to an end. 

...but we did come back with some cool souvenirs.
Here's mine and Mar's completed fused glass pendants.

We took a flight to Florida to save time getting to Cocoa Beach--

Where we had a Visiting from Korea Party at Mambo's on the beach.  It was fun seeing old students..

...and teachers...

And Friends!!  (Levi was off with his buddies on the beach...)

So great to get caught up with the Cocoa Beach crowd...

And, the Rockledge crowd...

And nice to see our new friends we worked with in Korea!

We stayed at International Palms for a few days,
which has this really fun pirate ship pool that Marly and her friend loved playing on. 

Which way to the beach?

This was the view from our hotel room on the third floor- must stay here again... 

The best part of our trip to Cocoa Beach was seeing family (like cousins!)... 

...and Grandmas... ♥

So great to see good friends and spend some time..

...and get caught up...

...and just getting to chat with them and their families.

Jean and Rich are our favorite poodle rescue people..

... and Jean has an amazing butterfly garden in her backyard that we were all fascinated with.
Here's some swallowtail caterpillars talking with a snail...

Another very cool caterpillar..

Zebrawing in Jean's backyard.
I loved it because we clearly saw the metamorphosis of caterpillars to butterflies,
reminding us of how we all evolve beautifully over time:
"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly,
but rarely admit the changes it has gone through
to achieve that beauty."
 - Maya Angelou