A Carolina Vacation

After having seen a number of friends start blogs lately, I've gotten the urge to create one myself. I don't know if I'll actually have enough worth posting on my own so I think a blog for both Kathy and I is a better way to go.

Now is a good time to start this blog as Kathy & I just returned from vacation. We spent a few days in Oak Island, North Carolina with Kathy's parents, aunts, and uncles. Oak Island is a small, quiet beach community south of Wilmington, NC and just up the coast from Myrtle Beach, SC. Kathy's got relatives in Oak Island so it made for a convenient meeting point. Most of our time there was spent relaxing which was exactly what we had hoped to do. Kathy got to go shopping with her Mom and aunts while I went fishing with Kathy's Dad and Uncle Warren. And at the end of each day, we got to relax with Dory (our cat) who made the trip with us.

I also got to smoke a couple of good cigars including a Perdomo and one that I bought at a small shop in the Ybor City district of Tampa, FL where they make cigars right in front of you. Both had been sitting in my humidor for awhile and were well conditioned, making them really enjoyable smokes.

In order to make a contribution to the vacation, I had brewed and kegged 10 gallons of beer - 5 gallons of Oktoberfest and 5 gallons of Honey Raspberry Wheat. I had brewed the Honey Raspberry Wheat for what I assumed would be the ladies. But in the end, it was the Oktoberfest that was the hit with everyone. I tapped the Oktoberfest keg around 2pm on Thursday and it was kicked by Monday afternoon. Since everyone was busy drinking the O'fest, we only went through about 2.5 gallons of the Honey Raspberry. Before the O'fest ran dry, I managed to get pictures of the beers:

(The Oktoberfest on the left and Honey Raspberry Wheat on the right)


To go along with the beer, Uncle Gary made some great food every day. I only managed to get pictures of one of the dishes, but it was certainly the best looking one - the Paella - Uncle Warren's birthday dinner.


We didn't have to stress at all about the directions as "Karen" (the name for the Australian female voice on our new GPS unit) took us down and back in about 7.5 hours each way. Kathy was kept busy with her knitting and I had plenty of podcasts to listen to and we were home before we knew it. Our vacation only lasted 5 days but it was a great chance to get away, relax, and visit with family. I'm already looking forward to next year for more cigars and fishing.