Vacation 2004

2004 June

Created by James 16 years ago
We went back to Wilmington for our vacation again this spring. Only this time, we did it right. We trailered the bike up again, only this time, we went up on Friday after I got off work, and stayed for eleven glorious days of just being with my girl. And I made sure that we didn't miss a thing this time. We went walking on the beach under the moonlight. We went riding. We went exploring. We ate. We went to the piers. We did just about everything imaginable. We rode the bike down to Fort Fisher and took the ferry over to Southport. Debbie had never rode a ferry before. There goes that "little girl" thing again. I remember, like it was yesterday, Debbie feeding the seagulls. They would fly along behind the ferry looking for "handouts", and the vending machine had slices of bread you could get for 10 cents. Debbie got a slice and ran to the back of the ferry. Well, in her haste to feed the seagulls, she fumbled with the bread for just a moment and a sneaky gull flew up and took the whole slice right out of her hand! Her whole face melted. She looked so sad at that moment I just had to hug her. We got another slice of bread and this time, I helped. At least at first. She put a small piece of bread in her little hand and held it up. Then, as the seagulls are flying along nibbling at the bread, she was reaching up with her other hand, PETTING THEM, as they flew along. She got so excited that she was jumping up and down, grinning from ear to ear, and just squealing! God, she was so happy at that moment. All I can remember, is that the more she laughed, the more I knew I loved her. Such an innocent little child. Such a glorious spirit. We got off in Southport and rode the bike into town. We poked around for a while there and decided to ride on a little farther to Old Town. It was an old fort from the Civil War era that you can tour. Well, naturally we got caught in a rain storm! Not much of one, but we got a little wet. By the time we finished the day's playing and got back to David's, we were worn out. What a day. We spent most of the next day at the Arboretum. That was the year that we took the pictures of her that are here on her page. I honestly believe that Debbie was the happiest I have ever seen her during that time of our life. We walked. We talked. We made wishes and promises and grew more and more in love with every step we took. We got caught in the Teahouse in a rainstorm for about 45 minutes which gave us some time to just sit and talk. Debbie would tell me stories about being in Korea and how the Teahouse was so similar to the "house" they lived in there. After the rain, we played in the Zen Garden for a while. On to the water gardens, on to the potting shed. But let me tell you, when we got to the Children's Garden, Debbie was home. Every care she had, every trouble in her mind, just vanished when we got there. It was as if some great hand just reached down and lifted every weight, every care, right away. We even had our own tea party. Just the two of us. What a beautiful place. The rest of the week went pretty much the same. We laughed, and played, and went everywhere. We ate junk food, and ice cream, and Britt's donuts. Let me tell you, Debbie loved Britt's donuts. Britt's is a little mom and pop place at Carolina Beach that still makes homemade donuts and they are EXCELLENT. Needless to say, it was another magical time for us.

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