Our trip to Figure Eight Island

We've built up some airline miles and decided that we would celebrate Aaron's college graduation, our 25 year wedding anniversary and Emily's 4.0 with a trip. 

Dawn and I discussed where to go ad nauseam, eventually deciding to rent a house on Figure Eight Island in North Carolina - it was close to a town Emily and Dawn went to (Wilmington, NC) when Emily was considering going to college down there, so we had some inkling of what the area was like. I like vacations with a lot of activity and honestly I wasn't really too excited about spending a week on the beach lounging around, but the last few months have been pretty stressful, so I figured we'd go with it.

Figure Eight Island is a private island with about 500 properties on it, only about 80 of those properties operate as private owner rentals. Access to the island is via a private bridge with a security guard, if you're not renting or a guest you can't cross the bridge.

The house we rented was definitely one of the smaller ones on the island - there are HUGE estates there - it really just blows your mind how much disposable income some people must have. Some of the houses face a marsh while others face the open ocean, we decided on an ocean front house, which proved to be an excellent choice!

We lucked out and happened to be there during a full moon - amazing moon rises off the ocean, which was impossible to capture on film, but really beautiful to see three nights in a row.

And of course the sunrises were amazing too (ok, only Dawn and Aaron actually got up to see this, but they happened while we were there). 

Moving stuff down to the beach...

We rented beach cruiser bikes for the week, we really didn't have any particular plans for rides, but we thought it would be cool to have them when we wanted them (it was!).  They weren't exactly our normal bikes, but you pedal, they move, good enough. Though I don't think I ever got used to the coaster brakes.

The roads were mostly empty, but there was also a nice bike path on half the island too. 

Pretty nice fauna along the island

The beaches were amazingly empty, this was the Tuesday after Memorial Day, but even on Memorial Day weekend it wasn't crowded at all - there were people, but plenty of space to hang out and swim. Literally the only ones on the beach on this day. We had perfect weather all week - a few minutes of rain one night, otherwise 70's and 80's with bright sun every day. 

Until we broke our disc, Frisbee was a popular pre-swim activity

Being that we were on the east coast the sunsets weren't great, but rode our bikes out to see one over the marsh and it was pretty cool.

Most of our bike rides looked something like this - I love the fact that there is ZERO elevation gain in the entire 10.5 miles (and the fact that there is a Strava segment on the island!), literally riding at sea level.  

While riding on the empty Figure Eight roads was nice, every day at low tide you could ride on the beach. It was so much fun and fast, the sand near the water was packed hard. I think we got to do that 2 or 3 times. the sun was so strong, we tried to stay inside during the middle of the day, so the timing of low tide didn't always work out.

For the longest time I've wanted to try surfing, it looks like so much fun. We took a surf lesson while on Figure Eight - it was great, but quite a reality check. Its really hard to stand up on the board, a LOT harder than it looks. Aaron and Emily were naturals - they both got up on the boards without too much problem. I just barely got my feet under me a few times, Dawn did about the same. It was hard to get a good wave and even when you got on a good one, you were up on it for such a short time you just don't get enough time to "figure things out". After spending an hour and a half in the water, we were all shivering and somewhat numb, so that made it even more difficult to get up. Anyway, it was a really good time and I'm glad we tried it, if I lived near the ocean, I would definitely surf. Unfortunately no pictures since we were all in the water.

I have to say this was one of the highlights of the trip - making dinner every night. It was really great to spend this time where everyone is working together to get dinner on the table, really special time working together (and a lot cheaper than eating out every night).

With the ocean so close we spent as much time as we could in the water, most of that time boogie boarding. The ocean was rough at times, but we had such a great time splashing around, getting abused and crashed upon. Not a lot of pictures, but that's only because we were all having such a good time.

It turns out Aaron is pretty persistent, he spent what seemed like hours learning how to skim board, he got pretty good towards the end.

Emily did pretty good too

We went into Wilmington for an afternoon - it was ok, but glad it was only an afternoon. We saw horses, so it can't be all bad (for Emily anyway).

Another thing we always wanted to try was to zip lining, we've tried to make it work a few times at home, but never could actually get it to work with our schedules. Dawn found a place about 2 hours from Figure Eight and we booked it for Memorial Day. I guess I never realized just how acrophobic the rest of my family is - there was a lot of talk in the car on the way to the place centering around the theme of "why are we doing this?". As we drove across North Carolina the scenery got decidedly  uh, un-rich and we just couldn't imagine what this place was going to be like, which did nothing to calm the growing phobia in the car. (yes we paid for the photos so get ready)

It all started off innocently enough with "ground school"":

 
Photobomb

Photobomb 2

You see how everyone is smiling and happy in ground school? That didn't last long.

Pretty soon we're up on these tiny platforms 50' up in the air and the smiles quickly disappeared.

You'll notice that the Isch clan are all pretty close to the tree.

...but we all had fun on the lines

They set up some funny shots along the way (the guides hanging upside down had no fear of heights).

There was a nice waterfall in the middle of the run

(and hanging off the platform like this was not easy).

They had these cool suspension bridges over some parts - these proved to be pretty intense as well - lots of bouncing!

Back at Figure Eight.
No honestly we spent hours rocking in the chairs like retired people.

...and staring out into the sea

All in all one we agreed it was one of the best vacations we've ever had, it was REALLY hard to leave and come back to the real world. Ok, we didn't do a lot, but man did we RELAX. Great vacation, great family, great times.