Our vacation at Outer Banks got a whole lot more eventful once the other half of our family arrived late Wednesday night! The girls and I really missed Dan, and we were excited to really kick our vacation in gear once he, Ted, and Elisa arrived. My siblings and Dan really wanted to go bicycling around the area on Thursday, but I opted not to join because the bicycle rental shop didn’t have any adult tricycles available at the time. (That’s right, at age 31 I never mastered how to ride a bicycle due to my balance issues… so sad!) There was the option of going on a tandem bicycle with Dan, but I decided to stay behind and watch Mirei with my parents while Mio rode with Dan and the rest of the gang. She had so much fun with it, and I’m glad that they captured lots of photos and video for me to see afterwards.
Mio strapped in, ready to go bicycling with Daddy!
Mio looks like she’s having so much fun!
A video Dan took while bicycling:
She eventually fell asleep on the bicycle… lol.
Too funny!
Still KTFO.
…and still asleep when they got back to the rental shop.
Mio woke up just in time for lunch!
I got the buffalo shrimp wraps at the Buxton Munch Company.
Dan with his fish tacos!
This place is apparently known for their “best fish tacos”, and they did not disappointment! They were some of the best fish tacos I’ve ever had!
Sorry Mirei, you’ll have to wait a little longer before you can dig in with us…
Happy to be reunited with Daddy!
After lunch and relaxing a little bit back at the house, we went to hit the beach together!
Dan and Mio going in the water.
Dan on the boogieboard
Look at those rays of light shining through the clouds! It was a really gorgeous day.
After coming back from the beach, we sat on the patio and enjoyed the view behind the beach house as the sun was setting.
A panoramic view I took on my phone.
Mio cooling down with an ice pop. ♥
More on our last few days at Outer Banks in the coming days! 🙂
We took a weeklong family vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina at the end of June. We stayed at a beach house in Cape Hatteras, and while it’s quite a long drive down to get there, we had an enjoyable and relaxing vacation (for the most part) once we were there. The girls and I drove down with my parents and sister on Sunday, while Dan, my brother Ted, and sister-in-law Elisa joined us mid-week, arriving late Wednesday night since they didn’t want to miss as much of their work week.
The beach house – our home for the week. It was a short two minute walk away from the beach!
Going out to dinner at Pop’s Raw Bar the first evening.
Miwa enjoying the raw oysters. They were very fresh!
My crabcake sandwich was deeelicious!
Mirei and Obaachan on the patio the following day
Unfortunately, Mio woke up in the morning throwing up, and she repeatedly threw up throughout the day and couldn’t keep anything down. We think she caught some sort of a 24 hour stomach bug, because she didn’t have an appetite and was lethargic and just rested most of the day. We ended up staying inside for most of the day because I had to take care of her and she was in no condition to go out and enjoy the surroundings.
Poor Mio was sick with the stomach bug
So listless… 🙁
Mirei with Ojiichan. Fortunately, Mirei was unaffected by the stomach bug.
Poor baby. I tried to keep her hydrated with what she would take, which was ice pops and some soft rice.
My mom and I at Hatteras Landing.
My parents after doing some shopping.
The next morning, Mio was feeling a lot better and was generally back to her usual self, just with a smaller appetite. Sadly, it was not all good news as I woke up with a very uneasy stomach and proceeded to spend most of the day battling the same stomach bug and resting during our third day because I was so sick. I can’t remember the last time I had a stomach flu, but this definitely made it up there among one of the most miserable days of my life.
At least Mio was back to her cheery self!
On our fourth day (Wednesday) on vacation, we were finally all feeling better and energetic enough to go to the beach and really enjoy it! It’s really unfortunate that we spent the first half of the week cooped up inside because we were so sick.
The resident beach babe, ready to hit the beach!
So ready to go!
Mio getting held by Auntie Miwa in the ocean.
It was a beautiful day to enjoy the beach.
Such a posh baby!
Mio screamed every time a wave came in!
Walking on the beach with Obaachan (my mom)
We almost had the beach to ourselves!It was so private and nice.
The girls and I soaking up the sun!
It’s too bad our family vacation had a rough start, but I’m glad we could all recover in time for Dan and the rest of the family to arrive. Stay tuned for more of our adventures during the latter half of the trip! 🙂
We spent last Sunday at Lewes Beach in Delaware! It was our first time at the beach this year, and Mirei’s first time ever. Mio has been talking about the beach a lot lately so we’re so glad we could take her — she had so much fun! She’s been saying, “Go back to beach!” ever since. Here are some photos of all the fun in the sun!
Dan and Mio soaking up the sun.
Going into the water… it was still a little cold, but that didn’t stop them!
Sweet Mirei in the shade of our beach umbrella.
Playing in the sand.
Building things in the sand…
Mirei staying nice and dry.
With our 4 month old chubster!
The sisters together ♥
Mirei giggles a lot lately! Can’t get enough!
Our little family at Lewes Beach
Mio loves getting spun around by Daddy
Getting buried in the sand.
Mio getting some serious air!
We wrapped up our time in Lewes by stopping by to eat crabs for dinner at The Surfing Crab.
Mirei and I waiting for dinner.
Mio was passed out from all the fun at the beach! She slept almost the whole ride home, too.
Delicious blue crabs!
The girls enjoyed the beach so much that we’ll definitely have to go to more this summer!
We took our first trip to the beach this summer on Sunday, when we went to North Beach, Maryland, which is part of the Chesapeake and only an hour drive away. (We had originally planned to go to Rehoboth but decided to save that for a whole weekend when we could stay overnight, as it’s a 3 hour drive away.) North Beach was a cute little town and while the beach was small, it was pretty private and ideal for small children in that there were no strong waves and the water remained shallow pretty far in. We felt that it was a really safe beach for Mio to splash around in.
At first, Mio was very upset and reluctant about stepping onto the sand, and just kept pointing at the water saying “ocean!” from our beach mat, imploring us to just carry her over to the water so that her little feet wouldn’t have to to touch the dreaded sand. Once she got into the water, though, she loved it and kept going in and out and splashing around in it with Daddy for about two hours! The Atlantic is so much warmer than the Pacific waters that we’d taken Mio to in California and Hawaii, so this was the first time she could really stay in the water for a long time without freezing! By the end, she didn’t even seem to notice the sand because she’d had so much fun.
Mio and I at the beach. I didn’t realize until Dan mentioned it, but we match!
She loves the water!
Our little waterbug ♥
Going further into the water with Daddy
Dan teaching Mio how to kick in the water.
Daddy throwing Mio up high!
Family picture!
After spending a few hours on the beach, we packed up, enjoyed some Rita’s Italian Ice and then headed to lunch at Neptune’s Seafood Pub nearby because we were craving shrimp! All the food there was delicious, and Mio discovered how much she loves sour cream. (She kept dipping every food she tried in the sour cream, and then ended up just scooping it up by the handful with her little fingers. She definitely has her Daddy’s taste buds, because I hate sour cream.)
Steamed seasoned shrimp and potato skins!
The hubs with a mouthful of shrimp chorizo tacos… And of course, the little hand sneaking in.
I love that summer is officially here and I look forward to more little mini trips and outings to the beaches in the area! 🙂
We spent the past week visiting our family and friends on the West Coast! We first arrived in Los Angeles the first weekend of March, before flying up to the Bay Area to spend the rest of the time with Dan’s parents before we flew back to Virginia this past weekend. We really wanted to make the stop in Los Angeles while we were in California, because some of our closest friends that we’d made in Bay Area had relocated to Southern California in recent years, and we couldn’t imagine making the trip out West without seeing them! Our dear friends Megumi and Daniel graciously opened up their beautiful home in Alhambra for us to stay in, and we have Estella and Brent to thank for picking us up at LAX and shuttling us around everywhere the first day in their spacious car. It’s not easy to host and take care of a family of three (especially when one is a jetlagged toddler), and we can’t express how grateful we were for all their thoughtful preparation and warm hospitality!
As usual, we took so many pictures throughout the trip, that I’m going to break our trip up into separate posts. Enjoy our snapshots from Day 1, below…
At Dulles: waiting to take the shuttle to our terminal.
Mio only fell asleep for the last 5 minutes of the flight. Of course.
After getting picked up at LAX by Brent and Estella, we met up with Megumi and Daniel for lunch at Shinsengumi Hakata Ramen.
My friend Mariko had first taken me to Shinsengumi a few years ago, and it’s since become one of my favorite ramen places in SoCal! So delicious. 🙂
I got a side of spam musubi to go with my ramen. I was so full afterwards!
After lunch, we headed over to spend the afternoon at Manhattan Beach… while it had been 28 degrees when we left DC, it got up to 85 degrees in LA that day! Life is not fair… made us wonder why we didn’t just move down to SoCal instead of to Northern Virginia! 😛
Sunny skies at Manhattan Beach
Mio was asleep in the stroller, and we couldn’t take the stroller through the sand, so the guys carried her out onto the beach. Princess status!
Megumi is glowing! A true California girl ♥
Mio sleeping peacefully on the beach.
Friends relaxing on the beach.
Mio woke up, but was not in the best mood… I think we discovered that she is not a fan of sand. She would cry every time her feet touched it!
Reunited and it feels so good! We missed them so much.
A family picture at Manhattan Beach ♥
Everyone trying to cheer Mio up. 🙂
For dinner, Estella and Brent took us to an awesome Taiwanese place called Kang Kang Food Court for dinner. They’d introduced us to delicious soup dumplings before up in NorCal, but this time they took us to eat crispy soup dumplings! So good!!!
Pan-fried soup dumplings!
Dinner with our favorite people!
So much delicious food!
Our family of three at dinner!
After dinner, Megumi suggested we go get dessert at Fluff Ice, which serves fluffly Taiwanese style shaved ice! True to its name, it was so fluffy soft and light, and we loved it! 😀
I got green tea flavored fluff ice with red bean and mochi!
Special thanks to Megumi for the picture!
Mio was jetlagged and exhausted, but was such a trooper and in good spirits, staying up until about 9pm Pacific Time!
When we got back to Megumi & Daniel’s we put Mio to bed, and stayed up playing board games together while munching on delicious desserts that Megumi had prepared! You can see the rest of our stay in Los Angeles in Day 2, which happened to land on Hinamatsuri!
