On My Mind: Vacation Pictures! (3)

Now that I'm back from vacation and beginning to reassemble some sort of normalcy to my life, it's time to share pictures from vacation! For those who don't know, my family and I went on vacation to North Carolina. We stayed in a Lake House and visited friends of ours who live in the area. The Lake House was gorgeous. It was a little old, so it was kind of musty, but it was still a decent place. We went to the state park one day, spent time with out friends in various places (a mall, a music fest near Charlotte, their homes), but we spent most of the time at the house. It was nice to just relax. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go to the beach. Our friends had conflicting schedules and it wasn't going to work out. Plus, we'd been spending a lot of time driving around already at that point, I was starting to get sick to my stomach. So, we're planning on a weekend trip possibly in the fall to go to the beach, so that will be great. ^_^

On to the pictures!!!

~*~

This is on our way down, my favorite part of the road trip down (I believe it's the edge of Virginia):

The countryside is so vast, it's stunning.

Inside, there were super high ceilings and wide open spaces:

The view from the enclosed porch:

 

Here is what it looks like on the outside facing the lake:

My shot makes it look like a mansion, but it's not THAT big.

Here's the view down the stairs:

My mom counted 52 steps from the house to the dock.

Here's the view of the lake:

The dock.

We had a heron that visited daily, I took this shot from up on the porch:

 

This was taken at Lake Norman State Park:

Hills behind the Taco Bell we stopped at on the way back (still in NC):

This is a picture of Cincinnati from on our way back:

It's the first time I've been by such a big city (boy, do I need to get out more!)

~*~

Well, that was a little slideshow of my trip. It's so hard to capture it all. I took the pictures with a new camera that I bought a week before we left. It was on sale and twice as good as the camera I had. So I got much better pictures than I would have with my old camera. More clear shots, more detailed, barely any blurry shots. Made the vacation so much better! Our family is going to make this North Carolina trip an annual thing. Our friends on NC are trying to convince us to move down, and while it is tempting (oh so tempting!), it would take awhile before we could manage such a big move. But it's a possibility. ;)

~Jessica

On My Mind: Road Trip--Ready? Set? Go! (2)

It's time!!!

Time for my vacation, that is. Oh man, it is ABOUT TIME. Last time I went to North Carolina was in 2007. We only spent a long weekend there, but this time it's going to be a whole week AND we're renting a lake house. A FLIPPIN' LAKE HOUSE. It's so awesome I can't express in words the awesomeness of it.

It's going to be a 9-10 hour drive down (and back) so that means plenty of time to possibly read... I mean, as long as I don't start feeling sick from the driving anyways. I'm making sure to bring some good books with me, some I've been dying to read for awhile (plus my Nook, because WASN'T THAT THE POINT OF GETTING ONE?! Lol). I was originally going to bring only three physical books with me, but as I was going through my books I ended up picking out five instead.

Here's what I am bringing with me:

1. Perfect by Ellen Hopkins (Goodreads)
2. Forgotten by Cat Patrick (Goodreads)
3. The Babysitter Murders by Janet Ruth Young (Goodreads)
4. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Goodreads)
5. Heat Wave by Richard Castle (Goodreads)


I don't think I'll be able to finish them ALL by the end of the vacation, but that would be awesome if I could. Now that I'm reading about 2 books a week, I might be able to start posting 2 reviews a week soon. ^_^

EDIT TO ADD: Well, I added TWO MORE to the pile last minute because I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF. I saw them on my shelf and thought, OMG I want to read that. Those other two are Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky (Goodreads) and Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally (Goodreads). Yes, I am crazy.

Anyways, back to the vacation!

Like I said above, we're staying at a lake house. From the pictures I saw, it looks GORGEOUS. I can't wait to take pictures when we get there to share with you guys later. We'll be spending time with some friends of ours that used to live in Ohio with us. There is no doubt that we will have a great time when we hang out with them because whenever we do, there are moments where you're laughing out loud for five minutes straight and you do the craziest things that are what memories are made of. We'll be making a trip out to the beach at least one day (it's about 4 hours away) and it will be the FIRST time I've seen the ocean. SO EXCITED!

Well, I'm going to go ahead and schedule this now, because I'll probably be running around at the time this gets posted. I may be able to get to Update Thursday this week, we'll see. I have a couple other things scheduled in the meantime. Anyhow! I'll chat with you guys later. I might be able to read the comments/emails you make/send while I'm down there, but I'll respond to them when I get back. ^_^

HAVE A GREAT WEEK WHILE I'M GONE EVERYONE!

HAPPY READING! XOXO!!!

~Jessica