Summer Trip : Bald Head Island, NC -

We waited all year for the Gowdy family reunion at Bald Head Island and it finally arrived! For us, not living on the east coast made for quite the adventure getting to the island, but spending a week there made it all worth it!

Our week long vacation began with a flight to South Carolina, where we stayed with Scott’s brother for the night. The next morning, we were up early and on the road by 7:30 to make to the ferry for the access to the island. Driving on the east coast is very different from what I’m familiar with. The trees everywhere, the small towns, the beautiful homes…it was all absolutely stunning!

We got all our things unloaded from the car and over to the ferry loading station, then parked the car in long-term parking and got on the ferry. It was about a 10 minute ferry ride to the island, where we were greeted by Scott’s parents.

A tram then took us to our beach house, which would be home for 4 of the 7 families while we were there. We met up with the rest of the family and our family reunion officially kicked off! It was so fun to be together with all of Scott’s siblings and see all of our kids be reunited and play with each other. Having that many people together in one home was a lot, but the memories we made while we were all there are unforgettable.

The first night, we couldn’t wait any longer, so we headed to the beach to get our toes in the sand and play in the ocean. Annabelle was so excited to get there, but soon realized she did not like the crashing waves. After a little sitting and watching others, Annabelle was ready to go, hand-in-hand with her Daddy. As the week went on, Annabelle would spend hours playing the ocean and never wanted to leave.

Spending the 4th of July on the Island was so fun! There was the best golf cart parade I’ve ever seen…local shops and families that regularly stay on the island decorated their golf carts and put on quite the parade. We loved being together as a family and making memories that may have been very simple for us, but memories that we will cherish for years to come.

Spending a week at the beach is never boring, especially when your everyday life is much closer to the mountains than the beach. We loved building sand castles, playing spike-ball, “shelling” (searching for sea shells), and swimming in the ocean. Some of the Gowdy’s have spent a lot of time at the beach, so they were experts at getting some of us better prepared and full of all the fun things to do at the beach. We loved being together and spending the quality time we were hoping while we were all together.

Something fun and unique about the island is that to get around you ride in golf carts. We loved the time to ride together and really take in the scenery of the island. Annabelle especially loved it, and would sing and cheer just about every ride.

The beauty of the island is breathtaking. It was so much more than I ever imagined. So much beauty and charm in every part of the island.