Day 4: A postcard perfect day

After the "exciting" night we'd had, we decided to get the heck out of the Bates Motel pronto.  We woke up, packed our bags and hit the road.  Yeah, we ran into the hostess from hell on our way out, but had no problems.  Bottom line: she's nuts, but we didn't let that ruin our trip.  We headed right back to The Baker's Square for another heavenly breakfast.  We had to put our names on the waiting list - for breakfast!  That's how good this place is.  So we walked across the street and picked out the postcards we'd send to our families.

We both enjoyed more of their phenomenal French Toast, with that DIVINE butter syrup.

Then we strolled on over to the place where Pepsi was invented...

This is just a fake storefront - the original place was really in the bad part of town, but tourists don't want to go there, so this is just to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy.

Snapped a few shots of my potential future home on our way out of town...

nowhere near the wingbat's "B&B"

Its a real store!!!  I had no idea haha

Richard's fighting some of his inner demons while on the road

Here's the man of my dreams, soaking up all the sunblock possible before we head out to the beach...sexy.

Waiting for the ferry.

One of my favorite games to play was dream house-hunting...

these are at the top of my list!

Love love loved this tiny island!

Pretty much had the beach all to ourselves - it was perfect.

Notice Richard no longer has his beloved ASU hat...

he lost it on our body-surfing adventure, and it was so worth it!  I only wish we'd had a water-proof camera with us because I guarantee those pictures would've been priceless!

We were out there for so long, and we laughed so hard the entire time - definitely one of my best memories of the trip.

Frolicking in the sand dunes, just like in Dear John and The Last Song.

All the fried food went right to my...well...you name it, it went there!

But Richard looks like he just got done working out for 3 days straight instead of stuffing his face.

So not fair.

Riding away from "our island."

I have a jheri curl.

Welcome to Beaufort, home of A Walk to Remember (Mandy Moore!), and not one hotel.

We had a delicious seafood dinner at a little hole in the wall restaurant - they're always the best!

This is how you eat the last hush puppy (of about 4 baskets-full)...

And this is how you enjoy tasty soft-shell crab...

And then lounge on a complete stranger's porch to recover from your humongous meal...

Another fabulous day on the Crystal Coast.

Postcard perfect!

Day 3: I can laugh about it now.

I had separated our trip into 2 parts, at least mentally.  Part 1) exploring Dale's past - which meant a lot to all of us, but mostly Dale & Richard.  It was serious Father/Son bonding time, and I was happy to take part in it.  Part 2) getting to live my Nicholas Sparks fantasies by making Richard reenact my favorite parts of my favorite love stories.  This is what I was really looking forward to.  My hopes and expectations were high, and even though things didn't go exactly according to plan, these last 2 days were above and beyond my wildest dreams.  Keep reading, you'll see what I mean.

First thing in the morning, we packed up and said goodbyes to Aunt Bela.

Dale took us to get our rental car, and then he was off to his work conference.

Headed back to New Bern for breakfast at The Baker's Square.

Terry's wife & daughter told us we had to go there before we left.

Best advice from anyone.  Ever.

Also the best breakfast.  Ever.

After breakfast, we hit the road to go to Wilmington.  We were just driving along, taking in the sites, when we heard a loud siren ... and the bridge starting coming apart right before our eyes!

Welp, we're just not used to that happening in Utah, so from that point on we paid much closer attention to the road.  Didn't want to end up in the river.

Finally made it to Wilmington (in one piece) to do a little stalking.

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is the tv show One Tree Hill.  Been with the Ravens since day #1 my 9th grade year, so there's just no turning back - sadly/luckily this is the last season.  Richard loathes the show, but loves me enough to chauffeur me around to a few of their filming sites.

This is Brooke Davis's store, Clothes Over Bros.  You don't know how badly I wish it was real.

Clothes Over Bros/Karen's Cafe storefront.

Let me in!

Met some fellow fanatics at the River Court.  Seriously.

Wandered around the downtown area, looking at a bunch of historical sites.

Beautiful old homes & signs all over the place telling the history of many of the buildings.

Here we are on the pier, where many a One Tree Hill & Dawson's Creek scene have been filmed.

Loved it.

Went back to New Bern to check into our "B&B" - which ended up just being some crazy lady's house - and got the heck out of there to explore the town.

It was the 300th anniversary of the founding of the town, and these bears were all over the place as decoration.

Waiting like a giddy little girl to get into The Chelsea, a restaurant that is in the book The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks, that just so happens to actually exist. 

I only know because I'm a stalker.

Proof.

Fried Green Tomatoes for our appetizer.

I've never like tomatoes, but this was all it took to convert me!

All I remember about this pasta was that there was shrimp, crab, and lots of veggies.

Oh, and that I loved it.

This dessert was called "South African Bread Pudding."

Richard thought it was too rich.

I don't even know what that means.

You can't tell because of the flash from our awesome camera, but we had the best view of downtown right from our table.

It was so perfect - felt like I was right in the book!

Remember in The Notebook, when Allie and Noah laid in the middle of the street?

Here I am, waiting for the road to clear...

Eat your heart out, ladies!  This is proof that I have the best husband in the world!

Got back to the "B&B" to find that our crazy hostess had locked us out of the house.

The key she gave us worked, but not on the chain at the top of the door!

We knocked, rang the doorbell, yelled up to her, called her phone, Richard threw rocks at yelled up to her bedroom window ...

nothing.

Seriously could NOT believe this was happening.

Called my mom, who laughed...

thought about calling the police, but...

Her neighbors who were her good friends woke up to our shouting and begged us not to.

They literally sawed through her back door to get us into the house so that I wouldn't call the cops...

they told us she'd probably taken some sleeping pills & put earplugs in.

And she still never woke up to any of the noise that was made.

Richard thought it was hilarious and documented the whole thing

We had nowhere else to go in the wee hours of the morning, so we stayed there that night.

Richard tried to get me to laugh, but I was too upset - I couldnt' even fake it for this picture.

First thing in the morning, we packed our bags and got the heck outta there.

Of course we ran into the Loony Toon on our way out, and I caught her up on things. 

Long story short, we got a full refund, and she got a bad review.

I finally laughed about it over breakfast with Richard, and now its a funny story, but seriously?!