Sunday, August 11, 2013

Changing of the Banners

This will be the last post that I will be writing on Discovering the Focal Point. But don't worry. I'm not quitting the blogging world; I'm merely switching my blog to a new banner.

When I started Discovering the Focal Point, I meant for it to be primarily about photography. I hoped it would be a venue for me to display my photography and for me to give photographic tips and tricks. However, I feel that my blog naturally progressed somewhat away from that original goal. Although it has been a way for me to share photographs, it strayed away from photographic tips, tricks, and assignments and became more of a way to simply document life. And you know what? I am perfectly fine with that. As such, I no longer feel that the banner of Discovering the Focal Point fits the current and future direction I intend for this blog.

So going forward, I will be blogging under a new banner: Life on the Peninsulas. You can go to it now by going to http://mipeninsulas.blogspot.com/. For those who have been following this current blog, you will find this new blog will be very similar. I will continue to write about my adventures and display the photographs I take along the way. However, I do have a few new things in mind for this next blog, and I also think that this new banner is more consistent with a few other things I've got in the mix. You'll have to check in on the new blog in the next month to find out what.

I hope you all continue to follow along as I share about Life on the Peninsulas.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

North Carolina Vacation: Topsail Island

Just got back from a week long vacation to Topsail Island in North Carolina, and it was a great week.
You can read my wife's re-cap of the vacation here.

We left on a Saturday morning, leaving my in-laws place a little after 6 in the morning. We had a big 12 passenger van, so everybody had lots of room, with everyone basically having their own row. Which was good, because we had a ton of stuff. It always amazes me how much more stuff we have to take because of Jonah. Anyways we had a very long drive ahead. By mid-afternoon, I had already taken two naps. So far, it was shaping up to be a good vacation. About 12:30 am, we arived at our beach house for the week unloaded what we needed and crashed into bed.

We got up fairly early the next morning, thanks to Jonah, and explored the house we would be staying at for the week. It was sweet. Lots of rooms, huge windows with amazing views.




The first two days we were down there were kind of rainy and gloomy.



But the gloomy weather didn't stop us from having a good time. We went to the movies and watched Monsters University. We also took a deceptively long walk to the pier.









Thankfully, the rained moved on by Monday afternoon. By Tuesday morning, we had beautiful sunny weather.

One thing I learned is that my camera did not like the humidity. I had to wait about 20 minutes everytime I went outside for it to un-fog.
 


Every morning, Jonah was waking up a little after 5 am. So needless to say, we caught the sun rise on most days. This gave us plenty of time to take pictures. Get ready for a photo explosion.






 
 
 
 
 
Here's the beachside view of the house we stayed in.


We were taking pictures one morning, with Jonah sitting on a blanket. The next thing we know, Jonah is booking it towards the ocean.




No fear, he just crawled right into the surf.


 
Hanging with Mommy,


Hanging with Daddy,


Obviously, we spent a lot of time at the beach.


 
We rented a pair of surfboards, which was an epic failure.



We went and watched some fireworks at a park on July 3rd.




Waiting in the parking lot to leave the fireworks.


We also toured the USS North Carolina, a battleship from World War 2.




 
 
 
 
We had dinner at this nice restaurant in Wilmington.
 
 
Then walked Wilmington's boardwalk while enjoying some ice cream.
 

 
 
Before we knew it, the week was over and we were enjoying our last Atlantic Sunrise.
 
 
 

On the way home, we spent about 20 hours in the car, getting back at 3:30 in the morning. The car ride un-did some of the relaxation of the week. But still, it was a great vacation and an amazing week.