For the first time, my husband and I went on vacation with his parents and my Mother to the Outer Banks. We stayed in Duck, Corolla, NC. I had 2 weeks worth of sightseeing crammed into one week of vacation. But the number one thing that I wanted to see was the wild horses of the Outer Banks!!
We did it all; from flying kites at Jockey’s Ridge (the tallest natural sand dune in the Eastern United States), to climbing the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (WHEW!), to visiting the house where they had recently finished shooting the movie Nights In Rodanthe. Towards the end ofour trip, we headed North towards the town of Corolla, NC. This was going to be our last chance to see the feral Banker horses. From what we were told by the local townspeople, our chances of seeing them were unlikely. The horses are very elusive.
We took our 4-wheel drive vehicle on a designated beach just outside of town. It was SO much fun to drive on the beach!! We came upon 3 wild horses! How beautiful and majestic they were! It was a wonderful experience that we were able to share as a family, sitting there watching the wild horses while hearing the ocean waves crashing behind us.
It turned out, this was the first of a handful of vacations that the five of us traveled together. We also went to Panama City Beach, FL and Gatlinburg, TN. A few months after our trip to TN, my Mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and died early the following year. I yearned for more vacations with her, but am grateful for the ones that I had. In memory of my Mother and our vacations together, I purchased a bracelet from the Sandbead Collection with 3 Sandbeads. One bead was from
Duck, NC and another was from Panama City Beach, FL to commemorate our vacations.
The third Sandbead was from Gem Beach on Catawba Island in Ohio. This is a beach that my Mother’s family visited as a child and where we recently scattered some of her ashes.
The bracelet is BEAUTIFUL and a WONDERFUL tribute to my time and memories with her. It is a small piece of her that I can take with me on future vacations.
