Our last day is a full one! I decided at the last minute to ask our rental place if we could stay an extra day due to the concert on Friday. We lucked out! They did not have a renter coming in on Saturday! We could leisurely sleep in and have breakfast with The Lambs at Locals (highly recommended). Parish woke up with the desire to be spontaneous. Without taking showers and getting into packing, let’s just get on the bikes and go! I had to brush those teeth, throw some clothes on, and we rode off down uncharted roads in Southport. We wanted to visit shops we had not been to during the week. I stopped at Southport Realty to dream about houses for sale. We discovered an agent who told her story about moving from the North to Southport, NC. All the stories we heard that week had the same theme–you just know when you come here. It’s where you have to be. She shared some good tips and laws that helped us understand the area. We went to a local artist shop and enjoyed conversations with the husband and wife team, and found so many things in common. We purchased some of their art/pottery for the house. Their stories were about risk, spontaneity, and adventure. I ventured over to Locals to put our name in for the “wait.” Highly recommend it because we were able to wait for 30 minutes without the small children. They showed up in time to sit down and order. We also visited a book exchange box that also had cards you could take for encouragement. I decided to take the one on blessings. I read the blessing for our family at breakfast and during our last day of prayer together. What a great idea for the book exchange box!

We rode our bikes to some shops, and Valentina found The Polite Elephant, a book Parish and I read to the children when they were younger. We also visited Santa and Ms. Clause. All are found in the Christmas House in Southport. They have an out-of-this-world candy section!

Afterward, we took an adventure to the American Fish Company to watch the water and the boats coming and going into the port of Southport. We had the perfect seats, and the breeze was refreshing.

We also visited Potter’s Seafood to see Mavis, the rescue pelican. Parish also purchased a T-shirt there. It is a great seafood shop, and it is family-owned.

We left there to have dinner at Provision Company. The wait can be long, so we put our names in, went back to the house to pack a little, and returned. Oh, the view! We were able to get a table by the water, and the pictures I could take at sunset were stunning.

On Sunday morning, I noticed a tiny leaf with pronounced veins. I picked it up, ran my thumb over the veins, and marveled at how tiny this leaf was to hold such details of God’s creation.

My word “adventure” captures my marvel of the miracles that are all around us, and do we notice them? The simplicity of your first moments in the morning where you recognize your awakened state, you take a deep breath, and you start your day. Another day to seek adventure in the novelty and the mundane. What will you notice? How can you pause to hold this moment? Parish called me over after breakfast to notice the violet flower. He shouted, “Anna! You have to come to see this!”

I also believe adventure demands laughter, especially when laughter is not the appropriate response. Parish, before we left, rode his bike with a near miss of us and yelled Wooooooooooo Hoooooooooooo VACAY! Valentina and I stopped short, rolled our eyes, and then busted out laughing because he had interrupted the stressful moment of packing the car. We recaptured that on our last night and in the morning when our car wouldn’t start, and we needed a “jump.” I loved making short video clips of our humorous moments. I’ll share a few.