Boo! My summer break's almost over

I have a few more days before I have to go back to work...and thus, my summer of laziness is almost over. However, looking back, this summer's been quite busy.

I was out of town most of July, having first ventured down to St. Louis to visit the family before heading out on an almost two-week-long roadtrip mostly to North Carolina.

We first went to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We got off to a late start out of Chicago and arrived at the campsite outside of Cherokee, NC when it was too dark to put up the tent. So we stayed in a motel and camped the next day.



Due to the thunderstorms and our leaky tent, we decided not to camp the next night in Asheville and stayed in a motel instead. Hey, I never said I was an outdoorsy-type of person. On our way to Asheville, it rained and stormed a lot, and much of the mountainous scenery was beautiful, if the clouds didn't block the view entirely, that is.

Brief summary of Asheville: It rained all night. During the day, we went to the Biltmore and made an offer on the estate. I love Asheville. What a beautiful city.

Then we headed down to the OC. Since it was the ladyfriend's first trip to one of my favorite areas ever, much of the time was spent showing her around mostly Chapel Hill and Carrboro, such as the University of North Carolina. I wish we had had more time there to really live it up, but we had to get going to the Atlantic Coast. Big thanks to TR for putting us up!

We went to the Outer Banks and stayed at a beachside motel in Kill Devil Hills. The room given to us faced the pool and not the ocean and smelled like piss. We asked for and got another room, this time facing the ocean, to our satisfaction.



Surprisingly, the waves in the Outer Banks were almost nonexistent. Nonetheless, it was beautiful and relaxing.

The next day we went to go see the world-famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. I wanted to go up to the top, but it was so fucking hot that we just took a few pictures before heading down to Atlantic Beach.



Atlantic Beach seemed more like the ocean with the salty air and the larger waves. I must've haphazardly put on the sunscreen lotion because I got some nasty sunburns on random parts of my body, including this large birthmark-looking burn in the middle of my chest, the area above my right knee, my nutsack, and various parts of my shoulder and shoulder blades. I'm just kidding about the scrotum. Really, I am.



After Atlantic Beach, we left the Old North State and headed down to Charleston, SC. I went to Charleston with my family as a kid and remember nothing about it. So this was like visiting for the first time. I've gotta tell ya, Charleston is the most beautiful city that I've been to in the United States. The ladyfriend says it's between Charleston and San Francisco, but since I've never been to San Fran, I'm gonna stick with Charleston.




I decided that after I win the lottery, I'm gonna buy one of the those beautiful vintage houses and make it my winter home. After visiting Charleston, I can see why Roy Williams owns a vacation home around there instead of somewhere in beautiful North Carolina.

After the long drive home from Charleston to Chicago, there were only a few days to do nothing in Chicago before heading up to the Michigan. I can't remember the town's name, but it's in southwestern Michigan off of Lake Michigan. Unlike Chicago's Lake Michigan water, the water in Michigan is clean, and the beach there was great. It looks as big as the ocean, and although the waves are typically smaller, there were a couple of days when the waves were as big, if not bigger than any of the waves I saw off the coast of NC. On the days when the waves weren't that big, they were still as big (or as small) as the waves that hit the Outer Banks. Anyway, I had a great time doing nothing but swimming and drinking and being a jackass...I scraped both knees being a drunk idiot the first night. I also managed to get even more sunburnt.

After another trip back home to St. Louis, I'm now just waiting and dreading Monday, my first day back at work. I think that's why I'm feeling a little depressed and having a little pity party for myself. The only thing I keep thinking right now is that I need to win the lottery. Once Mega Millions hits $70 million, I'll start playing again. When I win, I'll be sure to let y'all know.