I'm an all-out, volume set to 11, warp 9, hyperactive type of person. I don't hold still and I've involved in more things than you can imagine. Needless to say, I stretch myself thin on a daily basis.
After a few days in Wilmington, NC celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary, I learned something. I need some slower moments in my life. Moments away from my computer, from writing 'stuff,' from emailing and calling, from working on seminars... I desperately need some real-life moments I can enjoy at a leisurely pace.
Let me show you what I got to enjoy last week...
Our hotel was downtown, so we parked the car and simply walked.
We went on the Haunted Pub Crawl and learned a ton about the history of Wilmington.
This was our second visit and just as much fun.
The world's rarest and most dangerous reptiles, all under one roof. Bad place to be if there's an earthquake!
There are seven different loops through the historic neighborhoods. The horses are resuces from the meathouse and trained in Chicago.
As our driver asked, when's the last time you enjoyed going 2 mph on the road?
We shopped, we strolled, we visited the Coast Guard ship, The Defiance, which was in port for a few weeks... All very relaxing!
One dinner was spent at this restaurant. As soon as we saw it, we knew we had to snag a balcony seat!
The menu is all meat, but they made a special pasta dish just for me.
We even had room for desert! Guess all that walking gives one an appetite.
It was fun to go places we would've never know existed and see quaint little areas and surreal scences. I just had my little CoolPix, but I took a lot of photos.
It was probably the most relaxed I've been (for more than a few hours) in a long time!
What did I learn? Take time to enjoy life!!
And I have a short post at The Circle of Friends on how the Book Industry is Shifting, at least for me!
15 comments:
A lovely refreshing post Diane, it's true one can be caught up with work, blogging, phoning and so on and don't realise life, REAL LIFE is paasing by.
A well learned lesson and one everyone should heed,
Yvonne.
The haunted pub crawl sounds cool! I need to get out and live more...
Hard to write about life when you never live one :) Glad you had such a great time and I love carriage rides :)
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow
You captured lovely pictures, freezing moments when you felt relaxed. May the pictures continually create that relaxed and peaceful feeling within you. I hadn't heard of this place, and will be looking it up. An exploration of the US beyond the 'snow bird' states such as Florida and Arizona is in my horizon.
Wonderful post! CONGRATS on your 20th wedding anniversary. My hubby and I celebrated out 20th last month.
It looks like you had a great time! I hadn't heard about the Cape Fear Serpentarium before!
It's so important to go out there & take pics, see new places & get away from that computer!
Congrats on your anniversary! Glad you had a god time. :) Slowing down, yes, a good lesson. I'm taking notes...
Great pictures, Diane! Wilmington is a beautiful time. You're right...we need to take more time to stop and smell the roses.
Yvonne, some days I forget that!
Jules, that is so true.
Lynn, you would love the area. So many photo opportunities.
Susanne, that's wonderful!
Notes, you need to go.
Looks like a wonderful vacation. Congratulations on your anniversary!
That vacation sounds wonderful.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.
Looks like great fun. My vacations seem to be always about meeting up with faraway family members, but that's cool too. Glad you and your husband had the opportunity to take time to enjoy life for a while.
Lee
Tossing It Out
You picked a wonderful sea side town to explore and recharge your batteries. Your descriptions were so wonderful, I felt like I had a mini vacation as well - I felt like I was there and it reminded me of other ports I've visited and lost myself to refind myself like Portsmouth, NH, Newburyport, MA and Charleston, SC - thanks so much for this post - it was an insightful invite to all writers to remember to experience life as well as write about it!
Looks like a wonderful time. My husband and I took the plunge a couple of weeks ago and hired a babysitter for the first time. We went to see Water for Elephants--good film. The kids? Well, they thought we'd returned much too early.
LOVE this post. So important to slow down and enjoy. Even more important to recognize that you need to do it more often! Good for you. Love the picts!
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