Pardon my “Tommy” quote, I have just been thinking of that song since it has “21″ in it. Anyhow, I’m sorry for not updating, but the past week or so has been filled with so many wonderful things I just couldn’t get around to putting everything down on here. So I am going to try to get it all done in one swoop. Ready?

Last Saturday, my North Carolinian RPI buddies Anne and Dan threw me a 21st birthday-tropical themed extravaganza! Some of the co-ops/interns from work came and we had a jolly good time, especially arguing over the rules of Asshole and trying to make balloon hats. We ended the evening with a rousing game of glowing miniature golf, which was quite possibly one of the most challenging courses ever. Maybe it was because of all the dark shadows and real sand traps. Several times we just wrote down “6″ on the score card out of true frustration! I won, somehow, though I think it was a error in score keeping just to satisfy the birthday girl.

As if this were not enough, my man came to visit on my actual birthday! He also sent flowers to my office, and my boss came over with them, and it was all very exciting! (Reminds me of Bridget Jones, when one is tempted to send flowers to one’s self in order to get attention. But no I did not have to do that at all!) We also had cake at our department meeting (who cares if it was 10am!).

We went to Firebirds Rocky Mountain Grill at Streets at Southpoint, where I got NY Strip Delmonico. It was good and spicy, and I had my first “legal” drink (red wine of some sort, the name escapes me now), however was not carded. Hopefully I do not suddenly look 30 years old!

Oak came bearing many wonderful gifts, especially something sparkly for my ears!! My mom freaked out about this issue, saying something to the tune of, “Those are huge! I don’t even have diamond earrings yet!” Mu ha ha. He also brought preparations for my favorite, Bloody Maries – and a box of Belgian chocolate, the kind I obsessed about in March. Yummy!

Then Oak and I went on a “mini-break” (can’t avoid the Bridget Jones vocabulary, sorry) to Myrtle Beach! It was fabulous! We camped right on the ocean, and spent many hours swimming in the warm summer water.

We also checked out the “strip”, and we had dinner at Broadway on the Beach at Liberty Steak House. Was very delicious. This place is nice because you get the beeper thing when you have to wait, but there is enough stuff to walk around and look at that it really isn’t that bad. The coolest part of this was the salt water taffy shop, where they had a taffy puller going, and a guy who was putting the taffy through a special machine that sucks the long strip of taffy in and chops it into perfect pieces and wraps them. He would throw pieces of taffy out to people while they were walking in. Of course we got some of each flavor, seeing that it is homemade and not the crappy kind that was boxed in Taiwan or something.

The next day we had breakfast at K&W Cafeteria, Oak’s favorite southern fare. We went to Ripley’s Aquarium, which was pretty cool. There’s this big tunnel you go through on a people-mover type thing and sharks and all sorts of creepy sea creatures swim right over your head. Also got to pet sting rays and hold a horseshoe crab! Was very fun except I fell and scraped my knee, which was a little bit of a bummer. I wish you could buy coordination!

On the way home we discovered a new piece of roadside America – Sparky’s! We went to South of the Border on the way down, and then on the way back we kept noticing these billboards for “Exotic Nuts” and “Tasty Syrup” and “Fireworks” and “Discount Cigarettes” and “Ninja Weapons” (I am not joking) advertised by this funny-lookin’ dog with googly eyes and neon colors everywhere. Of course, we had to stop to see the deal with the exotic nuts. Was another cheese capital of America! I think we should have bought a ninja sword as a souvenir of this experience. Ah well, we will just have to go back!

It was hard to face reality after all this fun! I was very sad when I had to take Oak to the airport and say goodbye! Ugh, why can’t we just always be on vacation, huh? Well that was my very very eventful week! I’m off to spend my birthday card at Wal*Mart!

Posted by Carrie on Sunday, July 21, 2002
Categories: blog · 2 Comments »