A Perfect Weekend

This past weekend in Wilmington/Wrightsville Beach was unbelievable. After working so hard to get three novels written and published in only six months, I needed a vacation. G and I decided to take just a short two-hour trip to the NC coast. We got a cheap room at the Hilton through Priceline and arrived late Friday evening. It was a great first night going to a pub for dinner and a drink, then relaxing at the hotel, but Saturday was one of the most perfect days of my life.

Zero stress. Only happiness. We got to sleep in and if you know me, this is the perfect start to a day :P. We got up around 11:00 and headed to the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher. This is another thing you should know about me – I LOVE aquariums and zoo’s. I don’t know why. I just love looking at animals and learning about them. AND I love hanging out with my husband at places like this. I’ve had relationships before where the guy wouldn’t even take me to a zoo or aquarium, much less enjoy it with me. But G is the perfect companion for me. We hold hands the whole way through, have great conversations about the animals, and laugh and smile together. He never complains or makes me feel bad about anything. He’s just perfect. Here are some pictures of our great time at the aquarium:

This is the rare albino alligator they have at Fort Fisher. There was a plaque that explained about a place in Louisiana where for a number of years, 25% of the baby alligators born there were albinos. After Hurricane Katrina, the nest was wiped out completely and no albino alligators have been found since. Very sad :(.
I can’t remember the exact kind of catfish this is, but he was definitely looking at me funny. I couldn’t believe how BIG he was!

Look at this cool seahorse. Isn’t it cool? They have such long tails that wrap around the live rock and coral. They are such weird looking creatures and it always amazes me the kind of things that live in the sea.
The moon jellyfish were one of my favorite parts of the whole aquarium. They pretty much glow in the dark. There was a light up above that changed colors and it made it look like the jellyfish were changing colors. They kept changing from purple to green to blue to pink to red and so on. It was truly beautiful.

Here’s me sitting inside a little window looking at the HUGE saltwater tank. There were sharks, grouper, porcupine fish, stingrays, yellowtails, eels and like 20 different other kinds of fish in this tank. I think they said it was something like 4500 bathtubs worth of water. We were able to watch a neat dive-show where a guy went scuba diving in the tank and told us about the fish. I think I would have enjoyed it more if we had been able to see them feed the sharks, though, hehe.
And here’s a picture we took as we were leaving the aquarium. All smiles. After the aquarium, we walked along the beach. It was an overcast day, but it was still gorgeous out there. I took a picture of this black bird that was sitting on the rocks near us. I think it was looking at me. If you’ve read Bitter Demons, you’ll understand why this bird kind of freaked me out:
Next, we drove around until we found a nice little seafood place. I had a glass of wine and we shared some fried shrimp that was very good. We went back to the hotel and actually worked out in the gym. I was on the elliptical and G used the treadmill. It was fun, believe it or not! Then, when we went back to the room, we checked my sales. I couldn’t believe it! I’d sold nearly 400 books in one day. My book was on the Movers & Shakers list in the Kindle store for raising in sales rank from 765 to 349! I couldn’t believe I made it that high in the store! Bitter Demons, my most recent release, was also selling really well and cracked into the top 1000 in just 2 days! I had this little thought in my head that I would be thrilled if my book could sell 100 copies over its first weekend. Can you imagine how excited I was when I realized that by Saturday night, I had already sold nearly 200 copies?? I was so happy!

We took showers, got dressed, and went out to the Fox & Hound at midnight for a celebration. I got a glass of champagne and G had rum and coke and we just sat and talked and dreamed about the possibilities of the future. It was such a wonderful time. I love my husband so much, and I feel so lucky to have him in my life.

Sunday, we spent time at the beach in the most gorgeous weather, bought a bonsai tree that we named Reggie, and drove home to find that I had sold another 400 books in a single day. I feel so completely blessed to have found so many people who want to read my books and who are enjoying them. This was one of the most perfect weekends of my life!