We had a house right on the beach - it may seem odd for people who live on a Caribbean island to head for another seaside island for a vacation - but Topsail Island has for many years been a traditional vacation spot for the Franke family - and also being near Charlotte NC made it easy for everyone to get there from Virginia, Turks & Caicos and the UK. We had lots of freshly-caught shrimp and other seafood, Kate and Grace had fun chasing around the beach and playing in the water, I got to do some much needed shopping in nearby Wilmington and Jacksonville, and we had some baby turtles hatch out of their nest right by our beach house! Unfortunately they chose to do it in the middle of the night so we didn't see them emerge, but there were hundreds of tracks on the beach in the morning leading down to the ocean. The week was lots of fun, and all too soon it was time to fly home... Here's a slideshow of some of my shots from the trip - all taken with a Canon G9.