JP faces her fears.

Friday, we woke up and headed south again to the lighthouse. The waves weren't as big as they were the day before, but they weren't small either. Because of the size and the heaviness, I was wicked nervous about surfing there. I asked Nate if we could check out Frisco so we drove south. The tide was wrong so we drove back north. I don't believe that I'm a huge cry-baby and I can usually take a lot of crap before I start to cry but on the way back north, I started crying. Nate was like, "why are you crying?" and I told him that I was scared. We went through all the worst case scenarios and he kept telling me that I would be fine. I texted my cube mate/ super friend, Anna to tell her that I was about to go surfing on this crazy wave and I was super scared. She gave me words of encouragement and I sucked it up, got ready, and off we went. The paddle out wasn't bad at all. I followed Nate through some rip current and paddled out really easily. I tried to stay on the outside so I could get a shoulder and stay out everyone's way. I finally caught a wave but wasn't able to stand up on it. I then caught another wave, stood up and turned and rode it a bit too long. Next thing I knew, I was being slammed and spun and turned and I wanted to come up for air, but the wave want ready for me to come up yet. So I gave it another second and I was up. I quickly got on my board, turned around, and paddled back out. I was able to catch another wave and I rode that one out. I got out because Nate was out of the water. He had the dogs and wanted me to get back out so he could get a picture. So, I paddled out. I caught another wave but didn't get on to my feet fast enough and got slammed again. Finally, I caught a wave and Nate was able to get a pic.

Once we got done surfing, we became tourists again and climbed to the top of the lighthouse. Because it was the first day that the lighthouse was open, it was free. We climbed to the top and got some pics:

Nate and I decided to try heading north to check out more of the island and see if we could find any surf spots. We drive to the northern edge of Pea Island and had the beach to ourselves for as long as the eye could see... We didn't find any surf but we found tons of shells!

We headed back to the house and then went and walked along the beach again. We walked forever...

Then we went back and packed up!! :-(