I know what you’re thinking. “Trevor, you were just down in the Outer Banks two weeks ago! What’s up with that?” Well, what can I say, I’m a beach bum! Actually, it just so happened the week I went down with Jen and Allie was close to our previously-planned family vacation. And I also know it’s taken me two weeks to blog about it. Oh well.

It was a great week filled with a lot of family time, vegging on the beach, and eating at great restaurants for dinner. It was also my 20th birthday the Tuesday we were down there. For the 4th Of July, we went to the  Town of Duck Parade. Then, in the evening, we drove up to the Whalehead Club in Corolla for a great fireworks display. Both were great small town community events.

I had never been out of town on my birthday, nor had I been to the Outer Banks Fourth of July week. We normally go in the Spring or late Summer. It’s a whole different experience going for the Fourth. It’s without a doubt the busiest week of the summer tourist-wise, with traffic jams galore on the way down and back, long waits for most area restaurants, and crowded beaches. It was still a great week, though. The Outer Banks is my second home and I love it no matter what season or conditions.

I got some great photos down there, which I will eventually put on TrevPix.com. Until then here’s a few snapshots that give you a glimpse of our week. Descriptions are below the pictures, going left to right by row.

1) The house we stayed in, 2) Peace Frogs sand sculpture by a professional artist at Jockey’s Ridge, 3) Local children in the Town of Duck Fourth Of July Parade, 4) The massive amounts of people who watched the parade leaving, 5) The historic Whalehead Club in Corolla, site of the fireworks, and 6) Fireworks at The Whalehead Club.

So I’m just now posting an update from the beach last week. It was a good week; had lots of fun with Allie, Jen, and her family. The weather was insanely hot, and the smoke from the nearby Hyde County wildfire was ridiculously thick, depending on which way the wind was blowing (either bringing it towards us or pushing it away), but overall it was a great week.

One interesting thing that happened was a huge basking shark washing up on shore the night we got there. It was hundreds of pounds, but apparently only a baby, because the adults can get upwards of thirty feet long. This one was only eight or nine. It was still alive as it came ashore and drew quite a crowd on the beach.

The basking shark is apparently an extremely endangered species and efforts were going to be made to save it. However, a man on the beach, meaning only to end its suffering, slit the shark’s throat with his pocket knife. The Nags Head Beach Patrol and a nearby marine biologist were infuriated, but, unforunately, it was dying anyway. A huge backhoe came the next morning and buried it deep in the sand. Here’s a picture below; more will be uploaded to Flickr later. And, in less than two weeks, I’m headed back for another week!

I’m about to head out to the Outer Banks tomorrow with my best friend Jen and her family, plus another one of my best friends, Allie. They rent a place every year down at milepost 18 on the Beach Road. I went last year and it was a lot of fun. Anywhere on the Outer Banks is great if you ask me. The area is basically my second home. The best part is I get to go back with my family two weeks after I get back with Jen’s family!

I’ve been working every day for most of the day, and it will be great to get some time to relax (I know, I know, some of you who are reading this are saying, “Yeah, so? I work 9-5 every day!” Well, I’m new at this whole adult work week thing). Anyway, I’m trying to get a break from technology for a bit and will not be blogging (I’ve post-dated entries for the coming week, and they’re really going to be insightful). They’re gonna be all about my life goals.

Leave your comments and encouragement for me to come home to! Everyone have a great week, and I’ll be posting live again next Friday (June 13th).

A big congratulations goes out to Ashley Crossman, winner of Miss Virginia 2008! She’s the sister of one of my friends at VCU, and I had the privilege of designing her an ad for inclusion in the pageant program and other uses. Many of her sponsors were local businesses in her hometown of Montross, Virginia and had no logos for use, so I designed the majority of them. It was a lot of fun creating this and working with her. She’s incredibly nice, very talented, and is beautiful on the inside as well as out. She’s extremely deserving of her win. Here’s the ad I created for her in preparation for the pageant:

I went to the Lifehouse concert downtown at The National with my friends Monica, Sarah, and Katelin Monday night. Genius here forgot to charge his camera. I realized it was completely dead when I got there, but this is me we’re talking about. I’m not at all surprised. It’s a daily occurrence. Either way, I snapped a few decent pictures with the iPhone.

The concert was incredible. Matt Nathanson and Honey Honey opened up for them. Honey Honey was pretty good, but Matt Nathanson was awesome. I had only heard one song of his before the show (”Car Crash”) and expected him to be pretty low-key and rather acoustic. That was definitely not the case. He rocked out. I’m talking hardcore. Lifehouse was terrific of course. Even more so than I expected, though. Here’s a few very vibrant (they put on a pretty cool light show, too) pictures from the concert: