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My Summer Vacation

Illustration, Painting, Design

My Summer Vacation
a postcard contest project
Every summer, for the last three generations, my family has made a pilgrimage to Atlantic Beach, NC to a house built by my great-grandfather who was lovingly known as Papa. The house is called Papa's Palace and is directly on the ocean. It is largely unchanged from when it was first built in 1947.

A large, clumsy looking cottage, the house has three floors and a basement with actual rooms for the help. The bedrooms on the upper two floors include enough beds to sleep close to forty people. Every summer, with all of my first cousins, dogs, aunts and uncles, and my grandmother, we manage to fill almost every bed. It is a fun, mostly relaxing time.

This summer I decided to make postcards about my beach trip. I hope to make this a tradition, every summer adding new images to a series in an attempt to accurately convey the kind of strong family bond we share, while at the same time paying homage to the house's history. This year I focussed mostly on the beach, and simple activities and sights that can be found around the house and the city of Atlantic Beach.

To stay motivated I held a loose contest via Twitter to pick the recipients of the little paintings. The first ten responders received a postcard with a personal note from me about the subject of the card. They were sent out the week of July 27, 2011.

GP
This is Papa's Palace. From the street. Which means this is the back of the house. My dad is unloading things from the car. I promise, I did help. When everyone was at the house this summer, there were 14 cars in the driveway (some parked down the street at Cousin Allen's house), five dogs, eight first cousins, three first cousins-once-removed, three aunts, two uncles, one grandmother, one sister, one brother, one brother-in law, and my neice. my parents. and me.
This is a view off of the FRONT porch of our beach house, 'Papa's Palace.' Traditionally, the side facing the ocean, not the street, is considered the front of a beach house. That is where the best views, and subsequently, the best porches are. Most beach houses are designed with that in mind. We have other family with houses down the beach, and there is a lot of social calling that happens, much like what you might think the custom would have been fifty years ago when the house was first built.
Snooki riding a Dinosaur. This was painted by request. The pier in the background is fun for fishing and eating fried things.
This is the view down the beach from Papa's Palace, towards the Oceanana Family Resort and Fishing Pier. The birds in the foreground are sandpipers.
Wrightsville Beach, off the coast of Wilmington NC. This is a lifeguard stand as seen from the Carolina Yacht Club, the second oldest Yacht Club in the United States.
My dad really loves kites. The rest of us also like them a lot. This year we flew this kite, one that looked like a shark and another that looked like a parrot. There was also a frog kite. And a parafoil. And four four-inch butterflies. The butterflies were very difficult to keep from tangling, but very satisfying.
Fort Macon was built to defend New Bern against the British during the War of 1812. It never saw a battle, however, until the American Civil War, where it was taken by the Northern troops. It was inactive until the second World War, and has since been restored and converted into a state park and museum.
There was a day camp out fishing on the docks at the Beaufort Maritime Museum. Watching those kids catch little pinfish in the sound made me want to join them. But, alas, I am over 12 years old and my parents didn't sign me up.
My mother makes the meanest blueberry cobbler ever. If you have never had one, I suggest you find a recipe and make it. Use lots of butter, this is not an item to worry about health. Blueberry Cobbler is a dessert I grew up eating in the summer, and we still beg for it at the beach. it is a rich, cakey bread full of sugar and tart blueberries. And traditionally southern, to boot.