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We drove on to find the house at the end of the street. As we unloaded our stuff and were getting settled in to our room, Ruth's Mom and Rose went out for groceries. As they were leaving, we noticed an odd grouping of cars down the street. There were several guys running back and forth between a house and the cars. A few minutes later we were standing out on the deck and I saw a guy approaching carrying a tennis raquet bag. As soon as I saw him, I knew what was in the bag. I mentioned to Ruth that he had a rifle, and she looked at me in a state of disbelief. Sure enough, as he was walking past us we noticed the end of the rifle sticking out the back of the bag. This sight was followed by the sound of helicopters overhead. We went to the side of the house facing the beach and spotted a coast guard helicopter flying around off shore. But, it really seemed like the noise was too loud for that one helicopter. A few seconds later the light blueish/grey Apache helicopter flew past the house rather low and right over the beach. Before long the coast guard ship had anchored a little ways off the beach. Yep, it seemed like we had a rather important guest in the neighborhood. After a night stroll along the beach, we watched a little of the news. And there he was, Al Gore and members of the Washington Press Core standing by the entrance to Figure 8. They never said where he was exactly, but since we had just driven in that way, we knew right where they had been standing. On Saturday, we slept late and awoke just in time for our first in-person encounter with the secret service. It seems that there was a package to be delivered to Ruth's mom. We noticed a car driving down the street and pulling into the driveway. It seemed a bit strange and didn't really have the look of a delivery vehicle. The young gentleman got out of his car with a package and came up to the door. He somewhat pretended to be the delivery man, but he just didn't have the right look. As we watched him pull away we noticed he stopped a couple of house down the street and get out. He then walked over to where the rest of the secret service were lingering. Yes, Ruth's mom had her package delivered by to the door by the secret service. We won't talk much about the fact that it was a FedEx package being delivered in a UPS envelope via the secret service... we'll leave the details of that to your imagination. Ruth's parents had noticed a couple of guys on the beach. They had matching chairs, coolers, beach umbrellas, etc. And they were sitting right next to the stairs behind the house. Anyone want to guess what they were doing there? After joking around a bit about the delivery and the guys at the bottom of the stairs, Ruth and I got ready to head into Wilmington for the day. We ate at a little place called Henry's and the food was good. We went on to downtown Wilmington to walk around. We saw the battleship (hey, this huge ship sitting in the river was kinda hard to miss), did a little shopping, and began our trip back to beach house. We got Ruth a cute little traffice dress with cars, stop signs, and traffic lights all over it. Maybe it will help her get over her fear of driving. We'll have to wait and see on that one. We also saw part of the Leery's Seafood Restaurant set from Dawson's Creek. Before making it back to the house, we had some things to pick up: new flip-flops for Ruth's mom, shrimp for everyone, and new pillows. You see, the pillows at the house just didn't work for Ruth and me. Our first night there was a little uncomfortable and we figured that new pillows would help. And they did, we slept much better with the new pillows. (BTW, we were kind enough to leave them at the house for future guests.) As we turned onto our street, we saw a guy hop out of his car and hurry into the street in front of us. Being the kind soul I am, I decided not to run him over and stopped. The nice secret service agent asked us if we needed any help and why we were there. We politely told him we were staying down the street and he let us by. When we arrived at the house we met Charlie and Jenny Plessums Plesums (EDITOR'S NOTE 11/3/2006: Charlie is now retired and spends his time searching the web for misspellings of his name. His excellent detective work led him to this page, so I have now corrected the spelling. Sorry for the confusion. Their website can be found at: www.plesums.com) , some friends of Ruth's parents who were going to vacation at the house with us. We visited for a while, ate some BBQ from Cooper's that Ruth's mom had bought before leaving Raleigh, and went for a night walk along the beach. We noticed that the secret service were more scarce (or better hidden) that night. After the walk Ruth and I made some plans for Sunday and went to sleep. That night we slept better than the night before (new pillows helped I think). We slept late and finally made it downstairs to have some bagels for breakfast. Shortly thereafter, Ruth's Aunt Peg and Cousin Celia arrived for a visit. We played visit and catch up on lives since it had been around 5 years since Ruth and last seen them. Ruth's parents took Rose back to the Raleigh airport for her flight home, and Ruth and I decided to make our way to the beach. We sat for a while, walked for a while, and played in the waves. We went back to the house in time to meet up with her Aunt Peg who was on her way to the beach. So, we turned around and headed back to the beach to soak up some rays. Later that afternoon, Ruth and I headed off the island to one of the nearby stores to pick up beer, cider, and chocolate syrup. Charlie and Jenny made a wonderful dinner for everyone that evening and even had ice cream for dessert. (Hence the need for the chocolate syrup. BTW, Jack Daniels makes a wonderful ice cream topping.)
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