Some weekends just work and even though the family was scattered east and west in North Carolina, from Linville to Atlantic Beach (and Wilson, of course) and north and south from New York to New Orleans, it's been a picture perfect weekend. I'm at the beach doing my normal beach stuff - running errands, putzing around the cottage, taking long walks and having a good meal or two (...or three). Susan, Elizabeth and Page are on a girl's trip to New York while Joe and Alex are in Raleigh for a birthday and an action-packed, fun-filled Alex-centric weekend. Anderson and Campbell are on the wedding circuit and Cotton and Sawyer are left behind at home in Raleigh. In the meantime, my cousin entertained her father and friends with a special dinner in Wilson while Johnny and Susan visited Claire in New Orleans. Enough of the words....I'll let the pictures tell the story of one family's fan-damn-tastic weekend.

The weekend was kicked off Friday night with Marianne's Lobsterpalooza for Huitt and friends.

Early Saturday morning, the girls were off to see the Statue of Liberty. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Meanwhile back in Raleigh....Alex goes to his friend's 4th birthday party.

And in New Orleans, Johnny, Susan, Claire and Larry enjoy lunch together.

Meanwhile I'm still trying to figure out how to take a decent selfie (and realizing it's an issue with the subject matter more-so than the actual picture taking....which brings me to my next point....) Is the lighting all wrong or am I starting to look like a lighthouse...Old Baldy?

Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, Joe and Alex go to Pullen Park....

...only to be quickly "outdone" by this wonderful selfie of Susan, Elizabeth and the city.

Dueling dinners....one from New Orleans and the other from Morehead City....care to guess which is which?

Page "out-Eloises" Eloise at the Plaza in New York.....

.....while Alex does his best "before and after" at the barber shop in Raleigh.

Page conks out in the cab but it gives her enough rest time so she can stay up to see "Aladdin" Saturday night.

While the New York crowd is watching Aladdin, I'm off to Wilson to go to a friend's cocktail party. My original plan is to stay for 30 minutes, turn around and head back to the beach. But the party is so much fun - seeing old friends, enjoying over-the-top, fantastic food (with special kudos to the chefs who prepared the tomato sandwiches and country ham and cheese biscuits), in a spectacularly beautiful setting, that it's hard to leave as originally planned - so I stay for the entire time. Meanwhile, Anderson and Campbell are celebrating the wedding of friends in Linville along with her old Wilson buddy, Betsy, (who is the daughter of the party hosts) and her husband. We're slightly (!!!) inter-connected in Eastern North Carolina.....

Now there's an entrance but Anderson and Campbell really make it.

....and Joe and Alex kick off Sunday with breakfast at the Farmer's Market. Alex looks so much like his father and paternal grandfather.....until I see a picture like this one and the gleam in his eye and the broad smile on his face are Bridgers and Hackney genes being expressed as he devours a buttery biscuit. At Sky Top Orchard in Hendersonville, my sister, Lou, is selling the best hotdogs in the west (but I don't have her selfie yet but watch for updates...and if you're at Sky Top stop by). Meanwhile at Atlantic Beach, it's noon and I'm not dressed, choosing instead to watch CBS Sunday Morning, Meet the Press and put together this post. Meanwhile outside....it's a gorgeous day and the gulls on the beach are calling....

....almost telling me it's time to start my walk and see if I can top the 7.5 miles I walked yesterday. Probably not, but what a fantastic weekend it continues to be. Balding or not, I am a lucky guy.

The family selfie circle is complete (with apologizies to Mother whose selfie might not turn out so great since she only has a land line ) as I just received this pic of my sister at her hot dog stand with her trusty assistant, Mark. Hotdogs never looked so good.