10th Annual Beach Visit with GSV Buddies

Earlier this month, Randy and I joined six other guys we know through the Gay Spirit Visions organization for a week at a rental house on an ocean beach. This was my tenth beach trip with various GSV buddies, and Randy’s sixth.

In previous years, this trip was to various beach houses on St. George Island, on the Gulf. When house rentals got prohibitively expensive this year on St. George, we decamped to an Atlantic beach approximately the same distance from Atlanta: Carolina Beach, near Wilmington, North Carolina.

Another difference from previous trips: there were eight of us this year (vs. as many as twelve in some of our other beach trips). 2024’s cast o’ characters:

Jim

John

Lashes

Randy

Ralph

Scott

Ted

Cal

The house that Randy (trip coordinator this year) rented for our week-long stay, “Tranquility Villa,” featured quick beach access, lots of luxury, and (especially for only eight of us) was ginormous.

A view of Tranquility Villa from the beach:

A few interior photos (like the exterior one above, from the rental agency’s website):

The bedroom Randy and I slept in:

Our somewhat bizarre (because mirrored-wall and jacuzzi-containing) bathroom:

As with our other beach trips with these (or other GSV) guys, we spent our week doing various things, some of them all together: daily half-hour morning silent meditations, evening meals we prepared at the house, a meal together at a restaurant on Thursday evening, and a wine-tasting and wine trivia quiz John had organized for us. Other activities were done in smaller groups depending on people’s different moods and interests: walks on the beach, jigsaw puzzling, Wizard card game-playing, and excursions to several nearby attractions – including some of the historic downtown neighborhoods in Wilmington.

Randy and I also carved out time to visit several local antique malls (in addition to the ones we visited on our drive to and from Wilmington).

And of course numerous naps were taken, books were read, crossword puzzles were worked, there was beach-watching from various decks, etc.

The three jigsaw puzzles completed at the beach:

Three Excursions

Several of us drove into Wilmington on two different days to tour some local gardens. The first was the very impressive New Hanover County Arboretum. This was a large garden with many different areas; my favorite was its Japanese garden:

Photos from other areas of the arboretum:

Another group of us visited the nearby North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher:

A third excursion to Wilmington that I took part in was a trip to a vast historic estate open to the public, Airlie Gardens:

Other photos (from the Internet) of the huge Airlie Garden are available here.

Randy and Lashes spent part of another day exploring the nearby Carolina Beach State Park, then taking two ferries to Bald Head Island (which they described as a glorified country club resort, as it seemed to consist mostly of a golf course equipped with a zillion golf carts). A few of Randy’s photos from that afternoon:

As with previous beach trips, before we went our separate ways I gave everyone a small souvenir of our stay, which I found at one of the local antique malls Randy and I visited:

All in all, a great time, with a great bunch o’ guys (all of them good cooks and wicked Wizard players!).

Two final photos: one Ralph took of the beach ramp at night, the other taken by John one afternoon: