My Birthday Weekend at Badin Lake!

I’m not big on birthdays. Really, I’ve never been. Those girls who loudly proclaim that it’s their birthday month? Yeah, they’re the worst. You also don’t get a birthday week. You get your birthday, maybe the night before, or in my case, you get the weekend. Lucky me…

Magically, I was able to rally several of my closest friends from undergrad for a weekend at Charlie’s house on Badin Lake. If your calendars are anything like that of my post-grad life and the lives of my friends, then you’ll realize what a miracle it was that we were able to schedule a whole weekend of partying on the water together.

These guys…

Being from eastern North Carolina, I grew up going to the beach and swimming in the ocean (what? you say I’ve mentioned that before?). Until college, I’d never even dipped a toe into a freshwater lake; I’m assuming the pond near my parent’s house doesn’t count – gross. Even now, my lake repertoire is extremely limited.

Of course, when I met Charlie and learned that his family had a lake house, I knew I’d eventually have to become familiar with these somewhat foreign surroundings. It’s kinda pathetic how little I know about the western part of our state, where apparently “going to the lake” is a very popular leisure activity. Charlie and I have since spent several weekends at Badin Lake, which is located about a two hour drive southwest of Raleigh in a town quaintly called New London.

It’s a man-made lake surrounded by a few small towns, bordering on the Uwharrie National Forest, a rocky, clay-filled forest where you can hike and camp. There are no fancy restaurants around here folks, so you’ll need to bring all your groceries and booze with you when you come. Otherwise it’s a 15 minute drive to the grocery store and the Bojangle’s in the nearby town of Denton. There are a few mom and pop places closer by, but you’ll want to cook or grill out anyway if you’ve come this far. You’ll also make your own fun. Don’t worry though, it isn’t hard. In fact, my announcement of these birthday plans to my friends was met with at least one “Yes! I don’t have to shower or look nice or go out all weekend!” My thoughts exactly…

So despite that fact that the bottoms of lakes are muddy and they have very large, ugly catfish lurking about, Badin Lake is still a massive amount of water on which you can boat, tube, jet ski, and well, lounge and drink in the sun.

Some stupid questions I asked Charlie upon my first visit to the lake:

So are there barnacles in lakes? [upon noticing the permanently built wooden swim ladders off the dock which would last approximately 2 weeks at the beach]

There aren’t jellyfish in here… are there?

The answer to both of these questions, obviously, is no. Points for the lake!

I still feel way more comfortable and at home at the beach and in the saltwater and that’ll probably never change, but I’m learning to love the lake too. I also realize that I still rather unfairly hoard all the major summer holidays by forcing Charlie to spend them with my family in Beaufort. (What can I say? I just can’t imagine a 4th of July anywhere but the beach!)

In the instance of the holiday known as my birthday though, Badin Lake was a lot more convenient for my friends who live in the farther reaches of North Carolina. (Oh, and there was a tropical storm on its way to the coast that weekend.) Don’t get me wrong, I feel incredibly fortunate that Charlie and I have families with houses (and boats!) on bodies of water just a short drive away… and that our families love us enough to let us use said houses and boats. It makes the summer exponentially more fun!

Back to the birthday festivities. I turned the big 2-7 on May 10th, which was a Sunday and, yes, also Mother’s Day. So in an effort to make up for all those past years where I didn’t throw a birthday tantrum or claim the whole month of May as my birthday stomping ground, I took over the entire weekend and invited my friends to the lake house that Friday night to begin a party that would last through Sunday morning… eh, well maybe just late Saturday night (we’re getting old).

Charlie is always a big fan of getting down to the lake as soon as possible after work on Fridays so that we can take a “sunset cruise” (his words, not mine) before the sun actually sets. After gathering all of our groceries and much-needed supplies for the weekend and waiting on all our guests to arrive, we packed a cooler and took it to the squids. It was a beautiful evening, indeed. And so nice being reunited with close friends. Well, except for Christina. I see her all the time. (Kidding, of course).

But really, everyone together on a boat, with their significant others and beers, in front of a pretty solid sunset, does it get better?

What time is it? Couples photo shoot time!!!

After the sun sunk down and it became too dark to continue cruising around, we returned to the house for some hot dog and brat grilling, cake cutting, and shot taking. Thanks to Jayne for the huge, delicious, rainbow-colored cake! We played beer pong, took pictures, threw some darts, and just generally caught up with each other. I even got some birthday presents (which I wasn’t sure happened anymore after the age of 18)! I’ve really got the best friends…

Saturday was filled with morning mimosas and bloody marys and not-as-pretty-as-I thought-they-would-be attempt at pancakes with sprinkles – they looked like a Pinterest fail.  Morning shenanigans were followed by the arrival of more friends (yay!) and (what else?) another boat ride around the lake, complete with lots of sunshine, lazy drifting, country music, and photo-taking. We even swam, despite the somewhat chilly water. Well, some of us swam… mainly because we needed to inevitably use the bathroom.

Still, it was hot and sunny, I was on a boat, and I was surrounded by some of my best friends. What more could I ask for?

Hey Brian, I see you creepin’

We returned to the dock as the skies threatened to rain, clearly not listening to my weekend refrain of “but it’s my birthday!” Some of us needed to eat something anyway… And I may have not-so-sneakily snuck off to take a little birthday nap for the benefit of myself and others around me.

Food Note:  In this little interim break time, we also readied the chickens we’d planned for dinner that evening. So long as you have someone to confidently man your grill, I can whole-heartedly recommend this beer-can chicken recipe. We cooked three of these birds and by the time they were finished, the skin was crispy and golden and the meat was moist and falling off the bone. Four ingredients, super simple, and very little babysitting required (unlike yours truly). And if this crowd could make this meal on this particular day, believe me, anybody can.

So what, if anything, could make this weekend better you might ask?

Something I didn’t even know was going to be there…

Something I’ve never had any experience with before…

Something that wow’d the whole crowd, the neighbors, and even Charlie’s dad…

Something I never knew would be so impressive…

Not that…

See it?

IT’S A DRONE!!!

When this thing beeped and shot high into the air, we all turned into eight-year-olds. I’m pretty sure I squealed with delight as we watched this very adult toy trail the boat, skillfully flown by its owner. It was incredible! We are all geeking out about the drone’s ability to fly so far away from us when William (the owner) explained to us that it also has a pretty high quality camera attached to it. It was following and filming us from up in the sky! We even did a drive-by of a house on the lake where Charlie’s dad was hanging out so that he and his pals could see it. Everyone was super impressed.

If you want, you can check out the video of us cruising around the lake from the the drone’s perspective. You can even see me trying to snap pictures of it!

After a final evening spin around the lake, we headed inside to eat our chickens, make more drinks, blare some tunes, and party a little bit more before the weekend came to an end. I even had one last birthday cake (yes, another one) before the night was over. This was one of my best birthdays in recent memory, not really because it was my birthday, but because I was able to have so many of my close friends together in one place and in such a fun setting. I couldn’t ask for more.

Thanks to Charlie’s dad for letting us have run of his lake house for the weekend!

I hope to follow that weekend up with a great Memorial Day weekend at the beach with friends and family. Follow me on Instagram to see what we get into down there!