Beach bums at Duck, NC

Another fun week at the Outer Banks is in the books!  It's always hard ending vacation with the stark reality of having to come home to errands, house projects and a business trip.  But as I always say, "don't be sad because it's over, be happy because it happened!"

We went with Johnny's family so we had 21 in the house - 10 adults, 5 teenagers and 6 kids under 9.  We had a great week with no agenda and a lot of bumming around and doing nothing.  We also had a few adventures that the kids will hopefully remember!

The first few days were filled with the pool and beach.  It was pretty hot this week with temps over 95 every day and lots of sun.  It was the first year, though, that we got both Cole and Reagan in the water riding waves.  They had a lot of fun and started to figure out how important it is to stay on the far side of the breakers.  It is also a lot easier to trek down to the beach as the kids get older - they don't really play with beach toys and there's no need for diapers and wipes so it's just towels and chairs.  We were also spoiled with a house across from the beach which also helps.  It's easy to walk back for the bathroom, food or just to get out of the sun for a little bit.

Tuesday I was also able to visit with a dear friend Kelly who I've known since 1st grade!  She lives in Kill Devil Hills so it was great having her visit so we could catch up.  She has a son Cole's age so
they played in the pool which gave us a nice chance to talk.  Strong friendships truly do last a life time - I feel very lucky to have her in my life!  No matter how long it has been, it always feels like yesterday.

Wednesday was a packed day!  It started with a 5:30 am wake up to walk to the beach and watch the sunrise.  Although it seems crazy, the kids really loved it last year and it sparked a lot of engaging discussions about why the sun isn't dripping when it comes out of the water :)  And why you can't watch the sunset on the beach in NC...which led to Never Eat Soggy Waffles (N-E-S-W).  After sunset we took the golf cart up to Duck Donuts and brought them back for everyone which was super fun.  It actually drove pretty fast on the road! I always marvel at the little things that the kids remember and what is fun for them.

We then decided to take a trip from Duck to Kill Devil Hills to visit the Wright Memorial.  It was the first time we'd been there so we were a little surprised to find out it was all outside.  They are in the process of building a new museum and definitely look forward to going back when it's done.  The kids were able to run the distance of the first, second, third and fourth flights back in 1903.  We learned a lot about why Wilbur and Orville's breakthrough was so critical - flight control not necessarily lift! We are both history buffs so we had a great time despite it being so super hot - we were dripping with sweat even at 10am.  The kids were able to climb on a replica bi-plane but could not be convinced to walk up the dunes to the monument at the top.  It will have to wait until next time.

The park service also had kites that you could borrow and fly and the kids had an absolute blast doing that.  And of course kite flying is fun when there is great wind!  We decided to stop by the Kitty Hawk kite store and let Reagan pick one (Cole picked a car instead).  Of course she wanted to fly it as soon as we got home.  It was Nana's birthday so we had dinner reservations with the adults.  It was nice to go out for a nice dinner and the amazing older cousins watched the younger ones.  My kids just adore their cousins.  After cake and birthday celebrations I took Reagan out to the beach so she could fly her new kite.  She did really well!

Thursday we decided to go with the younger cousins and Pop to the NC Aquarium while the older kids went jet skiing.  Unfortunately my work call that I thought would be short ended up taking longer than the group was at the aquarium so I missed it...but heard lots of fun stories about the jelly fish and sharks.  After the aquarium we headed to lunch and then back to the pool to cool off.  That night we decided to go out to the Life Saving Service Restaurant #5.  It was a really neat restaurant that was one of 7 life saving stations on the NC border.  The US LSS was founded to help victims of shipwrecks and later merged with the Cutter Reserve to form the US Coast Guard.

Friday we decided to head to Corolla to visit the Currituck Island Lighthouse.  We weren't sure what to expect and how the kids would handle the walk, but they had a good time.  Reagan did not, however like being so high up and was ready to descend as soon as we got to the top.  It was crazy hot and of course we walked the steps with no AC, but they had fans on the landings so it wasn't too bad.  The lighthouse was originally built in 1875 and had 220 steps - one way!  It was neat for the kids to learn that before electricity the light was powered by lard and then oil.  At first they thought it would be fun to be a light keeper until they realized they had to carry that lard up the stairs every day and had to go back up in the morning to turn off the flame.  And the light keeper had to get up every two hours to rewind the weights that created the "blinking" effect of the light.

Although we packed bathing suits with a plan to drive on the rural part of the beach at Corolla, it was pretty hot so we had a quick bite to eat and headed back to the house to play in the pool.  Also, we planned to head out about 5pm to drive back to NOVA and needed to pack.

If you remember from our vacation last year at OBX, Cole came down with a horrible headache that took him down for almost 2 days.  We were watching his water intake carefully this week and luckily had no problems!  It was nice having a week with no medical issues!  We feel very blessed to have had a great week together!

NOTE: For privacy reasons I do not post pictures of all the cousins.