More at the beach

So, where did I leave off? Wednesday....

Wednesday, my parents were due to arrive. We didn't have formal plans, but since it was my dad's birthday, we did plan to have a nice dinner with them. We spent a good bit of time at the beach late morning, and when we walked back to the camper, the sand and walkway were SO hot we all practically burned the bottoms of our feet. Abby, in particular was miserable. Wimpering and everything! Put some aloe on her feet and she was better within the hour. My parents arrived around 3pm and we enjoyed catching up. Spaghetti dinner with garlic bread, laundry and smores finished our evening.

Thursday was the big sightseeing day. And boy, did it dawn warm! You know it's gonna be a hot day, when you leave the shower house with dripping wet hair and it's dry by the time you reach your campsite - three rows away! But we all piled into our cars and headed out the see Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. AWESOME. And HOT! Before arriving, I knew that I would not be climbing, nor would my dad. The kids both wanted to climb, but we were a little hesitant to encourage that. Abby swore up and down that she would do it all by herself. Josh (fortunately) didn't meet the height requirements for climbing. Naturally, he was VERY upset about it. My dad and I tried to keep him otherwise occupied and distracted. He and I even walked up the steps into the bottom of it - but that didn't fool him. We toodled through the museum and the gift shop and got the kids passports stamped. He was a real trooper! After the climbers returned, we headed farther south for Ocracoke Lighthouse. It takes a 40 minute ferry ride to get there. But they didn't factor in the 2 hour wait (in the blinding sun) to get ON the ferry. Oye! We got some ice cream and called it lunch. When we finally arrived, we saw the lighthouse (you can't go up or even touch this one), took our pictures and went to find a place to eat. We called that meal dinner :-) and then waited another hour to board the ferry back to Hatteras Island. Josh fell asleep waiting for the ferry; and woke up after we boarded. Abby fell asleep about 5 miles from the campground and never fully woke up. Put the kids straight to bed and started making margaritas!

It was a rough night for sleep - very warm and muggy, not much of a breeze. Friday dawned warm again. At 10am, the girls went up to a beading activity organized by the campground summershiners. It was pretty lame, so only Abby made "jewelry". Then we dressed for the pool and enjoyed the cool water for close to 2 hours. After a light lunch, we piled into the cars again and headed north to Bodie Island and then Roanoke Island. We saw Bodie Lighthouse (and a brief rain shower) and then went to Manteo to see the "new" Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse (which is actually a recreation of an old lighthouse that stood out in the marshes many, many moons ago). We walked around downtown Manteo, shopped at the museum stores, and searched for fossils, all to the constant rumble of thunder and impending rain. When the first drops started to fall, we got back in the car and headed back to the campground. Where it was raining fiercely! So much for our steak dinner!!! We tried to build a surround to our tent, but it didn't work. We thought about waiting it out, but were too hungry. So, we loaded back into the cars and headed to Avon for dinner. We dined at Bubba's Too BBQ. It was good; but no steak dinner. The kids were in bed by 9pm and the grownups were enjoying Mango margaritas by 9:15.

It was another rough night with not much sleep in our camper. The previous night Abby was talking in her sleep (about climbing the lighthouse, no less!) and Josh was very restless. Last night Abby was up and complaining about a sore throat and not being able to sleep - for at least 2+ hours. She eventually fell asleep soundly in my half of the bed. So, I moved to her end of the camper and slept with Josh for a while. Didn't sleep well! No one did, it turns out. Between the heat and the neighboring noise, we were all a little grumpy this morning. But the steaks and fried potatoes we had for breakfast perked us all up a good bit!!

My parents hit the road for home. We are hanging out at the campground. We will probably do the pool for a while; hopefully the beach, too - maybe in the evening, when it's not too warm. T-shirt tye-dying is at 3:30 this afternoon - a can't miss activity!! Then it's burgers and dogs, baked beans and salad for dinner. We pull out tomorrow morning and head back to the Williamsburg KOA. We'll be home and sleeping in our own beds on Monday.

It's been a great vacation, and we will certainly enjoy our last few days of it; but we are all ready to go home. We have a few days at home to do chores and what not, then we head up to the Silver Lake cottage for the 4th of July. Then it's back to "real life". Trying not to think about that!!

Being at the Beach

Father's Day began our family vacation - a trip in the camper to Cape Hatteras, the Outer Banks. We pulled out of Dillsburg at 8:37am and headed south. By lunchtime we had stopped three times to pee and were finally pulling in to visit with some friends in Richmond. We spent about 4 hours of quality time with them and their three boys and their parents. It was almost like a family reunion! By 4:30 we were on our way to Williamsburg and our KOA for the night.

Other than a few minor mishaps at Williamsburg, like mom not reading the map right and totally missing the campsite and losing Abby for a while, it was a great night. The kids had a hard time settling down and going to sleep. By 10pm, when the grownups were ready for bed, they were still awake, so we all settled down together for some much needed rest.

By 8:37 Monday morning we were on the road for Hatteras. The original plan was for us to eat breakfast in the car - donuts. But DH saw a sign for Cracker Barrel, and we made a brief detour :-) Once on the road again, we only had to stop twice for potty breaks. We pulled into the Cape Hatteras KOA by mid-afternoon and the kids started clamoring for bikes and the beach and the pool and dinner and ..... Crazy!!

We took some time to get the camper set up and settled in. Then we walked over the dunes to the beach and spent a good hour or two there. We headed back for showers and dinner and a game and then put the kids to bed around 9pm. They were asleep within minutes! We didn't stay up too much later than them. It had been a VERY busy day.

Tuesday, we started with the KOA pancake breakfast - which was FABULOUS in Maine (fresh made to order pancakes with fresh Maine blueberries...), but was less than stellar here in OBX. The pancakes were frozen - "cooked" in the microwave; the sausage was also frozen and "cooked" in the oven; the coffee (I was told) was like drinking mud; and the orange juice was mostly frozen. What an experience!

The kids chose to hang out at the pool on Tuesday, so after much piddling around at the campsite, riding bikes (Abby's learning how to ride a 2-wheeler) and lunch, we headed up to the pool. We spent more than an hour there - with the kids riding down the slides multiple times each - we headed back for showers and dinner. We decided to dine out, and at 6:30 were heading out. The kids, very VERY tired, fell asleep on the 30 minute ride back to "civilization", and we had a very nice dinner at The Dunes restaurant. We were back to the camper by 10pm and put the kids to bed.

Wednesday will be another fun outdoor day. Plans are as yet undecided; but Grandma and Grandpa will be joining us before dinner. Thursday we will finally head out to see some lighthouses.

I love vacation!