Three Years Ago Today

#30DaysHathNovember

I have to stop and figure out what that year is. November 11, 2009. I looked back through old blog posts to see what I was up to and luckily, I posted pretty regularly and I can tell you exactly what I was doing on this day three years ago:  vacationing at the Outer Banks. It was our last OBX vacation before we moved back to California. It was also when Nor'Ida rolled through which was pretty memorable.

I love California, in particular, San Diego. It's home as no place has been for many years. But, North Carolina's beaches are beautiful, especially at the Outer Banks and I miss vacationing at the OBX. San Diego's beaches are beautiful too, but in a more dramatic way with its cliffs and bluffs and huge waves. North Carolina's beaches are serene and warm and more welcoming in my opinion.

Ugh. This post has made me depressed. I miss having an annual vacation!!!

OBX Vaca 2009: The Pictures

Cotton field on the way to the OBX.

The living room/kitchen at the house. This is the 3rd floor.

Living room/nook. 3rd floor.

View off of the 3rd floor balcony.

1st floor rec room with the pool table, Captain Hook, and the foos ball table is behind me.

Bridge out to Cape Hatteras

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

The original site of the lighthouse before it was moved in 1999.

A crab that came up to our front door.

 

Currituck Beach Lighthouse

A Great Blue Heron that I caught on film fishing. Cool!

Nor’Ida

After one of the most quiet hurricane seasons that I can remember, we manage to vacation in the worst storm of the year. You might think that being in the middle of a Nor’Easter would ruin a vacation, but you’d be wrong.

This was the beach before the storm;

If you’ll notice in the above pictures, the ocean is relatively calm, and you can see how far back the waves are from the dunes. The top pic was taken the day we arrived and the second one was taken Tuesday. It was overcast but not windy yet.

Conditions Wednesday to Friday were pretty bad. The wind and rain were so constant that it made it hard to remember what quiet was like. The wind gusts were strong enough that they shook our house. We could hear the roar of the ocean over the wind and rain and inside the house with all the windows and doors shut. It was eerie to say the least.

This was the beach on Thursday when we walked over to see what was what:

The waves were clear up, and sometimes over, the dunes at this point. The sea foam would fly up and over the dunes clear to our house and it looked like clumps of snow at times. I had never seen anything like it before.

This was our walkway down to the beach. If you’ll notice, there are no stairs anymore. We actually saw several sets of stairs be swept by as we stood there. Lots of walkways were lost to the storm.

Here you can see more foam and get an idea of how high up the wave were beating on the dunes. You can also see where the dunes were already being eroded. At this point in the storm, we hadn’t even reached the worst of the series of high tides that were expected.

Here’s a video:

I think it was Wednesday night that the main road into town was flooded cutting off our way out. Thankfully, the little area where our house was located was almost directly across the street from a Harris Teeter so we had food and supplies the entire time we were stranded. Two of the streets that were in our neighborhood flooded too but were still passable. I’m pretty sure this is the only time I’ve ever been truly stranded anywhere. The road that our house was off of, NC 12 ended at the beach when you drive north on it. Literally. The pavement ends in sand. You can keep driving if you have 4WD or an ORV but I’m sure it’s not recommended during a storm. So the only way out was to drive south on NC 12 back to US 158, or the Bypass as it’s known, but NC 12 was flooded and closed between Corolla and Duck. You can Google Map it if you want.

Another video:

Anyway, we passed the time by playing Apples to Apples, doing crafts, and playing pool and foos ball. It was nice actually. We were all cozied up in the house with plenty of food, lots of things to do, and each other. Here are some more pictures:

Stairs and other debris floating by.

What was left of the stairs to the beach. Also, about half of the bulk of the dunes were gone. We estimated about 5 feet of the width was washed away. You can also see that the ocean had receded back away from the dunes.

This was the road next to our house. Our side yards flooded but that was it. Our house was actually ideally situated because we had very little standing water whereas most of the neighboring houses had much more.

On the drive home Saturday, we saw lots of flooded yards and roads still had standing water on them. Nags Head seemed to be the hardest hit in the Outer Banks. Many roads off of US 158 to the beach were still flooded and blocked off by the city. Some people also lost their homes in Nags Head. I saw footage of Rodanthe on the news and The Serendipity House, which was the house in the movie, was in the ocean. It was still standing at that point and I haven’t heard if it made it through the storm.

I hear so many people say how they don’t understand how people can live so close to the ocean. But you know what? I also hear people say how they don’t understand how people can live in California with earthquakes and fires or in the north with all the cold and snow. Is there any place on earth that is completely untouched by Mother Nature’s rage? When you take into account all the places that have oceanic storms, earthquakes, forest fires, landslides, avalanches, tornadoes, flooding, and droughts, there really isn’t anywhere that is 100% safe. You take the good with the bad. That’s life. The Outer Banks is gorgeous most of the year and rich in history. I guess it’s the bad that sticks out most in people’s minds though.

So, I’m Out

Looks like I’m out of the running for NaBloPoMo. It totally wasn’t my fault. We lost our Internet connection at our beach house. Seeing as how we were in the middle of Nor’Ida, there was no getting it fixed. We were stranded for two or three days. That’s why no blog updates on our vacation. It sucked, not being able to blog, let me tell you. Now, to catch up.

After our day at Cape Hatteras, the weather deteriorated pretty quick like. The next day, we drove into Corolla and went to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse again. It was close and we wanted to do a little something before it started raining. The lighthouse hadn’t changed since last year, BUT, this year the youngest was brave enough to climb it with the Mister and the oldest. We were pretty proud of her. I didn’t climb it again. Honestly, I’ve climbed several lighthouses in my day and they all look pretty much the same from the inside. For me, it’s enough just being there and taking pictures from the outside.

That was Tuesday. Wednesday, it was raining and the wind was blowing like mad. We decided to drive to Duck to go shopping, hehehe. We got some souvenirs and I got some more jewelry at The Mystic Jewel. I love that store. I’ll still be able to shop online when we move, but it’s really not the same as being able to go into the store and peruse all the many glittery cases. Last year I got a moonstone pendant (mine is a moonstone in this setting) and a blue lace agate (mine doesn’t look exactly like this one, but you can get the idea.) pendant. This year I got a charoite pendant (my pendant actually looks like these earrings but as a pendant, not earrings.) and an opal dragonfly pendant. They’re pretty and fun and easy to wear. I’m not a really fancy kinda person and jewelry from The Mystic Jewel fits my personality.

That brings us up to the heart of the stormy weather. For that, I’m going to write a new post.

OBX Vaca 2009, Day 3

Today was a pretty great day. We got up, not so bright and early, to drive down to Cape Hatteras. In the previous years we’ve been to the Outer Banks, we have never been to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It was quite a drive; about 65 miles or so.

We went through Rodanthe but I didn’t take any pictures. Frankly, it wasn’t all that impressive to me and since I have never seen nor read Nights in Rodanthe, I didn’t know what Nicholas Sparks thought was so special about the town.

We also drove through Milo Beach. Milo Beach was scary, at least to me. The beach was too…EVERYWHERE! There was sand on the roads and you could see where people had shoveled sand just so that they could get to their houses. The ocean was just a little too close for comfort in my opinion.

Our final destination was, of course, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. It was really beautiful and majestic. It’s closed for climbing this time of year but I just enjoyed being there and taking pictures. Also, it was about 73 degrees and beautiful today. Perfect for walking outdoors.

On the way out, we stopped at the original lighthouse site and walked on the beach for a bit. All in all, a great day.

Again, tomorrow’s plans are up in the air. We’re being very casual while we’re here this year. I just want to enjoy being at the beach and not worry about cramming activities into every spare moment.

NaBloPoMo 2009, post 9 of 30.

Outer Banks Vaca 2009, Day 2

The Mister ran his marathon today and cut 1/2 an hour off of his old time. Yay!! While I was waiting for his shuttle to drop him off at the local Walmart, I watched several bus loads of runners limp their way off the buses. It was pretty entertaining.

Afterwards, we went back to the house and relaxed on the balcony. The weather today has been beautiful. The girls and I walked to the beach while the Mister was running and the sand was warm on our toes. I am in heaven I’m telling you. The beach is my Paradise.

Tomorrow, we’re not sure what we’re going to do. It depends on how sore the Mister is and what the weather is like. I know that I promised pictures but I wasn’t thinking. The software for the camera is on my PC and not my laptop. Pictures will have to wait till we get home.

NaBloPoMo 2009, post 8 of 30.

OBX Vaca 2009, Day 1

We made it safe and sound to the Outer Banks. We always overestimate how long it takes to get here. Check in wasn’t until 4 pm and we got here at 2 pm. We had two hours to kill which isn’t a big deal except that we had the dogs with us which makes it hard to do things since we can’t leave them in the car for very long.

The first thing we did was stop at this deli that we ate at last year. They make a to-die-for crab cake sandwich. YUM! Alas! They closed early for the season this year. :( Big bummer. Instead of eating, we checked out some of the shops that were in the same little shopping area. We were about to leave when this guy flagged down the Mister who was wearing an Ohio State t-shirt. The guy told the Mister that he had something in his store that we just had to see. We followed him back to his very nice, outdoor-type clothing store. He goes behind the counter and hauls out this really long necklace made out of buckeyes! It was so funny. He was like, “Do people really wear these? Even men???” Growing up in Ohio, I remember making similar necklaces in elementary school for the Ohio State v. Michigan game. And yes, everyone wears them, even men. He was amused and still a little skeptical but put on the necklace anyway explaining that a friend of his had sent it to him, heheh.

Anyway, he was a very nice man and told us that if we donated $5 to the Wounded Warriors that he would give us a 20% discount. The oldest child has had her eye on a North Face jacket for the longest time and she didn’t have a “winter” coat yet so we figured that it would be the perfect time to get her one. It turns out that the 20% of coupon is good for a year and that we can use it online or call and talk to Betsy in the store and still get the discount. PLUS free shipping. Woot! He was hosting the donation drive and had homemade cookies and hot apple cider which we enjoyed while shopping. The cider was wonderful! Like apple pie in a cup.

It was finally time to check in after our little shopping excursion so we headed to the check in office. We picked up our keys in Duck and drove to the house in Corolla. This house is massive!! It’s three stories and I’m not sure how many bedrooms and bathrooms, lol. Seriously. I can’t remember. I know that it has four master bedrooms and I can remember seeing at least three other bedrooms. The 3rd floor has a huge open floor plan with a sitting area, dining area, and beautiful kitchen. We were going to eat out tonight but once we saw the kitchen with the huge granite topped island, lots of additional counter space, and Italian tile floors, we decided to cook tonight. It was great.

The house isn’t directly on the beach but the walkway to the beach is right across the street and you can see and hear the ocean from our house. I’ll take pictures tomorrow when we have sunlight.

The Mister will be running in the 4th Annual OBX Marathon bright and early tomorrow. We picked up his race packet while waiting to check in so he’s all set to go.

Oh. One funny thing before I go for the night. There is a life sized pirate statue next to the door right when you come in the house. I knew it was there because of the pictures I had seen of the house online. The Mister, however, didn’t and it scared the crap out of him when we walked in!! It was so funny. There is also a life sized chef statue in the kitchen (Why? I don’t know. It’s the ultimate in tacky decorations.). Hannah couldn’t figure that thing out and kept standing up to it and whining. She seriously cracked us up. We also have weird mermaids coming out of the walls. But I’ll show you all that tomorrow. Laters.

NaBloPoMo 2009, post 7 of 30.

OBX Vacation Countdown

We leave for the Outer Banks on Saturday. The kids started packing last week they’re so excited, lol. I have the carpet cleaners coming tomorrow and then my own marathon of house cleaning, getting two weeks worth of homework done in one week, and packing will be on. I have my major marketing project due the day we’re supposed to get back from vacation and I don’t want it hanging over my head while we’re there. I’m going to do my best to get it done this week. I have to come up with a marketing plan for a product or company. After much indecision, I have my product picked out and just have to do a bit of research. Considering all of the consumer goods and services out there, it was hard to decide.

Anyway, I have tons of work to catch up on today and school work to get done and homeschooling to conduct. I’m grabbing breakfast for some energy and hitting the grindstone.

NaBloPoMo 2009, post 2 of 30.

I’ve Got Stuff to Say!

I’m excited. I have stuff that I want to say on my blog. Woot! It’s a lot and I don’t feel like dividing it up into multiple posts so hang on to your panties and keep up.

First of all, have I mentioned yet that we’ve rented our beach house and have November 7th circled on the calendar? Yup. We’re headed back to the Outer Banks again this year so that the Mister can run in the OBX Marathon. This is the second year we’re going and the closest thing we have to a tradition, lol. No word on whether or not anyone is coming with us though.

Also!!! The Mister found out today that U2, (You know, the music group??) was in our town last night and ate at the same BBQ place that we love to eat at. How cool is that? They weren't in town for a concert or anything (::snort:: Like U2 would come to my town for a concert.)

And you know how people are advertising to buy gold jewelry all over the place? Well, I did that today and it was great. Not because I made a lot of money but because I got rid of some things that had bad memories attached to them or jewelry that was broken or bent but that I couldn’t make myself throw away. Instead, I sold it to a jewelry store nearby and got enough money to pay for a new watch battery and to have my favorite ring repaired. Two things that I had put off doing for about three years. It doesn’t seem like a big deal but it was for some reason.

Another thing…I made chili for dinner tonight. It’s a cold weather dish and it’s not cold here yet but I was totally craving it so I made it anyway. It was GOOOOD!

The oldest child’s punihsment for breaking the garbage disposal has been completed. As a result, I have a spotless kitchen from top to bottom. I made her clean out the cabinets and put everything back in an organized manner. I made her wipe down the outside of all the cabinets, clean out the fridge, clean out the microwave, and mop the floor. It took her two days. Plus she was grounded to her room when she wasn’t cleaning. She’s been an angel for the past few days, heheheh.

Both the Mister’s Twitter account and mine were hacked. He had to make an all new account (caseyj7760) and I just had to change my password. Makes me wonder if anything else was hacked of which we are unaware.

I LOVE my marketing class. I’m learning a lot and it’s just fun.

I cleaned out my bedroom closet yesterday and decided to reorganize it and my dressers. 60 hangers later and it’s complete. It’s much better and I found clothes that I forgot that I had. How nifty is that?

If you’ve ever thought of joining www.bagborroworsteal.com I would really appreciate it if you would use me for a referral. Just so you know, I love my membership. My newest rental is a Fendi bag and it’s FABULOUS!!

NaBloPoMo is right around the corner and I have no idea how I’ll do it this year. Should I even try?

Ok. It’s time for bed. I have other stuff but I’ll get to it another time.

Our Vacation Revisited

I said a while back that I had more vacation pictures to share and then I forgot to share them. A little late, but here they are.

The next two pictures are views from the top of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. The Mister, the oldest child, and my stepmom climbed it:

The next two pictures are looking down:

This next picture is looking down the spiral staircase inside the lighthouse.

The next two pictures are of a blue heron that we saw on a nature hike. I thought it was neat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that close before.

The next set of pictures are of the beach in Corolla. This stretch of beach is only accessible by four wheel drive. People live out there and there are beach houses for rent as you can see in the last picture. Definitely not where you would want to be during a hurricane I wouldn’t think.

The next picture is of the most fabulous crab cake sandwich on the earth that I had for lunch from a deli. It was delicious.

This was our view as we ate our lunch:

Nice, right?

I think that’s it.

Back to the Real World

We’re home. We had such a great vacation. I really have no complaints. I didn’t even mind the rain the last few days. We knew it was going to rain so we saved our shopping for Thursday and Friday. Good thinking, huh?

In addition to the lighthouses, dunes, and parks, we also drove my dad’s four wheel drive SUV out on to the beach. That was SO MUCH FUN! My dad was absolutely flying down the beach because a lot of it was soft sand so to go slow would mean getting stuck even with four wheel drive. The kids loved every minute of it too. It was definitely an adrenaline rush even if it means their SUV probably could use new shocks, hehehe.

We also had some pretty mag food on our vacation. We ate at Fishbone’s Sunset Grille which is the place I mentioned in my other post but couldn’t remember the name. We ate there twice and the Mister and I tried steamed oysters for the first time. I liked them but the Mister wasn’t won over. Our house came with a complimentary dozen bagels from Lighthouse Bagels in Duck, NC. I highly recommend their french toast bagels. Then, we went on the North Carolina Barbeque Quest. You would think that North Carolina BBQ would be easy to find in North Carolina, right? Well, this time of year, most of the Outer Banks is closed for the season. The Mister and I drove almost 30 miles and hit FIVE bbq places before we found one that was open. It was Pigman’s Bar-B-Que and it was good! Yum, YUM! They ship anywhere in the U.S. so if you want some, click on their link. On the way out, we stopped at Stack ‘Em High which is a breakfast place for a fantastic breakfast. I could have filled up on half of what they gave me and it was very reasonably priced.

Being able to visit with my family was the best part. I taught my dad how to blog while we were there, lol. I hope I wasn’t too confusing because when I talk about blogging, I get excited and talk fast. I wrote down a lot of stuff for him though so I think he’ll have enough to at least get started.

My nephew, who is three, was a lot of fun. He is too smart and has an answer for everything but he’s funny about it. The Mister put him in our car top carrier this morning when we were getting ready to load up the luggage and my nephew said, “I do not need to be in here.” He also says, “I need to put rocks,” when he has to go to the bathroom. I know, TMI, but it is so funny to hear him say that. He also had fun playing with the girls’ Polly Pockets, lol. He actually got mad this morning when I told him that the dolls needed to be packed.

Oh. And the dogs had a good time too. We let them on the furniture which is something they’re not allowed to do at home but it was their vacation too. They were generally well-behaved and enjoyed romping in the sand. One totally gross thing though…We had a red fox that lives in the neighborhood and frequently visited our yard (Okay. There’s no grass and it’s all sand but what else are you supposed to call it??). It must’ve come by last night because this morning, Hannah broke her fast on its poo. EEEWWW!!

Anyway, I have more pictures but they are still on my camera and the Mister stole the batteries for his keyboard. I will post them when I get them uploaded to my comp.

Long, Fun Day

I guess I’m out of the running for NaBloPoMo. Our vacation house is three stories and the computer is on the ground floor whereas our bedroom is on the third floor. I was too lazy to go all the way downstairs last night to blog so there ya go. Oh well. I’m only mildly disappointed.

So, let’s see.

Yesterday, the Mister, the girls, and I drove out to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. We didn’t climb it because I was wearing sandals and the Mister could still barely walk from the marathon. I did take some pictures though:

 

Standing at the base, looking straight up.

This picture I took from the ground zoomed in on the top. Is my camera the bomb or what? That’s not even the strongest zoom it has.

After the lighthouse, we headed into town (Nag’s Head) for lunch. We got some pretty great pizza at Stone Oven Pizza. Yum. Then we went back to the house because my family had finally arrived from Ohio. We spent some time catching up then we went to dinner at a fabulous seafood place, the name of which is escaping me at the moment. The oldest child out-ate us all again having a 1/2 pound of crab legs, clams, and french fries. Our waitress was pretty impressed, lol.

Today was FILLED! To begin, we went to the Wright Brothers Memorial. We went there last year but our family had never been. Even so, it’s a really great experience. Here are some pictures:

This is a reenactment of what the flight would have looked like.

A view of the memorial dune from the bottom. Climbing that hill is tiring.

The memorial.

The view from the top looking towards the ocean. Being there and the view make the climb worth it.

After the memorial, we went to Jockey Ridge State Park. It’s the home of the tallest sand dunes on the east coast. They range in height from 90 to 100 feet depending on the winds.

View of the dunes.

A view of the Roanoke Sound from the top of the dunes.

This gives a little better perspective of just how tall the dunes are. You can’t really appreciate it from the pictures, but they were TALL and climbing them was a workout.

After the dunes we went to the Bodie Island Lighthouse which is located on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. This lighthouse isn’t open for climbing but the keepers house was pretty neat to tour.

Bodie Lighthouse

Bodie Lighthouse again.

After the lighthouse, we hit Mako Mike’s for dinner. It was okay but nothing special. Would I go back? Um, probably not because you can get that kind of seafood anywhere.

Now, we’re back at the house. I’ll be lucky if I can walk tomorrow with all the hill climbing I did today but it was a fantastic day and it’s a good kind of tired.

I’m apologizing now for not reading blog posts. I hadn’t checked my reader since we got here and I had over 600 posts to sift through. Some I read, most I didn’t. It makes me miss my bloggy friends though not to be able to read their posts on a daily basis. I also want to tell you all how much I appreciate the comments I’ve been getting even though I haven’t been commenting on anyone else’s blogs. I promise I’ll make up for it once things get back to normal.

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, I have a very short video of the Mister at the dunes. It’s pretty funny and shows the character that he is to a “t”.

We're Here!!

Day 8: NaBloPoMo

We made it to our beach house. It's really quite nice and it's probably twice as big as what we actually need. We also had fantastic weather today with highs in the mid 70's and only a bit of sprinkles here and there but it was mostly sunny otherwise.

You know how people always say that they don't understand how people live on the coast when they'll inevitably be wiped out by a hurricane? Well, after seeing Duck, N.C. and Corolla, N.C. I can understand why now. A place like this is more than just what may or may not happen.

Anyway, I'm pretty tired and trying to blog from the slowest computer on the face of the earth. I brought my CPU but I'm too tired to hook it up tonight. Yes. I had to bring it for work and school. This vacation is a working vacation but it's all good.

I'll be back tomorrow.

Can You Say…VACATION!!!

I just got done booking our rental house for the OBX Marathon in November! I’m so excited. We’ll be staying the whole week instead of just the weekend like we had originally planned. The house is giganto and if we can’t get anyone to split it with us, we could sleep in a different bed every night, lol. I’ve invited my dad and sister but they don’t know if they’ll be able to make it or not. I really hope so because that would be a nice time. Here is a link if you’d like to see the house:  http://www.outerbanksblue.com/rental/house.html?ID=158&Avail=11%2F08%2F2008&Stay=7 

FUN!! We haven’t taken a vacation as a family ever. The Mister and I went to San Francisco while the girls were in Ohio and the girls go to Ohio by themselves and we go away for the occasional weekend but never an actual vacation together. I don’t count the trips to Ohio for funerals. :/ It’s going to be a real treat for us and the dogs get to come too. I just need to find someone to feed the rat and guinea pig, heheh.

We’re also going to see about doing the wild horse tour while we’re there. http://wildhorsetour.com/ I saw this on an episode of John and Kate Plus Eight, lol. It looked like a really great time though. All their kids had a lot of fun.

Our Trip

I'm back. We had a really good time over the weekend. We got home Sunday evening and my feet still hurt from all the walking this morning.

Saturday we went to a festival in downtown Norfolk. It was sorta lame but we got to see some animals and that's always fun. From there we went back to the Nauticus and toured the USS Wisconsin again. The first time, we didn't have enough time to see the whole thing so we made up for it this go around. After that, we checked into our hotel, which was really nice, and then we went to the Botanical Gardens. I love botanical gardens and this one was really huge. In addition to plants and flowers we got to see tons of Canadian geese, a red fox, a toad, and a turtle. The turtle was the first one I've seen since we moved down this way that wasn't a pancake in the road. Next, we had dinner which was the funny part of the day.

See. I absolutely HATE buffets. I've never been to one that had good food that wasn't dried up and nasty from sitting under heat lamps. And the last time we went to Virginia Beach, we had this completely inedible seafood buffet that was overpriced. You had to pay for soda refills for pete's sake. But, M wanted crab legs. I looked through the hotel restaurant guide and couldn't decide on what sounded good so we asked the guy at the front desk for a recommendation. He immediately named this seafood buffet and I mentally groaned. But, he promised it was good so we tried it out. IT WAS GOOD! Talk about being shocked. And the funny part...M ate FIVE sets of crab legs and that's not to mention the crawfish, shrimp, scallops, and other stuff she ate too. And people try to claim I don't feed that child enough, lol. And the really funny part is that we got to pay the child price for her, heheh. Little did they know that she can pack away the seafood. She ate more than both me and C. The three of us also tried something new: softshell crab. It was...ummm...good. Alright. None of could get past what it was to eat it so we didn't eat it. Sue me.

After all that, we hit the hotel for the night in total exhaustion.

Sunday, after breakfast, we decided to go ahead and start off for the Outer Banks. There, we went down through Kitty Hawk to Kill Devil Hills where we saw the Wright Brothers National Memorial. That was fun. It was a lot of walking but knowing the history made it neat. Plus, having grown up in Ohio and in the Dayton area where the Wright Brothers are from made it all the more special. Kind of like book ends. From there we drove down to Jockey's Ridge State Park where the tallest sand dunes on the east coast are located. That was pretty cool. Then we drove home through Nags Head to Roanoke Island and Manteo.

All in all, it was a good time. The weather on Sunday was perfect, the kids were well behaved, and we didn't have to worry about the dogs destroying the house. The one downer is that I forgot my digital camera. I really could have kicked myself. But, we bought a disposable so I'll have pictures eventually but I have to get them developed. I have no idea who has good picture developing. I also have a few pictures that I took with my cell but the quality won't be that good. See what I mean?

That's the view from the top of the Wright Bros. Memorial.