OBX: the next two days

A quick photos-and-captions post for you, as I cheer on the Spades players and enjoy a gin and tonic at the big table...

Day Three:  Road trip day.  Steve and his family, and our family, all decided we wanted to get out and see some more of the Outer Banks.  So we headed out on our adventures on Tuesday.  A beautiful blue sky day for a drive but not so much for being out of the car.  It was so. Stinking. Hot.  After a disappointing visit to Kitty Hawk to see the Wright Brothers Memorial (who has a National Park with only two shade trees in the whole place, and picnic tables hidden around the back, and the monument on the top of a giant hill a bout 47 miles from the parking lot???), we did make it down to Hatteras, where we viewed the Bodie Island Lighthouse and Marshes...

We also made it over to Roanoke Island but were too hot and tired to do much of anything there.  We loved the sweet downtown and waterfront in Manteo.  Wonderful old houses and quaint shops and the shining waters of the sound glimmering in on each block. I wish we'd started there and saved Kitty Hawk for the way home.   Le sigh.

These poor dogs.  They were troupers.  Hot, panty, annoying troupers.

We manage to look like we are having a slightly good time in this photo.  I think the shade hides all the sweat.  To their credit, the kids were great and trekked along all day with few complaints.  How did we get so lucky.

We made it home in time to do an evening trip to the beach, which redeemed the day.  Turns out we need to be at the beach every day from 7-9 pm.  It is the best time, by far.  Cool sand, plenty of shade, soft sunset light reflecting off of the clouds, empty beaches, breezy and hazy and magical. .. At sunset, a man came out and played bagpipes on the beach steps by his house, and all the people nearby gathered and danced.  Kites danced in the air all down the beach.  The wave-kissed sand turned pink as dusk fell.  The dog relaxed for the first time all day.  Some seriously good stuff. 

Day Four: 

We stayed close to home in Corolla today, for more hot-day sightseeing, and lots of time on our beach.

Here we are about to tour the Whalehead House.  Sadly, like most historic homes, we couldn't get pictures of the interior.  But what a fabulous tour.  I could move into that house today with no renovations.  Turns out Art Noveau remote-island houses are just my cup of tea.  Cozy and airy and unpretentious with the most amazing views and incredible curving botanical-themed woodwork.  

So cool. 

Look!  Floor plans!  I got to look at them while we toured!  heaven.

 Nat and Jack had another day of crabbing while the ladies did the tour.  Corydon slept in the shade and Jack regaled Nat with nonstop stories and plans for his future Youtube channel of Minecraft videos.  "I like going crabbing, Dad.  It's Ok that we're not catching anything because we have time to chat!"  This kid.   I tell ya.

 There was supposed to be a festival outside Whalehead and I had big dreams for it.  But it turned out to just be some wine tasting and the day turned out to be just as stinking hot as yesterday.  So we came home and settled the kids in with their cousins, and then Nat and I ran away.  :)  We discovered a fabulous beer garden in Corolla where we had tasty beers (Green Flash, yum!) that made everything happy, and then we sampled some pizza by the slice before heading to buy some gin for the house.  We had to stop at the famed Duck Donuts while were were there. And then eat them on the boardwalk by the sound, of course.  A perfect getaway-from-the- getaway with my favorite person.  I do love him, that husband of mine.  He makes everything easier and more fun...

Finally, photos from our two beach trips today (thank you, waterproof camera!):

These two dogs had the best time on the beach tonight.  The empty beach at 7pm meant we could let them run, and run they did.  Corydon tore around like a 5 year old.  She and Pip both got hit my some big waves... and walked out of the water with big doggy grins each time.

Cousin John organized a family kickball game for the evening and was it ever a hit.  Jack was not sure he wanted to play at all, but after a rough start (a few too many foul balls) he found his stride and fell in LOVE with the game.  Eyes alight, he remarked "I don't really like this game at school, but this is different!"  The magic of family.

Time around the house...

Minecraft!

Baby Brendan!  And the dogs who love him...

Laid back coffee mornings...

 Late night silly games...

It was a pretty fine day today.  Here's to two more like this one, please.  But maybe a tiny bit less hot?

OBX

After two more-arduous-than-expected days of travel, we have arrived and settled in to Vacation Number Three:  The Big Beach House.  The ocean is lovely and the Sound is lovelier still and it is wonderful to be with family (what a joyous, cousin-full summer it has been for our little ones!)-- but you guys-- I think I may be vacationed out. I am. so. tired.  I feel like I've got very few reserves left for "cruise directing" and organizing and creating a dynamic and amazing and utterly memorable trip for all involved.  Luckily, the benefit to this houseful of people is-- there are others to take up the slack! In spite of my lack of planning and drive, we've had delicious family dinners, rousing card games, poolside lounging, and relaxing cups of coffee on the porch with terrific people we don't see often enough. We're making do.  And thank heavens for same-age cousins.  Jack and Ivy are inseparable from Gavin and Ada and they are getting along swimmingly, as it it had not been two years since we were all together last. They have been brave in the waves and independent around the house and oh how they LOVE the pool in the backyard! The one person more tired than me may be Corydon, who has found her first foray to the ocean to be exhilarating, exhausting, and salty.  She can't seem to stop drinking water as she swims (she's a lake dog!) and then she comes out of the water with a distasteful expressions and rolls in the sand to get rid of the salt.  She's not so smart.  But she's really really soft from all this exfoliation, I tell ya.

But!  With no further ado, a photo tour of the first few days on the Outer Banks.

Hitting the road...

These kids are awesome travelers. Ivy was nonstop entertainment.

 Hardly knew Jack was back there, so independent and quiet and content.  Of course he had unlimited screen access so he was in heaven. I love the dog curled up next to him...

 I would not recommend the suburb of Glen Allen as a place to stop near Richmond.  But at least there was a cute little diner next to our subpar hotel, so we made the best of it.

 We stopped to see the city of Norfolk and visit the Hunter House museum, as we had not one but two historic house addicts in the car...

 Nat took the kids to see a cute waterfront park while my mom and I toured the house.

We certainly enjoyed our stop in Norfolk but if we had known the consequence of traveling out to OBX later in the day... we would have left our hotel at 5am and gone straight there.  What was forecast to be a 3 hour drive was over 6 hours in total and was a miserable experience for the last 40 miles of stop-and-go traffic with no other routes to try...  Ugh.

We ended up taking a pit stop in Duck, a mere 15 miles from our destination because we'd been in the car for 4 and a half hours, thinking every minute that we'd be there soon, it had to get better...

The view of the sound plus a little ice cream kept us going...

 And we made it!  Just in time for more ice cream...

 .. and Corydon's first walk in the ocean...

 ... and swimming with cousins...

 ... and more swimming by night...

The horrors of travel fade pretty quickly in the sound of the surf and happy kids playing.

Day One at the House (Sunday):

TONS of pool time. The new dolphin floatie has been both a huge hit and an object of contention.  I almost talked poor Ivy out of getting the dolphin, knowing that she would fall off of it constantly.  But NO!  I never was allowed to get the Orca floatie that I wanted as a kid, dammit. So I let my daughter have the silly dolphin.

  

Morning beach time! We went back at 4, too.  We fried ourselves.  Jack and Nat have sandburn from all the body surfing.  I waded and kept the dog company, which works for me as I have reached the stage in life when I can categorically say that I don't like swimming in salt water, and so I don't do it.   Happy, salty, sandy family.

The young cousin set managed to net two small fish and a baby jellyfish. Impressive.

We ventured out to explore historic Corolla, which is three blocks big, and absurdly cute once you get out of the car and walk around...

Currituck Lighthouse.

  Whalehead house porch.  Can't wait to tour it inside later this week.

 Arts and crafts back at the house.

Nice to have a qualified art teacher in the house! We love Megan!

 Sunset over Currituck Sound.

This is Jesus the Egret.  He walks on water.

Gram got a motorcycle ride home on the Harley Joe rented for the week.

 Cousin snuggles before bed...

Henderson tradition-- card games into the night.  Pictured here:  Nine player Hearts.

You know what's good for the soul?  Putting together one's best pictures and looking at them and writing about them.  All the golden moments, gathered in one place to remind you that, despite a lackluster and housebound afternoon and a heft dose of super-tired, vacation IS off to a pretty damn good start....

Day Two highlights (aside from being housebound with a cranky Ivy for the afternoon,...)

Up at 5:20 to walk to the beach for sunrise.  A nice chance to talk with Heidi and Paige.  They're so wonderful.  I can only dream of having such a wonderful relationship with my daughter when she is 16.  Nice to have such inspiring family..

Sunrises are never quite as glorious as one expects.  But there is magic in being the first ones out and enjoying the day...

Went for a quick 5 mile run, a swim in the pool, had coffee with my honey and went to the grocery store.  Thereafter, the day had a disjointed quality... tried to go to the beach, had to stay home with a tired girl.  Tried to organize the schedule for the week, realized it is impossible to do so with 19 people in a house.  Tried to get some work done, at precisely the moment people can BACK to the house.   I have a hard time getting my vacation groove on.

Redeemed the day with a walk on the off-road beaches with my lovely sister.  Pretty cool out there, an empty beach, desolate banks, wild green scrub as far as the eye can see.  Would have been utterly peaceful if not for the gazillion 4x4 vehicles zooming by across the beach... Theoretically there are 100 wild Spanish Mustangs out here, but we didn't get far enough to sight any (though we did see some poop!)

Rejoined Nat and the kids for the last bits of the great crabbing adventure (inspired by seeing some guys doing this on the docks during our Day One adventure, and realizing that their sophisticated setup (string and raw chicken and a net) could be pretty easily replicated...) While Jack summed it up as "We have been here for two hours doing pretty much nothing..." he also said he would do it again. They did get two little crabs!  No keepers, thankfully, as we have NO idea how to cook them...

Kids are in bed (mostly asleep before I left the room!) and Day Two game night is underway.  A smaller, more sedate group than  last night.  Perhaps we all overdid it on Day One?

Goodnight and godspeed from me and this little tiny crab,