OBX: Final days

As with every. single. vacation we go on, we finally got our Outer Banks groove on by the final two days.  I could regret that it took so long, but I think I'd better celebrate that it happened.

Thursday:  Morning on the beach.  Kids fishing, more sand castles, more 90 degree cloudless-blue weather.  This place is pretty crazy with the sunshine.

Afternoon-- a bunch of us succumbed to the tourist pressure and took an overpriced "wild horse safari" of the northern beaches.

Hot, windy and bumpy-- but a fun time all together in the truck, and we did learn a lot about the history of the island (horses have been here for 500 years, the whole thing is just a sandbar that gradually shifts over time) and housing too (many oceanfront houses have a lifespan of just ten years, between shifting dunes and hurricanes, before they have to be moved. Crazy.)

And, we saw horses!  Not quite as wild as one would expect, as they were hanging out in this area called the "pasture".  I was hoping for sand-caked and running across a deserted beach (which also did not happen, as the drive-on north beach was packed with people the whole way!)....

Ivy was the only "little" to come along and she had a blast with the open-air, bumpy ride.

Ice cream and ice water to recover afterwards.

Thursday evening dinner:  Taco feast!

Then, off to the beach for family portraits and cocktails as the sun set...

The "older generation"...

the girls....

and ALL the boys.  Nice looking group, eh?

And of course, one more round of our favorite late-night game, Questions and Answers.

Friday: Went to get Ivy up for the day and she wasn't in her room.  Wandered the house until I found her on the lower floor like this.

She is seriously into this "big girl" cousins of hers.  And they are incredibly patient with her.  :)

 Morning adventure to mini-golf with Gram and Bec.  The crazy heat just doesn't stop around here; we were fried to a crisp after just 9 holes.  The kids all had fun, though.

After the wonderful success of our "cocktail camp" on Thursday, we set up a beach camp for the family for the day on Friday.  Our group spent a good 2 hours there in the heat of the day because there was this intoxicating breeze off the ocean.  I can't believe it took me until Friday to get my patootie into a beach chair at the edge of the surf and read.  Low tide is awesome, these long stretches of wet shining sand, gentle waves off in front of us. It was bliss.

Nat and I managed to sneak in a repeat visit to our Beer Garden paradise under the auspices of picking up N. Carolina barbecue for dinner...

After a crazy dinner where everyone ordered far too much takeout and we stuffed ourselves silly, a small group of us went back to Whalehead for one more sunset over the Sound...

Ivy had a great time taking pictures of all of us.  She knows that's what people do in pretty places, right? Get out your phone, quick!! 

  We got home in time for a night walk to the beach where we rescued a crab and took in the "blue moon" as it glittered over the ocean...

 Ice cream before bed to top off the day.  We said goodnight and goodbye to our family as most of the group was heading off before the sun rises... our group decided to stay and close the house and linger in Corolla in a risky play to avoid traffic...

Saturday:  One more ocean sunrise.

We spent the middle of the day in Historic Corolla.  We climbed a lighthouse...

 (The view!!! At $20 for our whole family, definitely the second best deal on the island!)

 ... and visited the Wildlife Education Center (which was pretty darn cool, not to mention free.  Best value on the island!)

 And of course we visited the Beer garden again, where we had some pizza and drinks before we hit the road.

Don't forget to pose in a giant Adirondack chair, the official large item of the Outer Banks!  These things were EVERYWHERE!

We made it to Stafford, VA without incident and had an easy night in the Quality Inn...

Here are the kids enjoying their "coffee"-- who knew it could bring such joy to put apple juice in travel cups!!

Not too much excitement from this final day of the vacation.  You get to a certain point where you just want to get HOME, right?  And of course that is exactly the point at which you will be in endless VA traffic and long lines at PA turnpike rest stops and and and...

You know its been a long and boring day of driving when a highlight is a sign announcing the "porous gravel walk" around a playground.  Really,  a sign for that??

Luckily, with some the help of our little navigator, our little troupe of patient travelers arrived back home by dinnertime on Sunday.  Henderson beach house reunion: check!