OBX Vacation Part IV

On Thursday, September 10, the weather was still looking pretty windy/rainy. Not a wash-out, but not a beach day either. We decided to head over to Roanoke Island Festival Park.

The highlight of the park is the Elizabeth II, a recreation of the sixteenth century type ship which would have brought folks over twenty or so years prior to the "Lost Colony."



As you board the ship, there are costumed guides who answer questions and let you know more information about the ship. The boys really enjoyed climbing around the ship and ringing the bell. After the ship, we headed to the settlement site area. They had an area set up with tents and a blacksmith, as well as a game called Skittles. Skittles, apparently, is a variety of bowling dating back many years. Jacob enjoyed trying to throw the wooden ball and knock down the pins. After talking to the costumed guys at the settlement site, we headed into the museum. It was quite kid friendly and had lots of hands-on exhibits. In fact, Jacob enjoyed it so much he didn't want to leave! He was nearly in tears as we left and it was starting to rain a bit.

We had already decided to swing down to Bodie Island to see the lighthouse there. We had seen it four years ago and there's not much there other than the lighthouse and a giftshop, but it's nice to go look at. As a nice surprise, the lighthouse itself was open. You can't climb, but you could go inside and look up the stairs. We later heard that they are trying to make improvements so that people can climb to the top. After the lighthouse, it was time to head on back for lunch and naps. We had a laid back afternoon, and in the evening, Kim & Steven headed out for their date night and Jeff and I were in charge of getting the 3 kids fed dinner and put to bed!

It went surprisingly well. We fed the boys homemade mac & cheese that Steven made earlier in the day, and sweet potato fries. After some playtime and I'm sure some Blue's Clues, Jeff took Jacob & Sterner to read to them, and I took Grayson to feed him a bottle and put him to bed. Grayson cried a little, but settled down after a little while. There wasn't much I could do to help Grayson, so I went in and helped Jeff. After books, Sterner and Jacob went right to bed without any issues at all! Jeff and I sat down to eat some of our leftovers from the night before and waited for Kim & Steven to get back. All was well!

OBX Vacation Part III

On Wednesday, 9/09/09, the weather was looking a little better, but still cloudy and cool in the morning with a good possibility of rain. We decided to trek to the north towards Corolla. When Jeff and I went to Manteo in 2005, we did not go much past Kitty Hawk, so it was interesting to pass through Southern Shores, Duck, and other small developed areas on our way to Corolla. The houses up that direction are just enormous and at some points, the island is so narrow that the water on the sound side is very close to road (NC 12) and the ocean is easy to see to your east. There is also much less commercial development that direction, though a Harris Teeter has opened in the last year or so, and there are beach shops and such, it's just not the degree of commercial development seen in Kill Devil Hills / Nags Head. Some people believe those areas are too commercial and compare them to Myrtle Beach, but having just visited Myrtle Beach in May, there is no comparison really. To me, Kill Devil Hills/Nags Head is just commercial enough to have good variety for shopping, eating & entertainment, but not the complete overdone of Myrtle Beach.

Anyway, it took us about 40-45 minutes to get to Corolla. We were headed to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, and had also planned to visit the Wild Horse Museum and whatever else we came across. Both of those are very close to the Whalehead Club, which is a large formerly private home that has been renovated and can be toured, sort of like the Biltmore on a much smaller scale. First, we headed to the lighthouse. We were looking forward to checking it out and climbing it. It's actually one of the "easier" ones to climb. Many you cannot climb (Bodie, etc.) and Hatteras has a 42 inch minimum height, so the kids couldn't have gone. Yes, we took three kids ages 9 months, 2 years and 3 years up 210 steps to the top of the lighthouse. The climb wasn't too bad and Jacob did really well and went all the way up by himself. At the top, the views of the water, the sound, and the Whalehead Club were stunning. We took photos and then began our descent. Jacob again made it most of the way down but wanted carried about the last 1/3 of the way. I thought going down was worse than going up because you had to look down. It's also harder on the knees! After the lighthouse, we decided to venture down this dirt road which had a sign pointing towards the Wild Horse Museum. It was a bit further than we thought it would be, but we made it. The Wild Horse Museum is housed in the old Corolla Schoolhouse, built in the late 19th to early 20th century and used until the mid-1950s.



The Wild Horse Museum was of course, small, but had a very friendly attendant who answered our questions. Fortunately, we were visiting on a Wednesday, the only day of the week that they have a former wild horse visit for the kids and adults like to meet. And even better, we were just in time since the horse would be showing up around 11:00 a.m. Shortly, Uno arrived. He was a beautiful chestnut color with a blond mane. We had already heard Uno's story earlier, he had been removed from the beach because he had been abandoned by his herd. It was later discovered that he had health problems, which is likely the reason he had been abandoned. Once a horse are removed, they are immediately vaccinated, but they cannot be returned to the herd because they could infect the herd with diseases they have not been exposed to. Because of this, it is quite serious when a horse is removed from the beach and not a decision made lightly. We all enjoyed meeting Uno and we took pictures.

After that, we went looking for some food because we had been smelling something ever since we had ventured over to the Wild Horse Museum. As an aside, there are additional buildings, former homes renovated into businesses and shops, as well as a chapel that make up the Historic Corolla Village area. It's pretty neat.

As we ventured, we found Corolla Village BBQ, the only place to eat anywhere in the immediate vicinity. It's a former outbuilding/garage of one of the homes and sells NC-style BBQ. Having had Pigman's BBQ two days earlier, the Corolla Village BBQ was a huge improvement. It was quite good in fact. After we ate, we checked out a playground near the Twiddy Realty building. Apparently, the Twiddy family has done all the renovations in the Historic Corolla Village area.

After the BBQ lunch, we headed on back to the beach house. I really wanted to keep Jacob awake until we got back and he wanted to sleep. I knew if he did, he would not nap when we got back. So, as we drove along, Jeff and I sang silly songs to him, and while he was acting like he was mad at us, he kept laughing. We got him home without him falling asleep and he took his nap without incident.

Wednesday night, it was decided, would be a date night for Jeff and I. Originally, I thought we'd put Jacob to bed and head out, but Kim & Steven felt like they could handle it, and Jeff and I would return the favor on Thursday. So, Jeff and I decided to head over to Manteo and walk around a bit. We decided on nostalgia and ate at the Full Moon Cafe, where we had eaten four years earlier. I had Shrimp and Grits, which oddly enough was served over Polenta, which any good southern girl knows are NOT grits! Jeff had a huge shrimp & crab enchilada. Oh, and we had a baked brie appetizer that was really good too. The food was good and we enjoyed our dinner. We wanted to do something else after dinner, and a walk on the beach seemed like a good idea, but it was far, far too windy. So, we opted for a visit to the Outer Banks Brewing Station, which brews their own beer and we wanted to check out anyway. We had a beer apiece and split the beer sampler before heading back to the house, where all the kids were fast asleep.

Kim & Steven had taken them out for
pizza at Dare Devil Pizza which was 1/2 block from the house and then took them to the beach to play in the sand a bit. They'd had a good time and all was well!

*Sigh, our vacation was more than half over!*

OBX Vacation Part II

Tuesday morning, we knew it would be raining when we got up. In fact, there was a low pressure system that was causing quite a bit of wind as well. It was nearly like a tropical depression!

So, we decided to head over to the NC Aquarium at Roanoke Island. When we got there about 10:00 a.m. or so, it wasn't too busy. The kids enjoyed looking at the fish and other exhibits. We caught the diver talk in the big shark tank. We had just seen the diver talk at the Fort Fisher Aquarium on July 4th. Jacob loved it then. It was cool because the diver would give the kids "high five" through the glass. This time, it wasn't quite as interactive, and while Jacob still enjoyed it, he was disappointed he did not get to high five the diver! They take a photo of you at the beginning of the tour and at the end you can see different views of yourself on different backgrounds. I ended up buying two of them. We also got some magnets and Jacob got a book - Curious George goes to the Beach. More on that later. ;)

Lunch the previous day had been sort of harried, so we opted to head back to the house for yummy leftovers from our Labor Day feast the day before. Then the kids went down for a nap. Each day, it seemed like Jacob would go to sleep earlier than Sterner and get up earlier, and Sterner would sleep later. So, when Jacob woke up pretty early afternoon - we decided to take him to play mini-golf. I'm glad we did too because we would not have had time later in the week. We headed back towards Nags Head - there are actually three mini-golf courses near the Outlet mall. While it was sunny at the beach house when we left, by the time we got over to the mini-golf, it was raining! Jacob was so disappointed. It looked like an isolated shower, so Jeff suggested we walk around the Outlet mall a bit and see if it would stop. So we popped into the Coach outlet and Gymboree. Nothing we couldn't leave without.... It stopped raining and we went for the Jurassic Park mini-golf. Jacob is so funny. He will hit the ball, then pick it up, moving it closer to the hole, then sort of just push it along with the club until it goes into the hole... But, he just loves it. Even more than bowling we later discovered! We finished 18 holes and then actually did the 2nd course, for a total of 36 holes of golf. I was pretty "done" after the first round, but we pushed through because Jacob loved it.

We headed back to the beach house and it was time for dinner. Since we were having grilled fish, coconut rice, and a black bean/mango chutney, we decided to feed the kids first and put them on to bed and then have an adult dinner. It worked well! We also decided to watch a movie together. Still not hot tub weather Tuesday night. We watched a movie. The movie was great, but we ended up stopping it half-way through to take a potty break, etc., and ended up talking for an hour! We finally restarted it up and finished it.

Wednesday - we went to Corolla! More to come!

OBX Vacation!

We are just back from the Outer Banks of NC! We had a wonderful trip. I didn't have great internet access out there, so I had to wait to get back to blog the details of our trip.... without further adieu...

Background....
So, several months ago, Jeff told me he really wanted to spend a week at the beach. Pretty much all our vacations have centered around Disney, family and a couple of cruises. His family vacations growing up were spent at the beach.

We decided on the Outer Banks. We've only been out to the Outer Banks one other time, about 4 years ago. We stayed in Manteo that time. But we wanted a true week at the beach vacation... I started looking for houses to rent directly from an owner.

After MUCH searching, I found a wonderful house in Kill Devil Hills. It was actually hard to find a direct rental, even using VRBO.com. Here is the house we found: Caribbean Dream

It's four bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 1.5 blocks from the ocean, a pool and a hottub, multiple decks, and fairly new. I was enamored with this house! And we got an amazing deal through the owner. Roughly $400=$500 off the rate through the rental agency! We started thinking of who we could take with us. Pretty early on, I decided this trip would be a lot more fun for all of us if we took another family with kids so Jacob would have a playmate.

We ended up asking our friends Kim & Steven, who have two sons - Sterner, almost 2.5, and Grayson, 9 months. Steven and I go way back. We were coworkers about 10 years ago. He met Kim the summer we worked together at a law firm in Wilmington, and she and I became great friends too. About four years ago, they moved to the Raleigh area. With the best of intentions, we've still only seen them a handful of times a year. We had just recently had a park/dinner "playdate" with them, and a few days later, I emailed them the house I'd found and asked them to join us. To my surprise, they responded enthusiastically within about two hours! We had been excited about the house, and now we were really excited to have such great friends going with us!

This trip was so much different than other vacations... which were mainly to FL... and mainly focused on family & Disney. After several months of waiting, but not nearly the planning that goes into a Disney trip... we left for the Outer Banks last Saturday!

Prior to our departure, I went to the Holly Springs Farmer's Market and bought some produce to take with us. We ended up leaving a little before 11 a.m. We stopped in Rocky Mount and had some lunch at the Cracker Barrel. We headed on. We could not check into the house until 4 pm so we stopped at the Outer Banks Visitor's Center near Manteo around 3 pm and hung out a while looking at brochures, etc. We got to the house about 3:30 p.m. Kim & Steven & the boys were already there waiting by the pool. They'd gotten into the gate, which wasn't locked. We all went into the house and got the cars unpacked. Wow at the stuff that four adults & three kids need for a week at the beach!!!

Next up was a trip to the liquor store and the Harris Teeter, which were fortunately only about a mile a way and right next door to each other. Both were very busy. The parking lot of the ABC store was so busy! Steven and I ran in while Jeff & Kim waited in the respective cars with the kids. The line was wrapped up and down two aisles! I grabbed what I needed and Steven offered just to wait in line for both of us and walk over to meet us at the HT.

We had loosely planned the first four days of meals... I had a list and a cart. Kim had a list and a cart. Then Steven came in and had his own cart. With Jeff manning the two older boys in the spaceship cart, we all zoomed around the HT gathering supplies! We finally met at the front and ended up totaling about $400 in groceries between 3 carts & two bills! We got back to the house and it had to be carried up to the third floor kitchen. Houses at the beach are often "upside down." The living areas, the kitchen and living room are on the third floor to take advantage of the ocean views.

As the time in the day was waning by the the time we got back from the grocery and unpacked the food, we decided to feed the boys and then have a later adult dinner. It worked well. We got all the boys into bed in the 7:30 to 8 p.m. time frame. (As an aside, that is J's typical bedtime and it was a coincidence and a blessing that Kim & Steven's boys go to bed at the same time!!)

Anyway, once they were all to bed, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of grilled NY strip steaks, baked potatoes, and salad on the screened in porch. After dinner, we talked for a bit and then decided to reconvene in the hot tub. Oh yes. The hot tub was NICE!! It was actually a bit too hot. We jumped in and out and managed. We finally turned into bed about 11 p.m. A great start to the vacation....

On Sunday, we decided to hit the beach. The weather was looking precarious for the remainder of the week and we needed to take advantage of any decent beach days! After breakfast, Jeff, Jacob and I ran to the local Wings for a beach umbrella. Everything was 50% off, and even though it was cloudy, I was determined we needed one. :) We actually got a great deal on one for $12, and headed back to the house.
Finally, we headed out to the beach. Oh my, how much stuff we took! It was a bit cloudy and quite windy as well. The ocean was far too rough for swimming, but we'd known that in advance and had planned to let the boys play in the sand and to stick our toes in the surf occasionally, not venturing much past ankle depth. We stayed out maybe an hour and a half, but with the wind and lack of sun, it was a bit cold... so we headed back to the house. They had a good time playing in the sand. We got the boys showered & bathed, fed them lunch and put them down for naps. Jeff and I headed out to Austin's Seafood Company to buy some shrimp for dinner. We also made another trek to the Harris Teeter for MORE groceries! We got home and later, we had a wonderful "shrimp boil" with shrimp, corn on the cob, potatoes, sausage, etc. After we put the kids to bed, we hopped in the hot tub again!

On Monday, the weather was really looking not so hot. Rainy. Windy. Yuck. It was Kim's birthday and she made us a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, both chocolate chip & regular, as well as bacon. We weren't sure what we were going to do... but by about 10:30 a.m. we knew we needed to get the boys out of the house. So, we decided to take them bowling over in Nags Head. Why bowling you ask? Well, Jacob LOVES bowling... (and so does his dad! ) Jacob was really excited about bowling! With four adults & two kids playing, it took a LONG time to play even one game. But it was good. I actually did decent... I bowled two strikes and a few spares. I ended up losing to Jeff 116-114. Jacob bowled a respectable 82 I believe. Sterner bowled similar.... as a disclaimer, by the end, both boys were using one of those bowling ball slope roller things. Even Grayson got a few turns! Kim had herself a strike or two. Bless his heart, Steven was just not a bowler. He tried, but he did not excel at bowling. :) Or maybe he let Kim win because it was her birthday! :D

After bowling, we decided to go out to lunch. We decided on BBQ and checked out Pigman's BBQ. It was decent. Nothing to "write home about." I had Turkey-Q and Jeff had Pork BBQ, which was better than the too saucy Turkey-Q. The hushpuppies were good. And Jacob enjoyed the french fries. :) After lunch, the kids were sort of rowdy, so we headed home for naps! I think we ALL took naps that day! The post-nap plan for dinner was a Labor Day cook-out with grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, homemade pasta salad, homemade slaw and some MEAN baked beans with ground beef, bacon, etc. in them that could be a meal in and of themselves! We had a great dinner with the entire gang. After dinner, Steven brought out a Carvel ice cream cake with candles in the shape of a "32" for Kim's birthday. We all enjoyed some ice cream cake and sent the boys off to bed.

Unfortunately, that night, it was too rainy for the hot tub...

More to come! Including pics!!