So, after a 45 minute drive, we got there. The kids got out of the van, complained they were hot and bored. I snapped 3 pictures, used the bathroom, and we left. Fun.
But I really didn't want to go back and fry at the beach all day again, so instead of heading back, I turned the other way and continued to drive south. I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda gal, so I was sure we could find something fun to do. My plan (yes, I'm calling it a plan. Folks who fly by the seat of their pants can consider
"driving that way until you find something" a plan. It's in the membership brochure.) was to drive until something fun jumped out at us.
On the map, the Outer Banks looks to be about the size of an eyelash. Seriously. It's tiny. You'd think you could drive from one end to the other in like 20 minutes. You'd be wrong. The Outer Banks is a strip of land that's about 5 million miles long. It'll take you at least a week to go from one end to the other. At least that's what my kids would tell you if you asked them.
So I drove. And drove. And drove. And finally (after, literally, hours) we got to the Bodie Island lighthouse. I had wanted to take pictures of it. It was being renovated.
Lovely.
So I looked at the map again and saw there was another lighthouse that, according to my expert calculations, was 5 minutes away. Five minutes, an hour and a half, almost the same thing. We passed through Rodanthe which made me think of Nicholas Sparks. Then I remembered that he lives in North Carolina. I considered trying to stalk him, but figured it probably wouldn't be good to get arrested out of state. I mean, I learned my lesson after the Paula Deen incident when I asked her a few too many questions about her sons at BlogHer last year. (I still can't come within 500 feet of her.)
We finally made it to Hatteras where we drove onto a ferry that took us to Ocracoke.
I drove off the ferry and the kids all said, "Why are we here?"
"I don't know. I thought it would be something fun to do."
"We drove all this way for nothing???"
"Well, we got to listen to you guys complain and Jackson
fight with Clay the whole way. That's something. We counted 58 Wings souvenir shops. We saw Pea Island (hee hee). And, oh look kids, horses!"
"Can we go home?"
"YES!"
I got back in line for the ferry. Meanwhile, the kids played Miami Ink.
We finally got back to the beach house at 10:00 at night.
I don't care how burnt anyone is, we're not driving anywhere until we have to check out. I will be spending the next two days lying on the beach, drinking rum, and relaxing if it kills me.
21 comments:
Ahhhh...such fun memories you are making!
Enjoy the rest of your vacation, and the rum ;) This one made me laugh, I've done similar to my kids so many times, they plead for me not to look up any of the local sites when we're on holiday.
Gaby
Some recommendations for you, in case you decide to venture out again. Duck Donuts are to-die for and you HAVE to try the fish tacos @ Hurricane Moe's! It will take about 1/2 hour, but if you go down through Duck to Corolla, you can see another lighthouse there. There are some nice outlets not too far from Kitty Hawk. Hope that helps! Oh, and I happen to know exactly where Nicholas Spark's house is--it's about 3-4 hours away in New Bern, NC (my parents retired there). He had a huge house (gated, of course), but recently built a monsterous house on the same property. I'm sure he has some extra rooms so you could bunk there for a few nights - hee hee! My mom says he and his wife are the nicest people, too. :) Have a great vaca!
Oh the memories from our trip. Yes it does look much smaller on the map. Thanks for posting the lighthouse pic's. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them.
Are you for real or just jokinng about having to stay 500 feet away from Paula Deen? I'm sure you are joking but you just never know! Maybe in the "court documents" you also can't blog about it.......or I missed the post about you having a restraining order. LOL
Enjoy relaxing on the beach & be so thankful you don't have to deal w/ oil there like we did on the coast during our vacation.
I tried to email this, but it wouldn't "submit" so feel free to read but not publish it as a comment.
Dawn,
I admit to being a lurker. I never comment... well... I did once to tell you to move to Montana (hahaha) But I just read your blog about Jackson vitiligo and I don't think I ever told you our story. A while ago when you posted about his vitiligo (2 years ago?) my jaw dropped. My daughter has the same spots. She has them all over her legs, sides, feet and they are starting on her face. When I read your post it was wonderful. I now had a name to put to Katie's spots. Since then, we have started protopic treatment on the spots on her face. She isn't too concerned about them but I know that the older she gets, the more she will care about them.
I wanted to say thank you for posting about vitiligo. You have no idea how much it helped us :-)
Jennifer Logan
Jglogan@bresnan.net
Deer Lodge, MT
Did you find the island with the wild horses? You have to take a ferry to get there too.
Sounds like a fun time to me! We did something similar in Door County earlier this summer. All that driving for what?!?! Of course Door County is drivable in less than a week and a half. :)
Good grief! I've haven't been visiting your blog for awhile, and I just found out about the divorce; I'm so sorry. That'll teach me not to neglect the blogs I enjoy. I can't imagine being a single mom to six kids, but you'll make it OK; I can tell you are a survivor.
That last sentence...it sounds perfect, especially after a day like that.
Okay- did you post the Paula Deen story last year?
I'd love to hear that one.
Looks like a fun trip despite the long drive. It's beautiful there-and makes me want to visit it too.
I love the OBX we go every year my husband is from their. I love hatteras light house. Funny its not even located in Hatteras its in buxton. We visited the lighthouse last year and it was just breath taking. I loved it. And yes it takes hours to get to the end I was suprised also. Corolla has the wild mustangs. Enjoy your next few days.
Enjoy the rum and the sand, even if you are all sunned out.
haha, you almost sound like this guy with the map :D (yeah I know you're exaggerating...)
That picure of the lighthouse all wrapped up like a jail yard made me laugh out loud. :)
We did the same thing this summer on our road trip, but in Maine. Why are the lighthouses all so far apart!?
Hope the ac is working in your van now!
Paula Deen's sons are completely worthy of a restraining order. Every bit as yummy as her 20,099 calorie dishes...
I think the "Artist" of Brooklyn's foot was hungry...
We live in NC and yeah, I was disappointed in Kitty Hawk as well. Check out the Currituck Lighthouse. It's maybe 30 min from Kitty Hawk and you can climb it. There's also an local wildlife thingy there. My kids love going there. Hope you have a good time relaxing.
Dear Dawn, when you guys are on this trip, do you stay in a hotel? How do you divide up rooms, is there one for girls and one for boys? If so, how do you get all the boys to be good without you being in there?
This is so funny - this was our exact vacation last week, your pictures are mine except with different kids! lol In fact I wonder if we may have been at the same places at the same time! LOL We drove into Rodanthe and I was so excited wanting to find the house from the movie. But then I googled it on my phone and found that they had moved it in January. My luck! So we then drove to the Bodie Sound Lighthouse and we were disappointed to also see it was under construction. I have the exact same picture you took. Then we headed to Oregon Inlet to see the boats come in w/ the days catch - but we were too early for that. So headed for an early dinner and then to the Currituck Light house and fell in love!
Man! MY mom MADE us hang out at Kitty Hawk allllll day long several times when we'd go to OBX for summer vacations. Hmph. We always stayed in Avon, too, where there's noooooothing going on but the sand. Still, good times!
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