First Beach Trip 2017

We had a blast in our off season September trip last year, and Kevin and I were both itching to experience the outer banks again, so we planned a mid-May trip. You always roll the dice a bit for the off season, and last trip we scored. This trip, not so much. My packing list included hoodies and umbrellas! We headed to the beach on Friday, cloudy and chilly. It rained overnight into Saturday. Saturday was mostly overcast and chilly. Sunday was beautiful, warm and sunny, so we crammed a lot of beach fun and activities in then. A couple of very good choices were made leading into the trip. First, we picked a hotel with an indoor heated pool AND we planned to use our aquarium membership during part of one day so we did that on Saturday. There was also a hot tub, and it was lovely to warm up in that before heading into the cold back to our room. I also brought the same kites that I have dragged to every beach trip and never used and they FINALLY were used- it was great kite weather since we didn't want to be in bathing suits in the sand for the first two days.

Friday we arrived in the very late afternoon. We enjoyed the indoor pool right away and then had some kite time. We also walked around a bit to all the souvenir shops close to the hotel. Saturday we did the aquarium and the pier (it was a bit nippy out there!). We walked the half mile on the beach to the pier and the kids did some water play right on the edge (the water was SO SO SO cold!). We did more indoor pool and grabbed dinner out and it was at least nice enough (and by "nice enough", I mean I only wore two jackets) to hang out on our oceanfront balcony in the evening while the kids settled (in perfect view of us via a large window). Sunday was a power day, because finally the sun was shining! We started with kites, then hit the pool again. After checkout, we spent a few hours at the beach, but only Kevin really went into the water (which turned his fingers white after a while). I am a sand person though, so the girls and I built sand forts and collected shells. Gwen was totally content, which was so nice and different from the last beach trip- during which she wore thin of sand play and started asking for snacks fairly quickly. We had to convince her to leave to do all of our other activities of the day, which included putt putt, ice cream and a light house.

Does she look like she is enjoying the wind? She wasn't, but she did think it was fun to fly the kites so easily!

Our hotel balcony- Stephanie dressed optimistically for Saturday. It was fine, except for on the pier- she was a little too chilly out there!

A couple of photos by Stephanie!

The NC Aquarium had an outdoor play area we did first...

A pocketful of her very favorite- honeysuckle!

And then into the Aquarium! This is right in the entryway- a live video of you with various animals "appearing" with you.

And then there was a Gwendolyn favorite- Darth Vader! She calls any tank diver Darth Vader, thanks to a day at Greensboro Science Center, during which the person outside of the tank said that the diver sounded like "Darth Vader". We have seen our fair share of tank Vaders over the years, but this guy takes the cake! He was waving kids over, posing for photos and doing tricks.

Trick #1: Blowing bubble circles!

He posed with Stephanie and then gave her bunny ears for a few- which I didn't realize until I reviewed the photos. It cracked Stephanie and the rest of us up!

Trick # 2- Upside down!

Petting the Sting Rays. She says she got to touch them 9 times.

Lion fish- and Stephanie through the tank. I thought this was a fun and creative picture!

Riding the Sea Turtle- an Aquarium tradition so far!

Speaking of sea turtles, they had a rescue center with turtles in tanks, which was interesting. They had a unique museum feature, in which you selected a plastic turtle, took it to a diagnosis station and then a treatment station. We assume it was equipped with an RF tag, and there where various diagnosis and treatments. This was popular, and we might still be there right now had we not convinced them to break for snacks. And then they made us go back to the sea turtles. Most engaging museum activity ever.

Sending a treated turtle back to sea!

They also had animals on displays. Stephanie petted the baby alligator, but was feeling a smidge apprehensive.

Then we walked the half mile distance to the pier. I have photos of Stephanie and the ocean from every trip from behind, and all of her interactions are different, but all hysterically natural.

Stephanie and Gwen got in their ocean edge play...

RUN!!!!

On the pier, Gwen genuinely asked me for a photo- and then she posed....

A wedding was set up on the beach. The driftwood statuary was weird and irresistible. We slipped in for photos just before wedding guests showed up. I guess that is what happens if you set your wedding up in a public space.

Sunday morning kite flying.

"Daddy lets the kite up a lot higher than you." or so I was informed.

We did the pool and the beach after the kites, but my camera was safely tucked away in the car. We lasted a few hours on the beach. Kevin really got in the water, but it was quite cold and rough, so the kids and I mostly stayed out of it and played in the sand. The girls played with him in the waves a bit, but that was all. After the beach, our final adventures- putt putt and the light house.

Stephanie spotted a putt putt with waterfalls on our way to dinner. I sort of wanted to go to the putt putt that I spent my summers at (side note- our family always vacationed as an extended family at Nags Head from the time I was pre-K to adolescent- so the old putt putt has been going for over 30 years!). Stephanie, however, was drawn to the shiny and new, so we went to the waterfall putt putt. Gwen fell asleep on the way there, and this place was a bit pricier than the others we saw in town, so we double checked that she was free before waking her (We thought she would really enjoy it, but we also knew she might be a bear if we woke her, and I didn't want to pay for the privilege to mini golf with a cranky 3 year old). She was free, we woke her, and she had a fantastic time. It started with a "train" ride to the "top" of the course, which was a unique mini golf experience. We had to spend a minute calming Stephanie down, as she would have busted through the course in 10 minutes on her own. Once we eased her excitement a bit, Kevin and I were able to take turns, and we let Stephanie go first and finish her turn and Gwen took as many turns as she wanted, used some unique techniques and played a little fast and loose with the rules- Nevertheless, she was thrilled each and every time the ball made it to the hole, even if she dropped it in by hand.

I thought it would be fun to compare my technique to Gwen's...

Line it up.

Get it in the hole.

Celebrate.

Line it up.

Get it in the hole.

Celebrate.

It is on celebrate that I really feel like I am lacking in comparison!

She killed us with the game. Every ball in the hole was worth dancing over. On the way home, Stephanie said, "Wasn't Gwen cute playing putt putt?".

After some mini golf, we picked up some ice cream.

And we also took the time to drive the few miles south to Bodie Island to see the lighthouse there. I was the one that really wanted to (but I had Stephanie fully on board), but it was getting a bit late and I was afraid I would regret the time it would take on the getting back on the road. Not true! It was really neat to see it and I would like to go back and climb it (they were out of tickets for the day AND it was too windy to go out on the observation deck anyway).

One last thing- On the way home we got to see the drawbridge open and let a boat through. I didn't get any great pictures, but for me it was a great way to end the trip- I find the drawbridges fascinating, they open and close fairly quickly, which means I haven't seen them open very often AND they don't stick you in traffic for long.

The weather wasn't ideal, but it ended up being nice enough. The kids also weren't without a few touchy moments- nearly everything we did had a moment where it looked like it might go totally south- but we managed to get everyone more or less back on track. Everyone ended up exhausted- we got home late- after 9:00 with both kids asleep (Stephanie didn't mean to fall asleep she told me later- we were all trying to get Gwen to fall asleep, and she was helping us out by being quiet- and that was all it took).