Day Seven: Save THE BEST for Last!!

So today began like a normal day of our vacation at the Outer Banks however some parts of it proved to be far from ordinary.

We began by going to the Hatteras Lighthouse. Where we visited the museum and watched a video that showed climbing to the top. Since half of us had already been up and the other half didn't really want to we decided to substitute this video for the for the 210ft hike, up 269 steps to the top. At the lighthouse we learned that the Cape on Hatteras Island was completely closed because of nesting birds and turtles. This was a pretty big bummer because it was on my vacation to do list and I really enjoyed the walk down there last time.

We then came back to the house where we split up for awhile. Dad went fishing, Ronnie hung out at the house, Rhonda, Mom, Lily and Jennifer went shopping and Jeremy and I headed to the beach.

We swam for a long time and I became a more confident ocean swimmer (even though I still didn't get very far from Jeremy) and I started to develop a fondess for swimming the ocean. We also walked on the beach a little. After we grabbed a quick bite of lunch at the house we headed out to the pool to meet up with the Ronnie, Rhonda, Jennnifer, Lily and Mom. After a while of swimming and fun I decided that I needed to re-apply my suncreen so Jeremy and I go out and in the process I ended up with a lot of suncreen in my eyes. It was HORRIBLE! I tried to wash them out in the pool bathroom but didn't get much relief so Jeremy brought me back to the house where he washed my eyes out with good eye solution. After taking a shower and resting my eyes a bit they began to feel better. I've decided that if that is what sunscreen feels like I never want to be sprayed with pepper spray.

We played games around the house this afternoon and worked on supper, spaghetti. After a meal we rested then headed out to Hatteras to walk on the beach one last time. We went to the old lighthouse site and were amazed to find that the beach is eroding so fast there. They had added a new water stop but the beach had changed a ton.

We walked on the beach awhile looking for seashells and crabs. After Lily and I saw a big crab Jeremy said he wondered why we didn't try to catch it because it would have made a great picture. So, the next crab I saw I tried to grab. I was successful in the grabbing part but so was he! He pinched me really hard and I let go and he didn't. After getting him off of me I realized that my finger was bleeding and the pain got to me a little and shed a few tears. He got me good! At this point Jeremy told me he was only kidding about catching the crab. I decided I would not do that again.

While walking back towards the car and the rest of our families, who had already gotten ahead of us, the best part of the day happened. Jeremy asked me to marry him!! He asked me to walk up next to him in some loose sand because it had prettier sea shells and I reluctantly moved because I didn't like walking in the loose sand as much. We walked for a minute and then he said and pointed to the ground saying, see they have big sea shells up here. By the time I turned and started looking at the ground in the direction of the big shell he was down on one knee and he asked me to marry him. Out of shock I said, "Are you serious?" and then I said, " YES OF COURSE!"

Our families were ecsatic to find out once we met back up with them at the lighthouse site. We finished off the best vacation ever with Uncle Eddy's Ice Cream and much shared joy, smiles, and happiness. I am extremely blessed to have an amazing fiance (wow that's still weird to say), incredible family and a truly fantastic vacation.

:) Sarah....the happiest girl in the world tonight....

PS...for more info on the engagement and upcoming wedding you can visit :

reidgetsmarried.blogspot.com

Day Six: The Oldest Airport and GREAT Seafood

Today we decided to go visit the Wright Brother's Memorial and Museum. This was one of my favorites the last time we were here so I was really excited. When we arrived we hiked up to the top of the memorial where Lily flew her kite and the rest of us walked around and enjoyed the breeze. We then walked down around the flight markers and through the museum and listened to a talk from the park ranger. When his speech was over we decided it was time for lunch.

We found a picnic table in the shade of a great climbing tree and ate our sandwich lunch. After we were refreshed and had full bellies we went into the Pavilion museum. Lily and Ronnie and Dad partook in a kids program on making paper airplanes, then we watched a movie about the Wright Brothers.

Also while at the park went by the "playground" or at least that's what I think it is. Basically it's metal sculptures of the first flight that you can crawl around on and stuff.

After leaving the Wright Brothers we headed up the coast to see the Currituck lighthouse. It turned out to be a long trek but it was a beautiful lighthouse but in our opinion not worth the money to climb it. On the way back we stopped at a great little seafood market and got 5lbs of shrimp for $30 and flounder (for me since I'm not a shrimp fan). Peeling the shrimp was a group effort.

Jeremy cooked the seafood and some help from me and let me tell you...it was DELICIOUS!!! We all decided that it was amazing seafood and we wouldn't eat seafood out again we would just let Jeremy cook it!

The day ended with the Hot Tub and late night run to Uncle Eddie's for Jeremy and I. I had the Mango Raspberry Cream this time and it was fantastic!! (we also sat outside and got bug bit).

I can't believe tomorrow is our last day at the beach!

:) Sarah

Day Five: The Best Ice Cream Place EVER!

Today was a really fun day, we had been "holding out" on having fun before Jennifer got here. We spent this morning at the beach. It was one of the most enjoyable times at the beach I can remember (except for when I was really little) because I'm not a huge fan of the not packed sand or swimming in the ocean. Jeremy got a boogie board to try out and that provided entertainment for him as well as us! The currents were really strong today so it quickly wore him out. After that he talked me into getting into the ocean. Since the currents were so strong I basically just held onto Jeremy as he walked out. After he convinced me to go a little deeper every time a wave came and went out it knocked me off my feet. If I hadn't been holding on I would probably be out at sea. That was the most I've been in the ocean in a long time and I had lots of fun. We then started walking (My mom and dad had told us we needed to check out the Avon Pier). The pier looked to be in bad shape: it was not straight or flat. While we were walking Jennifer was soaking up some sun.

After our beach expedition we ate lunch and then went to the pool. It lightly sprinkled rain and everyone left so we had the pool to ourselves. We then came back to the house and worked on supper and played games.

After supper we decided to head to Uncle Eddy's Ice Cream and get some. They also have Put Put there which is unlimited playing for the day once you play one game. So we played a round then ate ice cream then played again. Tonight really confirmed to all of us just how great Uncle Eddy's is. We will probably go there again before we leave!!

:) Sarah

Day Four: Norfolk and back

Today was also fairly relaxing and uneventful. We started the day with Strawberry muffins (my fave!). Then Jeremy and Rhonda and Ronnie and I traveled to Norfolk today to pick up Jennifer from the airport. Her plane was delayed in Asheville due to some bad weather but she made it safe and sound and on time. It was very interesting to people watch and walk around the airport. We ate at a pretty horrible McDonald's for lunch so we wanted a good supper tonight.

We all came back down to Buxton, NC and ate at The Fish House. The Seafood was great, but the ambiance wasn't so hot. They had Styrofoam plates and plastic silverware and pretty expensive prices. We left full and wondering why their prices were so high.

Mom, Dad, and Lily had a fun down around the house. They went to the pool, visited the hot tub and walked on the beach. They also discovered that they couldn't walk out to the Cape because it was roped off for bird nesting. That was pretty sad because it was on my vacation to do list. We are still hoping there is a way to get to it from the south side.

Well we are all in our beds. I will check in tomorrow.

:) Sarah

Day Three: Rain, Rest, Relaxing

Today was a fairly uneventful day. We woke up to a cloudy sky and an average chance of rain at 65%, so we decided to rest today and spend most of it inside the house. Dad (and Lily for some of the time) went fishing again, he caught 4 small fish and 1 large bass today. Jeremy did homework for most of the day except for when he and Ronnie went to the hardware store. Rhonda, Mom, and I (with the help of everybody else at various times) put together a 1000 piece puzzle that was here in the house. When we finished it was only missing 3 pieces, which is good considering we thought there were a lot more missing. We had Jeremy's homemade BBQ for supper (delicious!!!!) and an apple dessert.

After being in the house all day we decided to walk on the beach this evening. I spent quite a bit of time catching sand fleas (cousins of shrimp) and getting SOAKED in the process. We then made it just in time to hear the National Park Service weekly "Ghost stories by Campfire on the Beach." It was educational to hear about the history of pirates and privateers but there were no Ghost stories involved. There was the funniest little boy in the crowd who asked the park ranger lots of questions and at one point while she was trying to build the fire he said, "Park Ranger, do you know what you are doing?" She didn't dad had to help her. A quick dip in the hot tub finished off the evening.

Tomorrow we are going to get Jennifer (Jeremy's sister) in Norfolk; at which time we will be able to "begin having fun."

:) Sarah

Day Two: Ocracoke

Today the majority of us were awake much earlier than anticipated because of something we didn't expect: the sun! I woke up at 5am with the sun bright in our room and tried to go back to sleep but got up and went upstairs a little after 6:30am (probably a personal record for earliest voluntary time up on vacation). We lounged around and ate breakfast while we decided on embarking to Ocracoke Island for the day the we headed out.

Once we got off the ferry and into Ocracoke we set out for the National Park Service Visitor Center where we planned on taking a walking tour of Ocracoke. We went to a small museum there at the center. After we received the walking tour map and realized it was not as detailed as we once thought Jeremy used his mini-laptop and the Internet to fill in the blanks. We started walking and then we walked and walked and walked. We saw about 12 points of interest in Ocracoke but we probably couldn't tell you much about them because the information was on the Internet not the brochure and we couldn't look it up while walking. We took lots of back streets and ended at the Ocracoke Lighthouse (the second oldest operational lighthouse in the US) where we got to go into the base, even though it's usually closed. From there we started back around the harbor to our parked vehicles. At this point I think we were all hot and tired of walking!

We made it back and decided to head back to the house. The ferry ride back just as easy as the first, no rough waters today. We stopped at Uncle Eddy's Homemade ice cream shop to get some refreshment. This was a favorite of our last trip out here two years ago and it was still GREAT! They make homemade custard ice cream of all sorts of flavors. My flavor was the "Simpson" and it had vanilla ice cream with peanut butter, Butterfingers, and Oreos in it. I think it was the best! After that we headed back to the house and began to prep for supper. Jeremy and I went and got shrimp from the seafood market next door and we he made Chicken Alfredo and Shrimp Alfredo. It was delicious!!

After all the walking today we decided to skip walking on the beach this evening. Dad went to test out his new fishing pole after we saw a huge bass last night (no fish yet but he could have caught some turtles if he wanted to). The rest of us headed to the pool where Lily, Jeremy and I swam and Rhonda, Ronnie, and Mom watched and talked with the lady watching the pool. We about froze getting out but that was fixed by a dip in the hot tub. The hot tub warmed us up and made our tired muscles feel better.

We are all pretty exhausted from our day but are going to bed to rest up for tomorrow. So far, vacation is WONDERFUL! Hope to get pictures up really soon (Jeremy has those and has had homework to get done so we haven't got any up yet) and I will leave you with a few observations for the day:

1) You should probably make sure you know how long a walking tour will be before going on it (even though I had a great time on ours).

2) You should make sure to apply sunscreen on your neck even if your hair is covering it because you might put your hair in your cap and get sun burnt. (that's me....didn't even think about putting sunscreen on the back of my neck because my hair was down, then I put it in my cap on our walking tour...bad idea).

3) Hot Tubs are fantastic!

4) The water down at Ocracoke was extremely blue and clear: absolutely beautiful! We were amazed at how beautiful the Atlantic Ocean was; we thought water like that was reserved for the Caribbean.

5) I have around 27 state license plate spottings so far. Over halfway there and only day 2!

:) Sarah

Day One: Driving, Driving, and more Driving

Today was the first day of our Vacation to the Outer Banks and boy was is a long one. Jeremy and I left my house at 4:32 this morning, with his parents leaving at 5:32 and my parents leaving at 5:40. After a very easy drive to Shelby, NC, Jeremy and I decided to stop for breakfast at McDonalds. Now if you haven't visited the McDonalds in Shelby it is always an interesting experience and this time it did not disappoint us. We arrived there about 6:30 only to realize that they do not open their doors until 7 (that is just an assumption they could open later). So, we went through the drive through and ate our food in the parking lot with all the people that were waiting to eat inside.

After that quick stop we got back on the road. I went to sleep around Charlotte, it is inevitable Jeremy always expects me to fall asleep when he drives. The traffic picked up around Raleigh so it made for more complicated driving. We stopped for lunch in Tarboro, NC where we grabbed Wendy's and my parents went to Super Wal-Mart on their journey. From there it was straight to the coast.

We made it out to the Outer Banks after being stopped by a draw bridge to let a seemingly average size boat under. We checked in at the Real Estate Office and then found our house. It took us right at 10 hrs. Ronnie and Rhonda (Jeremy's parents) arrived about 40 mins later, with my parents about 40 mins after them. Our house seems really nice. Ronnie and Rhonda's room, the Kitchen, dining, and living room are on the 3rd floor. Jeremy's room, Gary and Evelyn's room (my parent's), and mine and Lily's room is on the 2nd floor and the first floor is just the open air garage. There are lots of steps!!

We were starving after unloading our stuff and decided to head to Topper's Pizza, just down the road. The pizza was great!! We then all headed off the beach for our first beach walk of vacation.

The water was cold! (in Lily's words) but it was the most amazing blue color. Definitely different then the last time we were here. There were a lot of Jelly Fishes a new addition from our last visit. We walked awhile and then headed back the house, about a 3 block walk. To relax after a long day Jeremy and I checked out the hot tub; let's just say, we plan on spending more time there.

Well that's about all of today. We have pictures of our beach walking expedition but Jeremy has them so I'll try to get him to upload them tomorrow.

:) Sarah