Making Memories

It’s been a couple of weeks so I have some catching up to do.  I’m still trying to figure out what I am doing or what I want to do with my blog.  So I guess for now I’ll begin rambling…here goes!

Since my last post, Mother’s Day, we finished our last week of school…WOOHOO!  Don’t get me wrong, we love homeschooling, kiddos included, but we are in need of a break…a real break, something more than a week.  We had decided to celebrate the end of the school year by taking a family vacation to the NC Outer Banks.  The hubby and I had been several times but it had been 9 years (BC…before children) and we were just as excited to go back as the kids were to go for the first time. 

Our week consisted of visiting Jockeys Ridge State Park several times.  The kids loved, loved, loved climbing the huge sand dunes and sliding back down along with watching the hang gliders.  The best part for me was that it was FREE! 

    The next day was very cloudy with spotty showers but the weather held off so that we could visit Currituck Lighthouse.  This was a first for the whole family.  We paid our $21 (5 and under climb for free, $7 for the rest) and climbed all 214 steps for a view 150+ feet off the ground.  The climb was easy enough and well worth it.  The winds were about 11 mph and with light jackets the temperature was great.     Day 3 of our vacation took us to the NC Aquarium at Roanoke (free for homeschoolers…see my earlier post) and the Roanoke Island Festival Park (another reasonable admission for 2 consecutive days…$8/adult, $5/children over 5).  The park has a replica of the 16th century Elizabeth II that is open for exploration, an American Indian Town, an English settlement site and adventure museum with lots of dress-up and hands-on experiences. 

   As we were finishing up our fun at the park the rain began to fall and continued on through half of the next day.  So we rented a Redbox movie, stayed in for the evening and were bums the following day.  Ahhh, the joy of vacation!  On Wednesday we visited the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk.  It was interesting to hear the details of their story and see first hand what they flew, where the flew and how far.  Amazing! Oh, and kids 15 and under get in for free, adults only $4 each!    Thursday we drove down OBX from Kitty Hawk to Cape Hatteras.  We learned that Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest brick lighthouse in the US.  We paid our $21 (kids $3.50 each, adults $7) and climbed all 268 steps to get the best view of the OBX.  The weather on this day was absolutely wonderful.  The clouds had melted away, the sun was shining and thanks to the friendly ranger at the top of the lighthouse, we clocked the wind at 13 mph.  Not to shabby being 190 feet in the air!   We were able to show the kids where the lighthouse was built in 1870 and how they moved it 2,900 feet back in 1999 to save it from toppling into the Atlantic Ocean.    We then ventured down the coast, hopped on a ferry and made our way to Ocracoke.  Now I have to say I was a little disappointed.  The last time we were there it was quiet, serene and not very crowded.  The word must have gotten out because the island was full of people!  We managed to enjoy ourselves anyway.  We visited the British Cemetery, Ocracoke Lighthouse and a few shops.  Still worth the visit in my book.  Our last day, *sniff*sniff*, was another beautiful day so we spent the majority of it on the beach.  The ocean was a balmy 63 degrees and my children could not stay out of the water.  We finished the day out by making yet another stop by Jockey’s Ridge (I lost count but I think this was the fourth stop) and flying our kite. 

To sum up our week of vacation, we visited a lot of historical sites, ate a lot of wonderful, fresh seafood, enjoyed our time together as a family and made wonderful memories.  The kids rated this vacation their 2nd best ever because you can’t top that cute little mouse that lives in Florida!  So home again, home again, jiggity jig…and back to reality!

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