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| Flying high at the Wright Brothers National Memorial! |
Video 1 from today: (Click here for video 1)
Video 2 from today: (Click here for video 2)
We moved around slowly this morning and later in the day we paid for it. We had some left over donuts from yesterday and the kids munched on them while we finished getting ready. The hotel last night was a suite so it took Robby and I much longer to pack up since we had spread ourselves out all over the place.
When we made it downstairs to breakfast, the kids weren’t hungry and it was a good thing because they were about to close up since it was nearing 10. We gobbled down our food and even waited to get Reagan some eggs while Robby loaded up the car. They finally came out with more eggs and they were still frozen. She was able to eat the edges because they were still warm. Anyway, soon we were on our way.
Traffic wasn’t too bad the first 5 miles of our trip this morning and we only had about 70 more miles to go…and then the traffic started. Apparently everyone in this area is going to the beach this weekend and they all left when we did. Seriously, it took us 4 and a half hours to go 70 miles. At least we were driving through beach towns and there was plenty of look at. Lots of fruit stands, lots of people with luggage racks on the top of the cars, lots of people stopped at gas stations for potty breaks (took Robby and the kids 15 minutes to all potty because of the line when we stopped-I needed to go but just decided to wait since I didn’t want to wait in that crazy line).
One of Robby’s new movie players went kaputz this morning so we were just down to one movie player but we did rig it up where all of the back seat passengers could see it. Actually, the kids handled it much better than we could have ever expected-probably even better than Robby did! About 10 miles from our stop, most of the traffic turned off and headed towards the town of Duck. I was getting worried that all of those people were going to be at the Wright Brothers National Memorial with us.
We drove in and circled the monument and stopped near the airstrip, bathrooms and picnic table. I was the first out of the car to head to the bathroom. While I made lunches, the kids climbed on the great climbing tree and watched a plane take off from the airstrip behind us. After lunch, we let them play with their bubble whistles. It was too windy for the bubbles to work but the whistles worked great. Robby and I just sat down and finished our lunch while ignoring them and their loud, loud whistles. Oh, Nonna and Grannymom, you will so enjoy having those at your house!!
After a few tree pictures and more whistle blowing, we headed up to the top of the monument. It is quite a hill that the Wright brother’s glided off of (more than 1000 glider flights from that hill). “Ms. Independent” was the first up the hill and was happy to beat the rest of us. Robby pushed “Mosquito Bite” up the hill in the stroller (yes, she has at least 20 bites-don’t worry, she is hydrocortisoned and benedryled often). On the way up, some one even said “those poor kids they are scratching from a sun burn.” This bothered Robby to no end-no sunburn, not in the sun that long, scratching from mosquito bites and mind your own dadgum business. Anderson said he needed a place to sit down but did manage to run some-we have got to toughen that boy up. He almost had a conniption about standing on the edge of the monument to take a picture-tears and all. Did I mention that he was only 3 feet off of the ground? Anyway, I pulled Graham up the hill and we were even able to pass an elderly gentleman on the way up-I was quite pleased by this.
We took some pictures. walked around the monument and then headed down. Reagan just waltzed down and was at the bottom sitting on a bench before we were 1/4 of the way down. Next up was a quick drive around to the statue for more pictures. We let them climb on it since other people were and there wasn’t a sign. Just letting them climb on the statue made Anderson say “I love you more than the rest of our family.”
Next up was the visitor center and of course the door we walked into was the door full of 50+ people sitting, listening to a ranger give a lecture. Seriously, could they not have put up a sign to use another door. We made it through without too much of a scene and walked around. Next we were back outside to see the spot where they took off with their gas powered plane-markers 1-3 were close by but marker 4 was 852 feet away and Reagan took off for a run. She ran and ran and ran and finally we motioned for her to come back (she couldn’t hear us). Later, she said she “just kept running but it kept getting further away.” Eventually, all of the boys took off in her direction and they all came zooming back like airplanes. Priceless.
Another visitor center area and then back in the car since we had closed the Wright Brother’s National Memorial up. They closed at 5-that is what happens when you get a late start and then get stuck in traffic.
We drove out towards the Bodie Island lighthouse but decided to press on for the Cape Hattaras lighthouse-until I looked it up on the GPS and we realized it was another 40 miles down the coast. It was a pretty coast but it wasn’t that pretty! We had promised the kids that we would swim tonight at the pool or get our feet wet in the ocean. So we pulled over and walked up the dune to the water. The kids had a blast running in the surf-as the video shows. The shells were neat and we even saw animals in some shells-I guess Robby and I are a bit citified because we didn’t know what they were and it even gave us the heebie-jeebies. And I feel that I should clarify, that the little children were never out of an arms reach from us even though it appears they are going to get washed away on the video. And yes, Graham had to have a complete change of clothes back at the car and so did Campbell.
Campbell thought the waves were fun but the first time she got her feet wet, she went back to get her shoes and sat down to put them on. After a few minutes though, she was back in the water with the rest of the kids but she wouldn’t let go of her shoes-Robby had to chase one into the surf at one point. Campbell, sweet, sweet Campbell, threw a knock down drag out fit when it was time to leave the beach. Robby said it was all he could do to carry her back to the car-leaving me to bring up the other 3 and 12 shoes.
Reagan could have stayed on the beach all day long looking for shells and I had enough in my pockets on the walk back that I was also struggling keeping my pants up from the weight of the shells. Back in the car, we headed back into town. We did see two guys who had gotten their car stuck in the sand on the side of the road. They were trying to push it so Robby decided to stop and help them-but as soon as he got off the road, he could feel the deep sand on his tires and decided that 1 car stuck in the sand was better than 2 cars stuck in the sand-especially one of those cars being our car! There was no place to stop so hopefully they found some help but it wasn’t from the Dennie fam.
We had supper at 5 Guys and Campbell has become quite the screamer. I don’t remember the other kids being like her-she can just be difficult sometimes. She was hungry though and after she started eating she was fine. We have around 100 days to get her fit throwing into shape before V come along. Wish me luck! Ha!
Our hotel was in Elizabeth City and it didn’t take us too long to get there. Of course, it upset Robby seeing the traffic-less road on the other side that had taken us so long to drive down earlier in the day. We were glad the hotel had a room for us-they have actually called us multiple times today. Robby gave them an expired credit card by accident but when he called to give them a new one, he reminded them that his stay was free from a certificate. They were clueless about this so Robby had to forward them his confirmation email to which they still don’t understand-the cooperate offices will be getting quite the email/call from him in a few days. Anyway, the room is nice, right by the door and laundry and we even have a pack n play tonight. So everyone is sleeping, laundry is done and we are planning tomorrow. Don’t worry, we won’t get another late start-we did break one of our Dennie rules today: Be at places before they open. But we won’t break it tomorrow.
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