Ocracoke Island

Today we headed off to Ocracoke Island, where Blackbeard the Pirate met his doom.  He was quite a creepy guy apparently, not at all like Jack Sparrow.  We drove to the end of Hatteras Island, to Hatteras Landing.  There's some cool stores by the marina where  Zac bought a really cool t-shirt. When we were leaving the store we saw our van driving on the ferry, so we had to wait till the rest of the cars were on, then walked on board. We crossed the Oregon Inlet to the marina in Ocracoke.  It takes about 1/2 hour to get there.

Left to right:  Zac, Bronwyn, Zoe and I on the ferry to Ocracoke. Zac’s wearing his new shirt.

PJ loved the boat ride

Gabe and his little buddy PJ

Phil and PJ

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We drove to the village, looking at the museum and marina, and Teaches Hole

Jonathan the pirate

We headed back and passed the corral where there are wild mustangs.

It was an over cast day today, but we still ended up at a beach.  I bought some shovels and beach toys for the little kids, so they had tons of fun digging holes and building stuff.  Shelling is also great in Ocracoke, so we have more to add to our collection. 

Zoe really wanted to find a sand dollar, so she prayed and within 10 seconds she found this one.  They are really hard to find.

PJ with his new shovel

Nina

Zoe with her big shovel and toy truck

Loading up to catch the 3:30 ferry

Well we missed it, there it goes…

But no worries, there’s one every half hour till about midnight.

We caught the 4 pm ferry back to Hatteras Landing.

 

Some really funky little cottages in Hatteras Landing.  Most of the cottages here are huge though, so this was different.  Bronwyn wants the blue one, and Nina wants the pink one.  I should post a picture of our cottage.

I made supper while the kids got all rinsed off, then some of them got in the hot tub. 

Some of the kids eating supper in the screened deck off the kitchen

After supper, Zac took me out for ice cream (I got a Heath Blizzard, and Zac got an Oreo Sundae - yum!)  We took our ice creams and headed to Avon Pier and walked out to the end.  The pier is really long and very high up.  Since it has to survive lots of hurricanes it’s built to move with the wind, so it curves and is all bumpy.  By the time you get to the end of it you can really feel it shifting.  We watched a guy try to land some huge fish.  He was being coached by several other family members.  We waited about 20 minutes and he was still struggling to land it.  I hope I didn’t miss something spectacular.

Tomorrow is supposed to be another overcast day, so I think we’ll hang out at the cottage, maybe check out a few shops, go for some walks on the beach, etc.  It’s been a really relaxing vacation here on the OBX

The Beach

Obviously because of the lack of posts the weather has been great. We sleep, eat, go to the beach. Our cottage is in Avon, but our favorite beach is in Frisco, which takes about 20 minutes. The upshot is that we pass the Canadian Hole, made famous by all the Canadians who used to windsurf there, and now kiteboarding is ever popular. We also pass several fantastic coffee shops on the way, as well as the town of Buxton, home of Hatteras Lighthouse. Now this lighthouse was quite a controversy. In the late 90's some people thought the lighthouse should be moved, which is what was finally decided on. Many locals didn't like the idea, mainly because this meant giving up the land on front of the lighthouse to erosion. You can read more about this incredible move that was completed in 1999 http://www.unc.edu/depts/cmse/science/Hatteras.html My personal reason that I didn’t like the move was that it makes it really difficult to get a good family picture with the lighthouse in the background AND have perfect lighting…unless you decide to get up early and do pictures an hour after sun up. Now who wants to do that on vacation?

Here’s a pic that we managed to get (well, Gabe did) of the Lighthouse

*If* I happen to get up early I love to go for a walk along Avon Beach. Usually Zac and PJ are up, so they come along. The first time I did this was yesterday (haha, so I did it one day in a row, but you get the idea). I thought it was incredible that I was outside and walking along the path to the beach shortly after 8 in the MORNING, but the closer I got to the water there were several people out and about. At first I thought there was something wrong, something must have happened at the beach to attract a handful of people at this hour, but they really were just out for a walk too. I wonder if people make a habit of getting up so early, and do this more than one day in a row.

Our day consists of

1. getting up (the hard part)

2. eating

3. packing a picnic

4. get swimsuit on and apply any necessary sunscreen

5. getting everyone in the van

6. head to the beach

7. build something out of sand, swim, etc

8. eat again

9. swim some more

10.have some snacks (swimming makes you hungry)

11.pack up

12. head to the cottage

13.throw a million towels in the laundry

14.go to Food Lion and figure out what to eat

15.make supper, eat supper

16.watch America’s Funniest Home Videos

17.bible study

18.eat dessert

19.little kids go to bed

20.more snack food, maybe a movie, or a hot tub on the deck

21.bed

*Now I should make a special note here about the shopping for food thing. I know you should never shop for food while hungry, but alas, I’ve done this a lot during this trip. Food Lion is the big grocery store on the island. Most of the staff have this look about them that says ‘when will these tourists leave?’ but hey, if it wasn’t for tourists, the store wouldn’t be there now would it?’ Food Lion has everything a hungry beach person wants. Produce, a meat department, cereals, several junk food aisles, picnic ideas (and wow, there’s some real cool food in the States that you can’t get in Canada). Then there’s the amazing abundance of every flavour ice cream imaginable. How do you choose? Zac helped; Then the last place you go through is the bakery section, loaded with lots of yummy stuff too. When you go through the checkout you need their MVP card. That gives you a discount on lots of their stuff. Like if you buy a box of, say, Ritz Crackers, you can get a second one free but ONLY if you are privileged enough to get the card. Also, you have to be careful to read the money when you pay, because it’s all the same colour. It gets challenging after you have been at the beach all day, let me tell you!

Here is Zac at Frisco Beach building a sand igloo.

it was exhausting work

Sebastian catching some zzz's

Phil and Bronwyn

Gabe eating some lunch at the shore

under Frisco pier

Adam

PJ at base camp

Nekoda’s sand art

This is a sign at the beach with instructions on what to do if one is caught in a rip current.

the 4 Island Princesses

Phil and I on front of Hatteras Light…so you actually can get some fairly decent pictures in the new location, but we had to walk about a mile to get this right.

It’s 11 pm, and only Zac, Gabe, Zoe and I are up. We’re going to get in the hot tub now, then probably have some ice cream;)*

We might go to Ocracoke Island tomorrow, which is a ferry ride to another island where Blackbeard the Pirate used to hang out and got dead.

In case you are all wondering, I’m being really good, even though I’m consuming a lot of sugar in the form of chocolate and ice cream, I walk up and down about 5 flights of stairs in our cottage several times a day, and also take lots of walks to the pier and stuff like that.

The Long and Winding Road to Hatteras

 To backtrack a bit, on Labour Day Weekend I had a mishap in the garden.  I was pulling out a big weed, the thing had enormous roots...so I put all my weight into it and when it finally let go, well you get the picture.  I was running backwards with the momentum, trying to get my feet to catch up with the rest of me.  I could see Adam's helmet in my peripheral vision, tripped over it backwards, and fell.  Ouch.  I also somehow got the sharp edge of the shovel in the back of my heel.  Real ouch.  

I have to add here, that this garden is huge.  I worked at it most of the summer with my friend Lori.  The one along the front of the house is about 50 feet long by 6 feet deep.  There's also another garden in the middle of the front lawn that's about 25 feet long by 8 feet wide.  There's another one by the mailbox as well.  All gardens are loaded with perennials.  It actually won the 'beautification award' earlier in the summer.  How that big weed came about I really don't know.  I'm not exactly sure I even like gardening.

Several of the kids saw me fall and came to me rescue.  *I have the sweetest kids on the planet*  The cut was pretty gruesome and I told the little kids not to look at it, and to get Dad.  PJ and Adam started picking flowers for me:)  Phil came out, we both knew it needed stitches, but the agonizingly long wait at emerg really doesn't fit my schedule.  It was Sunday night afterall, and we had friends coming over.  So I asked Phil to go to the store and find some super glue.  PJ called to him as he was driving away and said to get some chocolate for Mommy!

Phil arrived back from town, we cleaned and glued my foot together, and I sat with my foot propped up on some ice.  He brought me a yummy dark chocolate bar, which PJ enjoyed sharing with me.  Joe and Lori came over.  Lori said that it was for a noble cause.

It occurred to me that I might perhaps consider getting a tetanus shot.  They were quite happy to do that at the Health Unit.  Before receiving the shot I signed a paper that I skim read, something like I promise I won't sue you if this shot kills me, or something like that.

Within days of the shot I started not feeling too well.  I'm used to working out at the gym and being quite active, but I was sapped of my strength, felt dizzy, had headaches like never before.  I saw 3 doctors, including one night when I went to emerg after calling Telehealth, because I felt numb and tingly on the right side of my body.  All of the doctors said it was whiplash from the fall, and I was fine.  But I wasn't fine.  Randomly my body would go numb and my throat would feel like it was being constricted, and my face felt like it was in a vice.  We began to realize that this was damage from the vaccine.   Unfortunately true info is concealed by medical professionals, and the lay persons who have it will only share their experience.  We did a lot of research on the internet, and this is our conclusion.  If you want my opinion, I would urge you to research before receiving any vaccines, and make an informed choice.   

I improved somewhat, and wasn't going to let this stop me from heading to Hatteras.  We headed off to Cape Hatteras early morning on Sunday Sept 21, and arrived here late Sunday night.  Ahhhh...I love the sound, smell and feel of the wonderful ocean air. 

                here's some pics from the road trip:  

The weather has been a bit unsettled, but we've managed to get to the beach every day.  It was really windy on Wednesday, then there was quite a bit of rain that night.  Thursday we drove down to Frisco.  When we drove through Buxton (Buxton is the wider part of the island where the lighthouse is) there was surf coming between some cottages on the ocean side, and flooding part of the road.  The island is actually a thin spit of land way off the coast of North Carolina, so when you think about it, it's quite a delicate piece of nature.  Sometimes during hurricanes the island is breached.  They have to dig some sand out of the sound side of the island and pile it back up on the island, then they fix the road.  

Today (Friday) we spent the day at Frisco beach again.  It was hot and sunny all day.  Usually at one point in the day, Zac will decide to engineer some sort of large sand structure.  Today it was a 5 ft diameter igloo.  Later in the day, as the tide began to erode it, Zac perched his beach chair on top of the igloo.  As he napped up there, the kids wanted to see if they could get the b ack of it to cave in, causing poor ol Zac to topple backwards.  They finally pulled the chair over, and he rolled off backwards.  He's such a good sport, and I'm sure he was savvy about plot all along. 

here's a pic of us near Avon:

here's a pic of PJ heading to the beach: 

I just want to thank everyone who has been praying for me while I wasn't feeling the best.  Today was the best day yet, after a really good nights sleep.  

Tomorrow is looking like a fantastic beach day, nice and hot and sunny!  This is a great place, you eat when you want, sleep when you want and go to the beach.  There's no Walmart, no McDonalds, no noisy traffic, it's great. *A shoe store would be nice though*

I think we are going back to Frisco tomorrow.