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.