I think Rob is going to kill me if I wake him up one more morning at 5:45am to go and see the sunrise.

But it was pretty spectacular this morning.

And since he was up, he might as well take Gabe and Zach to go play tennis.

Poor guy. I have to admit. He is tired. Tomorrow, I promised him, he could just sleep as long as he wanted.

While they were out playing tennis, I packed up our stuff for another mini road trip. Yesterday, we went to the most northern beach in the Outer Banks and today the plan was to go to the sounthern most tip, and take the ferry across to Ocracoke island – supposedly one of nation’s best beaches can be found there. And I’m all about finding a good beach.

We were ready to roll at 8:40. The kids were a little skeptical about another 2 hour trip – but I popped in The Brady Bunch and oohed and ahhed and pointed out all the beauty we drove by and we were good to go.

I also told them all about a book I’m reading, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” (more on that in a later post).

We drove through the more touristy Kitty Hawk, and Kill Devil’s Head; grateful that we had chosen Duck to be our location. But then the commercialism stopped as we headed to Nag’s Head and by the time we got to Rodanthe – I had found love again.

Incidentally, it was the “Nights in Rodanthe” movie with Richard Gere (yuck) and Diane Lane (love) that first sparked my interest in the Outer Banks so I was thrilled to drive through this spot. Unfortunately the house in the movie had undergone some massive damage since the movie a few years ago due to storms and was due to be condemned last year. However, it was bought and then relocated further down the strip – but I couldn’t find it:(

We continued through little towns of Salvo, Avon and Frisco, until hitting Cape Hatteras, where the ferry is located to get to Okracoke. We got in line for the ferry, only to speak with one of the workers who informed us it was an 1.75 hour wait to get on the 45 minute ferry ride. We would not get there for another 3 hours.

We quickly ditched that plan and all voted (except for Sam – who really has no concept on how long 3 hours can be just waiting) to find another beach.

We settled on the Cape Hatteras beach and lugged our stuff across the foot bridge over the sand dune and arrived at a beautiful beach, with tons of shells for collectors, big crashing waves, but a huge shallow area too. We quickly set up camp and then headed out to the waves.

The waves reminded me the ones I experienced in Wells Beach, Maine when we used to go when I was a kid. They are rough, but not too rough, and they begin crashing pretty far out, and then crash again near the beach. Sometimes there are double or triple waves all attached together. Except the water here was way warmer:)

We literally spent hours out there together jumping them and diving into them.

I have to admit at first I was feeling a little intimidated by the waves. Joshua sensed my hesitancy, so he said, “Mom. You have to love the wave. You have to think like the wave. You have to be the wave”. I took his advice and became one with the wave! It was so fun – like being a child again. We had to shake Rob of his fear of sharks…but he eventually became “one with the wave” and we succombed to the childish pleasure of jumping in waves. Except it’s even better when you are jumping with your kids, watching them as children enjoy they waves.

A few poses for the camera:

We stopped to eat lunch, the kids played some beach soccer, and everyone spent some time searching for the perfect shell. Especially these two:

By mid afternoon we were zonked. We had originally said we would stop at another beach on the way home, but everyone was a bit beached out. We headed back, enjoying the Brady Bunch again along the way. We also stopped to buy more boogie boards for the rest of the trip as the ones that came with our house were a bit destroyed.

Dinner, was a meaty one – finally! We went to a place called “Sooey’s BBQ” – a Southern BBQ place where we had ribs, southern fried chicken, pulled porc, baked beans, mac n cheese and mashed potatoes. Not my fave, but the kids loved it and were stuffed!

After dinner, the kids played a bit and then relaxed in front of some mindless TV. Who said TV is not good for kids? I’m begging them to watch it at the end of the day. Vacationing with them is awesome, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world but it is tiring!!! Rob and I lay on the hammock to read a bit and then transferred over to our bed so he could have a quick snooze while I did a bit of writing….

Evening brought a trip to the beach for flashlight tag and Starlight Starbright. Only Sam, Josh and Zach wanted to go though as everyone else was too tired. We made our wishes, ran around for a bit and then everyone crashed.

It’s amazing how tiring doing nothing all day can be:)