OBX 2012: Day 1

Sunday, September 16.

The day I'd been waiting for.

Ever since we chose the date for this vacation and I marked it on the calendar, I'd been eagerly longing for this day to come:  the day we were finally returning to the Outer Banks after five years away.

The days and weeks leading up to our departure were filled with the usual pre-trip tasks; but along with the increased workload came increased excitement, and even the drudgery of packing (and the inevitable thoughts of "I can't believe we need THIS MUCH STUFF!") were made enjoyable because of the purpose of the work.

When Sunday dawned, we did the final preparations and packed the final items; but because we knew we couldn't pick up the key to our rented cottage until evening, our departure was rather leisurely.  It was nice to not have the stress of getting on the road early.  With five young children--and five other, albeit older, people--going on the trip, it just takes time to get everybody and everything ready and loaded; and not having to rush a lot in that process was refreshing.

Once we were all in the van and on the way, I could get past the thoughts of "have I packed everything we need? did I forget anything?" and settle into the anticipation of the delights that awaited us.  Well, and deal with the L-O-N-G car ride that lay ahead; but even that was fun because we were together, we were headed to the beach, and I had brought along lots of fun stuff to make even the hours in the van a pleasant experience.

But before we got into that stuff too much, I had to pull out the camera and start taking pictures.   It might be silly to begin a trip by taking pictures of everyone in the vehicle, but I did it anyway (and it wasn't the first time either).  ;)

Jeff was the driver, like always...

...and my dad sat in the co-pilot's seat.  Jeff's mom was in the first bench seat...

...along with Shav.

When he needed help, kind Grandma Fisher was there to assist him.

Behind Shav was Tobin; and in these pictures he's looking at one of the little surprises I brought along to pass out to the boys from time to time to prevent boredom.

This one was an alphabet book from the dollar store.

Beside Tobin was Moriah.  She slept part of the way, of course...

...and I enjoyed the time to simply watch her.  I noticed things...

...like how, even in her sleep, she still held onto a rattle dangling from the handle of her carseat.

When she was awake, I got to look into her beautiful dark eyes.  What a joy that is!

In the back seat of the van sat David and Josiah...

...and my mom (who has a wonderful smile, don't you think?)  :)

I was in front of my mom...

...and beside Moriah.  I wanted to be able to reach forwards and backwards and sideways to all of my children so that I could be accessible to each of them, and that's why I put myself in the middle seat and made my dear mother climb all the way into the back!  Besides that, I wanted my voice to easily reach all of them because I wanted to be able to do one of my all-time favorite let's-make-the-time-pass-more-quickly activities: reading aloud to the family.  :)

Because we knew the trip would be so long, we planned to take a break for food, of course; but rather than eating in a nice sit-down restaurant, we were hoping for a fast food restaurant that had a playground.  The plan was for the boys to spend our time there playing while the adults were eating; and then, right before we left, we would get the kids' food and let them eat it in the car (to help pass even more time).  When we spotted a Burger King with a playground in Richmond, we were glad to see it, and gratefully traipsed inside.  The boys headed to the playground, and the adults ordered food.

And then waited.

And waited.

And waited some more for the food to be ready.

Apparently several employees had not come to work that day because they were woefully under-staffed and were anything but fast food.  After Jeff had placed our order, he stood by the counter waiting for it, right in the middle of the crowd that continued to gather--all waiting for food which didn't come and didn't come.  It got so bad that when one of the employees called out the name of a waiting customer whose food was ready and there was no response, one of the other waiting customers muttered something like, "They're not here because they already died."  That's how long the wait was.

It was unequivocally the worst Burger King experience we've ever had; and even though we were inconvenienced by it, the people we really felt sorry for were the poor employees who were struggling to deal with such an unpleasant situation. Maybe they were wishing that they had stayed home from work that day, too!  ;)

Needless to say, we did not go through the agony of ordering the kids' meals there and waiting interminably for them.  Instead, we loaded back up in the van and headed down the road in search of another fast food restaurant so we could go through the drive-through for some food for the boys.

One good thing came out of this whole experience, however: some of us had ordered smoothies, and we loved them.  The raspberry smoothie at Burger King is the best fast-food smoothie I've ever had. And it's especially nice when you don't have to wait 30 minutes for one.   :)

After that, the trip continued rather uneventfully, with stops here and there for gas, bathrooms, stretching-of-the-legs, nursing Moriah, etc.  Josiah and David did a lot of reading, I read aloud to the family, we munched on snacks, we played the alphabet game, and, like I mentioned before, every once in a while, I brought out a new little surprise to give to the boys: a $1 dry erase activity board from Target for each of them, for example, or a Magic Ink book to color in.  It didn't take much money or effort to gather some little surprises, and it was well worth it.  I'll definitely do that again, the next time we have a long car ride somewhere!

I don't even have to say how wonderful it was to be back on the Outer Banks again.  It was...well...WONDERFUL!

When we crossed the bridge over Oregon Inlet, I couldn't resist taking a few more pictures.  Just the sight of the water was enough to make me giddy.  :)

Unlike all the previous times I've ever gone to the Outer Banks, we stayed in Salvo this year.  Because my parents had friends who owned a beach house in Buxton, that town was always the place for us; but with 10 of us going this year, we had clearly outgrown the house that used to comfortably fit us.  The only downside to staying in Salvo is that I really missed seeing the light of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse at night.  It used to be that we could lay in bed at night and see the rhythmic light flash past, but certainly not from Salvo!  I truly missed that.  Other than that, Salvo was great.  :)

Finally, the journey was over, and we gratefully climbed out of the van to stretch our legs, explore the beach cottage we had only seen online, and start to get settled in.  Jeff almost single-handedly unpacked all of the things from the van and brought them up the steps to the house (nearly all of the houses there are built up on stilts, so you always have to go up steps to get into the house).  After he was done, we had just enough light left in the sky for a quick walk down to the beach (all of us went except my parents)...

...which took longer than we thought because the ocean was further away than we thought!  At Buxton, we had stayed in the second row of houses from the beach; and a short walk over a small dune brought us to the water's edge (which is nice for the vacationers, but not so nice for the homeowners who face the threat of their homes literally being wiped away by a big storm; I'm sure the Buxton beach-side homeowners wish for a wider beach!).  Our place in Salvo was also in the second row of houses, but the walk was much longer...along a narrow path through sea oats and other grasses...over one small dune and then a higher one...then finally across a fairly wide beach to the ocean.  As we raced the fading light that first night and ended up walking home practically in the dark, the walk felt very far.  Throughout the week, we became accustomed to it, and it wasn't a problem.  :)

The other thing that stood out to me that first night was the wildness of the ocean.  When you're standing on a beach, staring out at the water, with maybe a few people to right and left of you, seagulls soaring above, a strip of sand beneath your feet, and the IMMENSE ocean in front of you, it is an awesome thing.  At least, it was for me that night.  In the dusk, I felt very small, and the water felt very big.  Big, and wild.

When we returned from our stroll, it was soon time to get little ones in bed; and big ones followed soon thereafter!  All except me...

I stayed up to do something I really thought I might never do:  I read The Hunger Games.  :)

I could write a whole other post about that because it was definitely a thought-provoking book, but for tonight, my provoked thoughts will have to stay inside my head.  :)

Day 2 of our vacation coming later...