OBX 2012: Day 3

(Previous posts:  Day 1 and Day 2)

Tuesday, September 18.

When I woke up, I discovered that Jeff had already left the cottage, fishing pole in hand, ready for a little morning fishing.  And so began a pattern that continued every (I think) morning during the rest of our vacation:  Jeff would get up early to go fishing, and then usually the next group to leave the house to walk down to the beach would be Josiah and David, accompanied by Grandma Fisher.  Later I would come with the stragglers who, on this particular day, happened to be Tobin and Shav.  

Before all of that, however, I had taken a few pictures of Moriah, my little ball of sunshine. 

She slept in a playpen in our room...

...and it was a joy to be greeted every morning by this smiling face.  :)

On this morning, Moriah got to spend some time with Grandpa.

After I got her tucked in bed for her morning nap, the little boys and I set off for the beach; and when we got there, we discovered several things.  

First, the piece of wood we saw sticking out of the surf way down the beach to the south of us was actually the mast from an old shipwreck; and on that morning, Grandma Fisher, Josiah, and David had walked down to see it more closely.  (At a later point in the week, I walked further down to see it more closely, too; but the closer I got, the more I realized that it still just looked basically like a piece of wood sticking out of the surf.)  ;-)

Second, the weather had changed a little from the day before, producing rough surf and blowing sand.  It wasn't terrible, but neither was it wonderful, so we decided that it would be a good day to drive north for a little expedition.  First stop: Fisherman's Wharf restaurant in Wanchese.

When I was a child, our family vacations to the Outer Banks ALWAYS included eating lunch at Fisherman's Wharf.  I'm not sure what I looked forward to most: the view over the water with fishing boats occasionally coming and going past the restaurant windows or the hush puppies!  Not being a seafood fan when I was young, I always ordered chicken there; but the best part of the meal was the hush puppies.  :)

The last time we went to the Outer Banks for vacation--five years ago, when I was pregnant with Tobin--we had driven over to Wanchese to eat lunch at Fisherman's Wharf, but found, to our great sorrow, that it was closed.  Such a disappointment!  This time, we were quite pleased to see that it was open again--and not just open but full of people.  If that one day was any indication, I'd say the restaurant is quite a success once again.  :)

After our lunch, we drove on up to this rather ordinary-looking hill...

 ...which just happens to be the place where man first flew.  Yes, the Wright Brothers Memorial.  :)

 We listened to a presentation about the brothers and their flights.

 Then we went outside...

...and walked over to the place where the first four flights actually happened.

 It was rather really windy, and the boys had fun leaning into the wind.  :)

We then went into a different building that's been added more recently than the original one I was familiar with; and while there, we watched a short movie about the Wrights and their accomplishments.  What I remember most is that during the movie, Shav put his head down on my lap, I gently massaged/scratched his head, and he fell fast asleep.  :)  I also remember being ASTONISHED at the thought that only 66 years passed from the time Wilbur and Orville took their first few wobbly, faltering flights until the day a spacecraft was sent to the moon and astronauts landed on it.  In my mind, that's an incredibly fast advance of technology!

Some of us were thinking about walking up the hill to the monument at the top, but the weather--being cool and, by this point, drizzling a little--discouraged us.  So we settled for being wimps and drove around the hill instead.  ;-)

I believe this sculpture we drove by has been added since the last time we were there.  This is based on this famous photograph taken during the actual first flight.

 After one last look...

...we left and headed south to return to our cottage.

On the way, we stopped to get gas; and while we were sitting there waiting for the tank to fill up, Jeff's mom spotted a fox crossing a residential road up ahead, and she pointed it out to us.  A fox!  There on the Outer Banks!  Who knew?  :)

Our trip south passed pleasantly as I read aloud to the family from a brain teaser book and we pondered the answers together.  It was actually a book given to me by my Granddad Huffman many (many!) years ago, and I had a lot of fun seeing the next generation of children enjoying it like I once did so long ago.  :)

One small part of our journey made me nervous, however: as we crossed the Oregon Inlet bridge, rain was falling, the wind was blowing, the waves were higher, and the weather just felt rough.  In my older age, I have become a complete wimp when it comes to heights, so crossing that bridge in those conditions made my heart beat faster and my thoughts become a prayer for safety.  Sure enough, we made it just fine.  :)

That evening was rainy, and our indoor entertainment consisted of a VeggieTales movie for the boys and some rousing games of Uno after supper.  The rain fell outside, we were snug and cozy inside, laughter abounded, and all was well.

And having finished The Hunger Games the night before, I didn't have to stay up late to read it this night!  ;-)