Playing Tourist

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• We played the part of tourists today. We toured Bodie Island Lighthouse (pronounced Body) and Cape Hatteras. We headed south out of Nags Head and even though we were only going about 55 miles it took almost the entire day to get there and back. Our first stop was Bodie Lighthouse. Then we needed to take a break and eat. We came upon the http://www.froggydog.com/ The food wasn't bad at all, service was decent and we came away with full bellies. They sold conch fritters there...eewwwww that just sounded gross! We then continued south until we went to Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. One of the most famous for some crazy odd reason. They actually have moved that lighthouse...we looked through books of pictures and it was pretty amazing. We will have lots of stories to tell about the lighthouses. They look so HUGE in person, but when you are driving down the highway you sometimes can't even see them. We drove to the end of the island and went to a new museum "The Graveyard of the Atlantic" even though it is not completed they have a couple of rooms to view miscellaneous items. It appears that it will be a neat little place when finished. From the street the museum was on we could barely see a ferry coming in and one taking off. Would have been neat to get closer and watch. I would have loved to have went on to Ocracoke and see the lighthouse there, but unfortunately the ferry waiting was more than we wanted to wait and Jerad wasn't real excited about taking a ferry. So we headed back north towards Nags Head. We stopped along the route and had sno cones and ice cream. You almost can not find a sno cone stand anywhere here. Ice cream every other block, but no sno cone. I was craving one a couple of days ago and there was nowhere to get one. The southern shores are not as developed as the northern shores. I have no idea what Ocracoke is like, but it is rated the #1 beach by Dr. Beach so it must be pretty cool! We also stopped along the route and pulled off onto the beach. There are several little boardwalks along the highway you can just park and walk over the dunes to the beach. There was a shark that had washed up on shore. The kids were pretty fascinated by it. It was small, maybe 2 1/2 feet long? Not for sure. Some guy pulled it's mouth open and said he thought it was a sand shark. That is as close as I care to get to a shark. Dead or not!! There were also tons and tons and tons of shells on this particular stretch of beach. It looked like someone had just went along with a bag and dumped them out all along the shore. This stretch of beach was kind of crowded. I think it would have been neat to walk up or down it where there weren't people and let the kids do some shelling, but the heat was pounding down pretty good and none of the kids had their shoes on ...then Dayton kept itching her legs saying something was wrong with them. So we were at best there maybe 15 minutes? Back in the car and on the road.... When we were about 5 miles out from Nags Head Jerad said if we wanted to stay another night we could...YEAH!!! So we wheeled into our motel and they had one room left (see i knew we were supposed to be here!) The good thing is our room is spacious and has a kitchenette...the bad thing is it's not oceanfront and it's on the 2nd floor....would have loved to have had this room on the first floor the first couple of days. The motel is very old...has been here for years...I think it has even been blown away I think...it reminds me of a circa 1960 motel...especially with the color of the signs and doors. Our bathroom upstairs has a new floor and is really pretty clean and nice - just outdated a bit. The other room was very small (I suppose they made smaller ones on the bottom so they could sell more ocean front rooms) After seeing some of the places available along the beach I think I'd come back again. They have a great beach...easy access...the staff is friendly..things are clean... some of the others were off the beach and didn't look so marvy!


• Anyway...so we are back at The Seafoam. The kids hit the beach immediately...then the pool! We then hopped in the car to do some laundry..you know it's time when you run out of undies. While our clothes were washing we grabbed some Subway sandwiches and ate in the car. The locale of the ONLY laundromat withint 40 plus miles was fine, but there were a lot of folks that made us all feel a little uneasy. Once our laundry was all fresh and dry we then hit a couple of souvenir shops for the last few items we needed to pick up and then came back to the motel. Jerad says tomorrow we are headed to Winstom Salem ear-lye in the morning. Our car is overflowing with items...and shells...and shells....I think I could ship them home if I didn't think they would crush into bits! It really needs reorganized and such, but that is on the agenda tomorrow. We are planning on arriving to Winston Salem, chcking into the motel and getting the remaining laundry done, cleaning out the car, double checking Dalton's list of needs, etc. Then we will get him all ready with a good breakfast on Sunday and take him to Wake Forest. I'm not sure what time we will actually leave Winston-Salem, but I'd assume shortly after we drop Dalton off. Then we will head out driving and see how far we get.


• Hopefully will post on Sunday morning....love to all of you...b