Well, lots of things to talk about today. First off, I got an early birthday present from my favorite cow right before we left for the outer banks. Sally Shorthorn had a little boy last Saturday. Very cute and is already growing like a weed!
We spent all day Saturday getting ready to go. This included fixing an exhaust leak on the truck, packing everything, cleaning the truck, and buttoning up the farm for my absence. Steven took care of the pigs while I was away and watched the house.
We all left Sunday morning at 7:30 am for Rocky Mt. North Carolina. We got there at around 6pm. It was a long long trip with two young children and a dog in a pickup for 11 hours straight but we made it just fine. We stayed in a hotel overnight and headed out early Monday morning to catch the first ferry across the cape to Ocracoke Island. I couldn't find any Dramamine for the boat ride but after most of the ride was over I was getting over the motion sickness and was fine again.
A pic of everyone on the ferry during the crossing.
After getting off the ferry we headed to the Ocracoke campgrounds. On arrival we started chatting with the park officer and he suggested we transfer up to the Frisco campgrounds that day so we wouldn't have to worry about getting a spot on the day before the 4th. My daughter was very upset because she thought she was going to be swimming in a few minutes so I took her and daisy to see the ocean before heading to catch the next ferry. We then hopped on the next ferry to take us from Ocracoke to Hatteras Island and drove on up to the Frisco campgrounds.
This is a view of a portion of the campgrounds from one of the hill tops right by our campsite. The Frisco Campground is in amongst a lot of dunes. All the other National Park Service campgrounds are pretty flat but this one offers a different view and setup location for every single site.
Shortly after setting up the tent and campsite we threw on our swimsuits and headed up the boardwalk to the beach. The kids were ecstatic and so was I! This was our fist time in the ocean longer than to just touch it and drive away. The waves were 2-3 feet and tide was on its way up. So, we played for a little while and then had to literally peel the kids off the beach and head back to clean up and get ready for bed.
The next morning I awoke to the sound of my phone alarm going off and realized it was early enough to watch the sunrise. So my wife and I headed up on one of the hilltops and watched the first sunrise on the Outer Banks.
After that we headed back to camp and made breakfast and got the kids up and ready to go to the beach. Here is a pic of breakfast on the stove. My wife upgraded her stove top to a bigger setup. Now I just need to get her a second one and a splitter for the gas line so she can cook two things at once!
First thing we did after breakfast was head to the NPS office at the Cape Hatteras Light House to get an off road permit for driving on the beach. While I was doing all the paperwork my kids took a test and an oath to become Junior Park Rangers!! They even got badges, which my daughter has worn every day since!
Just in case you are wondering why you need a permit to drive on the beach I will explain. Two main reasons exist. First of all, there are many animals that make their nests on the beach. The NPS monitors the beaches for these nests and will shut them down during nesting to allow the animals to do their thing uninhibited. The money that is paid for the permit goes toward these services and keeping all the parks up and running.
Secondly, they have you watch a video before you get the permit explaining how to drive in the sand. Even wet the sand doesn't pack, and just like driving in the snow or mud, if you do not know what you are doing you will become stuck very easily, very quickly, and very deep! I have quite a bit of experience in snow and mud and very little on sand. However I didn't have any problems and found it quite fun! You do need to drop the air pressure in your tires down to 20 psi to spread the weight out more and get better traction. I took a picture to show that at that air pressure you are actually using the entire tread area and part of the sidewall when in the sand! This pic was taken in a wet area right after tide had gone down some. in the dry areas you sink a lot more!
The main reason for getting the permit was this. We were on the beach directly south of our campsite probably 500 yards away and over the dunes. To walk took about a half an hour. In the truck only a few minutes. We could also take the chairs, shade tent, food, drinks, campsite stove, toys, and dog and park on the edge of the water and stay all day!
View from the other side. This was on Tuesday, not many people. From the fourth on were a lot of people there but you still had 20 feet on either side of the tent and truck as "your" space. The beach area that was open to vehicles here was about 4 -6 miles so you can get a lot of trucks and people out there without crowding!
After getting setup at the beach it was time to play hard!!
My son is totally not scared of the water at all. He would get knocked down by waves and get right back up and laugh and do it again!
Now, as most of you already know, I am a landscaper as well as a farmer. I spend my days digging holes. Being on vacation you would think I would be nowhere near a shovel. You would be wrong. I took two actually and by the end of every day my daughter would end up getting me to dig her a great big hole to build a dam around to see how long she could keep the water back! Our biggest ended up being 6' around and 4'deep. Notice who is digging and who is yelling to dig farther!
Here you can see me relaxing in the waves on my chair with a beer. I finished the hole for my kids and they were working on packing the dam as the tide came in.
After the tide got in and the water was to rough to play in we dug for animals in the sand as the waves uncovered them and tried to see what all we could discover there.
On our last day the kids found someone as energetic as them to play with all day long. They had a blast! You can see my wife watching on the right. By the last day we were all sun burnt so we all ended up wearing some form of shirt top with our swim suits.
We left Friday morning for home and drove all the way up the outer banks past Nags Head and Kitty Hawk and went over the bridge on the north end to head home. It took two days to get back as we were taking our time and sightseeing as we went. Friday night we stopped near FredricksburgVirginia at a hotel for the night. The temps were over 100 during the day Friday and Saturday so we had the air conditioner running. We have a small one at home that we only use when over 80 degrees at night and only does one room. So it was nice to have the entire room cool. Daisy camped out in the chair right next to it the whole night!! She had a great time too!
I would like to mention a place we stopped at Hatteras N.C. to get seafood. My wife on the way down kept mentioning that there was a place she wanted to stop that was supposed to be the best place to get fresh fish. So, during our second full day of hitting the beach we headed out to find a place called Risky Business Seafood. Their website is
www.riskybseafood.com After showing the kids the docks and boats there my wife and kids headed into the store to pick out some good eats while daisy and I stayed outside. After a few minutes a very friendly gentleman was walking from one building to the next and stopped to pet daisy and say hello. We talked for several minutes about daisy and the farm here at home and his farming background and some great stories from his childhood. After quite a bit of chatting he said he had to get back to work. As he turned around I noticed his shirt said Risky Business Seafood on the back. I asked him if he worked there or if he owned the business. His reply was "It owns me!" Well put! I think anyone who owns a business after a while realizes that you don't own a business, it owns you and you can only succeed if you grow it well and work hard! At this time my wife walked out the door and instantly recognized him as the owner from following his blog and introduced herself and was thrilled. One of the few things she wanted to do while at Hatteras was meet him in person! Before I left I gave him one of our cards for the farm and told him about this blog. I hope someday he checks it out and gives me some feedback. In the meantime I will be checking out his blog and see what other interesting stories he has on their as well as what I can learn from him!
Thanks for the few minutes of your time Steve, I always love making a new connection and getting to know new people. Especially those who are very dedicated and into what they do!
Last order of business for our vacation was my birthday. Due to all the unpacking and the end of the traveling back we didn't have a lot of time left over to celebrate. I am not a big birthday party guy so I suggested we go get some ice cream. The kids of course were totally down with that and we made it just in time to get a DQ ice cream cake. My son wanted a flower on it and my daughter asked them to do blue or green which are my favorite colors. My wife added the faces after we got home!
We all had a great big piece of cake and headed into the bed room where the air conditioning was running to do some more unpacking and clean up a mess the cats made in the house. What really happened was we all laid down on the bed and passed out shortly after!
So goes the motto, Work Hard Play Hard!!! I think we successfully did both now this year!
I bid everyone a goodnight and a great day tomorrow. In the meantime I will be dreaming of waves, sandy beaches, and some damn good fish on the grill right next to one of my steaks!!!
