For our family trip this year, we decided to visit the Outer Banks in North Carolina. They shorten it to OBX which kind of cracks me up for some reason...it sounds like it should be in some rap song or something. I had never really heard of it but luckily Andrew knows his stuff (I'm always surprised at how little I remember about geography...I'm not even sure I ever learned the subject in school).
The Outer Banks is actually composed of a VERY LONG string of islands a few miles off the coast of North Carolina. There is a little road that connects them all and allows vehicle access (instead of taking a ferry). There are tons of vacation homes right on the beach. We didn't plan enough in advance to get a place on the island, so we stayed in a town about an hour away. But I'm highly motivated to make some plans for next year. It was beautiful. I was really craving some beach time and this was exactly what I was looking for.
We really didn't anticipate what a beach experience would be like with a baby. We totally forgot an umbrella for the fair-skinned Luke, but our makeshift umbrella worked for about 15 minutes. Admittedly, we kind of looked like the beach paupers.
I'm not sure if Luke loves the beach quite yet. He had his "outdoor face" on the whole time. I like to think he is just deep in thought. But occasionally we caught a smile.
Luke may not love the beach yet, but he sure thought it was relaxing enough to take a nap on my back.
Here is Luke in front of "The Lost Colony" on Roanoke Island. It's kind of an interesting story you can read
here.
Cape Hatterus Lighthouse
On the way down, we stopped in Historic Williamsburg, VA where they have restored the colonial city and created a huge visitor's center.
Behind us is the Governor's Palace
We also stopped in Washington DC on the way there and on the way home. We got to catch up with the Haws family (my old roommate whom I dearly miss) and spent some time at The Archives.
This might be the funniest/strangest picture of myself that I've ever seen. I'm standing in front of the Bill of Rights and I thought that Andrew was taking a picture with the flash on (I've always been kind of a strict follower of rules...mostly the dumb ones that ordinary people don't pay attention to). This is me yelling out, "No Andrew, don't take a picture with the flash!" My look of horror most likely indicates that I'm afraid that the document will instantly self-combust if the flash hits the surface.
But don't worry everyone, Andrew is smarter than that. The flash wasn't on and the Bill of Rights is still safe:)
