WOW! Our week at Nags Head was fabulous but went by terribly fast, and we were really sad to have to come home . . . It was perfect weather, perfect cottage, perfect beaches, perfect family -- well, it was just the perfect vacation. I like to claim every day when I'm on vacation as "the best day ever", and this vacation was no different. (I do this to the slight irritation of whomever I happen to be vacationing with, and though even I can admit that it may be a little annoying to hear my chipper pronouncement -- "Today is the best day ever!" -- every day, I like the optimism. As if claiming it will make it so.) But honestly, this past week, every day was better than the day before, even when it wasn't. 
Left: Noah & Nathan eating sandwiches on the beach during our first trip to the Outer Banks, July, 2005. Right: Noah & Nathan today (ages 7 11/12 and 10 3/4). Funny that when I was looking at the pictures from our 2005 trip Nathan (at age 5 3/4) is the wearing the same swim trunks that Noah wore during this trip!
Big mistake to not write a little bit every day! When you're there you think you will never forget how deep and rich the blues and greens of the ocean are, how the icy water takes your breath away as you dive in to cool off from the hot sun, or the salty taste of the water on your lips. You think you'll always remember the way the sand at Jockey's Ridge burned the bottom of your feet, and how your heart almost beat out of your chest and you could hardly catch your breath because you raced your 7 year-old up a 90 foot sand dune, and how you laughed because he tried to push you aside so he would win. Outdoor showers and nights in the hot tub with a full moon . . . watching the pelicans fly in perfect order, skimming over the water's surface, or diving straight down into the ocean to catch fish; watching a group of dolphins, completely synchronized, breaking the surface of the water to grab a quick breath before diving back into the ocean; sitting on the back deck of the "Sugar Shack" and looking into the eyes of the brown bunny who stops as he comes hopping by, startled by your presence in his neighborhood . . . the child-like wonder you still feel (even at 41) when you're swimming with your goggles on, and you see the silvery fish swimming in schools along the sandy bottom of the ocean, or your excitement when you catch a blue crab in your net and carry it up on the beach for the kids to see, proud that you were able to even see it, much less catch it . . . these are the moments you feel certain that you'll never forget.
And then you go to jot down a few notes so you won't forget, and suddenly you can't even remember where you ate last night for dinner, or what day it was that you went to the lighthouse and what day it was that you went to see "The Lost Colony". You re-read the sparse notes you have written (i.e., lots of wind, "bleeping umbrella", great boogie boarding, beers from guy in parking lot) and wonder what it all means. Truly, what does it all mean?
So I've been riding the kids for the past two days -- DO SOME JOURNALING! YES, YOU CAN WRITE ABOUT A SMALL MOMENT. NO, I DON'T CARE WHICH ONE. JUST WRITE SOMETHING!!! WHAT DOES THIS SAY -- I CAN'T EVEN READ YOUR HANDWRITING! YOUR SPACING IS HORRIBLE. OH MY GOSH, DID YOU EVEN TRY???? CAN YOU PLEASE ADD SOME MORE DETAILS??? You'd think would want to commit to paper all the fun we had, and all the things they did. You'd think it would be easy for them to do it in a pretty short amount of time, and I'm sure it would be if they were at all motivated. But, to be honest, they aren't really all that motivated, and I can hardly blame them. They've got a whole lifetime of beach vacations in front of them, and they hardly think about time passing . . . or what it might mean to them to, as an adult, be able to read what they did and who they were in the summer of 2010.
And so, because I want them to have fond memories of our trip versus not-so-fond memories of how I spent the summer of 2010 yelling at them about the quality of their handwriting, I give to you, our trip in their words -- "the BEST blog Ever!"
Nathan: On Sunday we went to the beach. When we were driving I saw big sand dunes. When we got there I was so happy! After we got there we went to the mini-beach (a small beach on the sound side). After that we finally had dinner. On Monday we woke up and played our Game Cube, then we had breakfast, did summer bridge activities, and then we went to the ocean. We had lunch and then we left the ocean. After that I got a two-man blow up boat. On Tuesday we had the same morning and the same afternoon except for dinner we had Dad's grilled hamburgers. Yum!!! On Wednesday we went to the mini-beach first, then we had lunch, and went to the beach. Then we went back and had dinner. On Thursday we went to Jockey's Ridge It felt like 5000 degrees. Then we had lunch and I got a skim board. On Friday we went to the beach and had a picnic lunch, and then we left and went to the Black Pelican -- a haunted restaurant! then we watched Billy the Exterminator until 11:00pm. On Saturday we went to the beach and when we had dinner we ate at Goombay's. On Sunday went to the mini-beach, and then it was time to go, so we packed up and left. :(
Noah: One of my favorite things was going to Jimmy's to eat. Jimmy's is a restaurant that has putt putt and corn hole. We played corn hole and me and my dad won. Then we played putt putt. The waiter said we could go in. We went to the buffet. I got crab legs and bread, tuna, and flounder. After I ate that I got ice cream. We checked out. I had fun at Jimmy's.
One of my favorite things was going to the lighthouse. It took an hour to get there. It had 268 steps. I was scared at the top. After that we went to the beach. I got wiped out! Then we got in the car and we changed clothes. We drove to the docks to see what the fishermen caught. One guy got a giant tuna. We drove back to the Sugar Shack. I had fun.
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