OBX

OBX is short for Outerbanks. That's the Outerbanks of North Carolina. After we left Sesame Street Place, we headed south for about six hours until we arrived in Kitty Hawk, NC. You know the place - famous for the Wright Brothers. Who knew they were actually from Ohio but chose Kitty Hawk as their place to take their first flight?

Anyway, it's awesome in OBX. Weather is great. Think miles of beach houses and lots of beach accesses. We spent more than a few lazy days lying on the beach. Okay, that's not exactly true since we have a 2 1/2 year old so it was more like playing in the sand, frolicking in the waves and looking for shells on the beach.

It was Austen's first time in the ocean so at first he was scared of the waves that were pummeling the shore (there's some strong riptides out there.) But once he got used to the sand and the surf, we couldn't keep him out of there. He especially liked planting his feet in the sand as the undertow swept everything else back out to sea. At first he would hold our hands tight as the waves engulfed him up to his knees, then his belly button and sometimes his chest as he got a little braver. Later he had the courage to let go and run in the seaspray by himself sometimes falling down, laughing and then getting right back up. He loved chasing the birds (seagulls) and was especially attracted to the ATVs (all terrain vehicles) that were partrolling the beach. (Austen now says ATV.)

One morning, we all (including Adler) got to watch the beautiful dolphins swimming in the Atlantic as we walked on the beach. We saw many pelicans too - boy they are amazing creatures who will fly so close to the water in packs of four or five straight as an arrow. Austen called them choo choo trains because they looked like them in this formation. There were also sand crabs to be seen. If you were sitting on the beach and were keeping your eyes peeled you may notice little crabs popping up from the sand and scurrying along the beach. These sand crabs were in abundance and freaked Tom out a time or two as he was building Austen a sandcastle.

Days spent on the beach remind me of my youth as I remembered swimming with my brothers on the Jersey Shore and many Mass. beaches. My favorite vacation was the one we spent at Long Beach Island. I was 9. My brothers were 11 and 6. My older brother pulled my younger brother and me around about half of the week in an inflatable raft battling the big waves. Unfortunately that raft popped about half way through the week and my parents decided to buy us each our own boogie boards. Mark's was blue, mine was yellow and Mike's was orange. I remember how much fun we had on those things and how the days would fly by swimming in the ocean. That's one thing I miss about the Midwest. There's no reason to own a boogie board. I wonder what happened to mine.