The Beach House...Part 2

We rolled into Cumberland, MD at our hotel at 3 a.m. CDT. After a few hours rest, we were back on the road early the next morning and it took us until dinner time to get to the Outer Banks.  But we made it!

We had this amazing house.  Six bedrooms, 5 1/2 bathrooms right on the ocean for just our little family but it was perfect. On one side was a view of The Sound and the other views of the Atlantic.  The beach was essentially your private beach and the houses on either side of us were vacant so we had a few hundred yards of beach all to ourselves.  Let the fun begin...except the next day there was rain.

It was Sunday and not too much open so we decided to drive a little further north (you have to drive on the beach with a 4x4 vehicle there) to see the wild horses that I had heard so much about when I came before but never saw. I was determined to see them this time except they must've been taking cover from the rain too. No horses.  

Despite the weather on our first full day at the beach house, the weather was great the rest of the time.  The kids enjoyed making a lot of sandcastles (or maybe it was really Tom that did).

We tried out a lot of restaurants in the OBX and Peyton was good most of the time. Here she is pictured at the restaurant Austen had an infamous meltdown at when he was her age...The Sunset Grille.  Unlike him, she didn't throw noodles at the window!

They ate lots of ice cream.

They played in the pool that was part of our house and were excited when they found the sand crabs that had fallen into the pool. 

They enjoyed hanging out with Adler on the beach. 

Adler went nuts protecting Austen from going too far out in the waves.

And, we finally did get to see the wild horses!

My fondest memories of my vacations as a kid revolved around the beach. I hope mine feel the same.