Finally! I have had a lot of different motivation for catching up on my blog (and I know I'm not quite there yet) but getting to write about my North Carolina vacation is high on the list. I have been wanting to write about it and relive it and embrace it and share it with everyone I know since it started on Saturday July 7! I'm just so excited!
My mom, Dan, Michael, Trent, Maria, and I piled into our rental van and headed to the Vanderkolk's house Saturday morning.
Since Uncle Brett had to pick up Sara from camp that morning and things were behind schedule, we took a quick stop at the outlet mall. I impulsively bought a new pair of Nikes. It had been a while and I couldn't resist the outlet price + they were on sale.
We waited a while at the Vanderkolk's house- which is where we watched America's Next Top Model and got the quote something along the lines of, "Honestly I don't have no thoughts right now" which we threw around throughout the week.
Shortly after Brett and Sara got there we were off and on our way! I rode in my mom and Dan's van with Jacqueline, Michael, and Trent. The other girls rode with Aunt Amy and Uncle Brett. We drove until it got dark and stayed the night in a hotel. Not too exciting really. Oh-and during the car ride another line that was used a lott during the vacation first occurred. I asked what was on everybodys minds and they all found that somewhat funny or something? It just kind of stuck I guess. So periodically during the week we'd ask each other what was on everybodys minds?
Sunday July 8 we got a move on things bright and early in the morning. There was a quick stop at The University of Virginia where my grandparents went to med school. I didn't get out of the van though because I was finishing the last minutes of the episode of White Collar that I purchased on itunes to watch and because it was a hassle climbing over the guys who sat in the middle seats in front of Jacqueline and I.
After a few more hours and a few more gas station and fast food stops, we made it to North Carolina and then to our house! It was so exciting pulling into a neighborhood after we had been driving with sand dunes on either side of the car, knowing we were close. As we followed the Vanderkolk's van, the suspense and excitement rose as we anticipated which driveway they were going to pull into.
The house was gorgeous! Well. From the outside. Exploring the decks and the pool was exciting for a little while, but we couldn't get inside. We could not get the lock box open to get our key. Which was really frustrating. Even after calling and getting okayed that we wouldn't be at fault if we broke it while we continued to try to open it as they were on their way, it wouldn't budge. After about half an hour Michael climbed up the side of the house and was able to get in through a sliding door that was unlocked!
After finding the one bathroom that had one roll of toilet paper in it and going to the bathroom, we explored all of the rooms and settled disputes over who got which room. The boys got the bedroom in the basement, Jacqueline and i got a middle floor room with 2 twin beds, the three girls got a middle floor room with a king bed and an extra mattress on the floor, Aunt Amy and Uncle Brett got the master bedroom on the middle floor, and my mom and Dan got the master bedroom on the upper floor. There was also a game room in the basement, a family room type area on the landing of the middle floor, and a big living room space and kitchen on the upper floor.
We unloaded the cars and got ready for the beach!! It felt so good to be walking on the sand and eventually get in the ocean! I still do not understand why Jacqueline, Michael, Trent, and I were the only ones to stay-but oh well. We sure had fun! We watched the sun slowly start to go down across the sky while we were in the ocean. Jacqueline and I also watched the guys skim board. They were so good at it and made it look so easy. Then they let us try. Jacqueline was fairly decent. Me on the other hand was a whole other story. Oh gosh. Trent stood next to me and told me when it was the right time to go, then after I crashed he tried to explain what I did wrong and continued to encourage me that I could get it this time. Eventually I even had a crowd beside us cheering me on! It was too funny. The young boy came over and asked to try out Trent's board and a little later one of the adults with him followed and explained to me they were teaching me wrong, that I needed to run (with the board in my hand), drop, then hop. Well I still never really got the hang of it, but it was so much fun!
When we got back to the house there was pizza waiting for us that they had ordered for dinner. Then as a whole group we played (well attempted to) catch phrase and scattegories. Eventually I believe Jacqueline, Trent, Michael, and I hung out in the pool and hot tub and then watched some Dexter together.
Monday July 9 we woke up and went to the beach and played in the waves and watched the boys skim board. It was so much fun and felt so free and good to be in the wild, salty Atlantic ocean.
We walked home for lunch then the younger girls and my mom and aunt went shopping and exploring while Jacqueline and I went with the guys (Dan and Brett too) to the pier. We walked by the fishermen (one who had caught a seagull!) down to the very end. We looked out at the water and back at the beach for a while as Dan and Trent went back and forth coming up with scenarios of jumping off the pier. -For example Dan said that he would not do it for any amount of money. Then he said he might for so much money if there was a rescue boat down there waiting for him. Trent thought he would jump just for the thrill of it, and later had to contemplate if he would for many different situations Dan could think up. Like jumping off with raw meat tied to him knowing there would be a boat with navy seals near by that he could swim to, but also a shark lurking in the ocean. Listening to them, especially as serious and as engaged in the conversation as they were, was so funny and entertaining.
The rest of the afternoon was spent hanging out at the house. I sat outside at the pool with my mom and aunt and watched as the older 2 guys took on Michael and Trent in a game of pool basketball and a game of Horse. They were having so much fun playing and we loved watching.
We all got showered and dressed and headed to the Dolphin Den for dinner. Michael, Trent, Jacqueline, and I had a table and the others all sat in a big booth. Michael and Trent were both adventurous (in my mind at least) and had sea food. Michael snow crab legs and Trent had flounder which he let us try.
When we got home we spent more time playing games I believe and I hung out with Jacqueline in our room then we called it a night and went to sleep.
Tuesday July 10 after breakfast I started my day well by going on a run with Sara! We walked down our street, turned right and walked on the bridge over the little pond always filled with turtles, over the busy traffic-filled road, and straight through another neighborhood similar to ours until we got to the steps leading to the little boardwalk to the beach. (this was the route we walked daily to get to and from the beach) Then we ran all the way down to the pier, took a breath, and ran back. Neither of us had actually ran on the beach before. It was kind of difficult with the different softnesses of the sand depending on if the water had hit it or not, and trying to avoid the waves crashing onto the part we were running on. Once we got back to our little boardwalk we walked back to our house talking about each of our soccer teams and two-a-days and conditioning and practices and such. We were feeling really accomplished and better after going on a run and were happy we were both in about the same shape/running pace.
Aunt Amy took the girls to a souvenir shop where I bought a tshirt (and was frustrated because they had the same one on a sale rack for half the price but those ones were all male size/shaped tshirts. ugh). We also had our first of many visits to the froyo place. Then we spent the afternoon playing at the beach.
When we returned from the beach we got in the pool and soon after the hot tub. Also the whole week we plugged our phones into the speaker system which played outside so we were able to have music on always while we were swimming. It was awesome! But the hot tub. This is where the incident occurred that Trent nor I will ever forget. I guess we should have gotten out when the others did. Well we saw a wasp so we asked my uncle who was in the pool to hit it with the basketball he was playing with. It flew but eventually he got it-possibly with the broom. Then he decided to take the broom to the corner of the hot tub under the plastic lining where we had seen one fly into earlier. This may have been a good idea, but possibly at the worst timing. About 5 angered wasps flew up. Trent and I were cornered in the hot tub, surrounded by these wasps. There was one that kept flying up near that corner and a few on the deck above us. I can still picture the one on the green striped towel, staring directly at us looking like it was just planning its attack. Oh it was awful. We were both frightened and couldn't help the other. Plus every time I would see one I let out a warning shriek which eventually caused my aunt and Jacqueline to come outside on the deck to see what was going on. Even though the gate was right beside the hot tub, that would have meant going by the corner where their nest was. So eventually my uncle went around to the other gate of the pool area, up and around the deck, and behind the hot tub. He was there on the other side of the fence to catch me as I jumped out in freight and to watch Trent jump out on his own. Then we took off to the driveway, paranoid when we would see any type of bug beside us. I still get tense thinking about it. We were just stuck with no way out, and the awful wasps all around us. Later he told us how he was allergic to bee stings and had to be stuck with an epi-pen the last time he was stung. He was in more fear because of that than the average person would be surrounded by wasps (which is a lot). But. We survived. Without getting stung. After that we bought wasp killing spray from the grocery store (called the Food Lion) and brave souls like Maria sprayed them until they died. There were quite a few lying around by the end of the week.
It started raining and Dan, Trent, and I decided to go on a drive to the next town to check out about renting wave runners. We found two places which also had sailing -that Trent and I were both interested in and agreed to do sometime. Oh and one of the owners asked how old I was because you had to be at least 15 or 16 to drive and when I said 18 he was a little shocked and I was a little annoyed that he even had to ask. But whatever. That's fine. On our way back once we had gotten to Avon, the town we were staying in, we found a place! After driving 20 minutes to the next town. We ended up later in the week going to the one closest to us. But I don't think the drive was a waste. It was fun exploring and just riding in the car talking with them.
That evening for dinner we had yummy marinated chicken (after literally setting the oven to flames! Oh I totally forgot about that. That was scary and could have been tragic.) Once we finished, Uncle Brett convinced Julia to take the trash down outside with him and the rest of us quickly and chaotically cleared the dinner table and brought out presents, party hats, and ice cream cake for a surprise party for Julia! She was definitely surprised! It was fun watching her open the random presents (once labeled from Jeanie and Larry which I thought of and thought was hilarious). We also danced. A lot. At one point we were all standing on our chairs around the dinner table dancing to Sandstorm by Darude. Wooo! After dinner we played more games including charades and a game of euchre was also started-it was Dan's favorite!
Then eventually the girls went to sleep, or at least to their bedrooms, and it ended up being me, Dan, Trent, Michael, and Uncle Brett sitting upstairs on the couches talking about sports. A lot of topics, but all sports related. And eventually it wound down to Trent and Dan arguing about baseball and about home runs and mostly about Ty Cobb. Dan was up way past his normal bedtime and ended up going to sleep. But Trent and I were still really awake. So we sat on the couch on the middle floor and watched tv and chatted for a while. It was good.
Wednesday July 11 after breakfast my family went to Cape Hatteras the light house, but it would have been a 45 minute wait before we could go up to the top and some people were on the grumpy side. So we took a few pictures, vowed to return, and met the Vanderkolk family at the beach.
I haven't written much about our days spent at the beach, but they basically consisted of the same things. And were awesome! I slowly creeped into the ocean, facing the truth that I had to get wet (getting into the pool or the ocean or the shower or the lake is always a struggle for me at first, then I am happy and fine once I am in it. It's just the initial getting wet that gets to me). It was so hard to find the perfect time to enter the ocean because of the crazy waves. It was so fun playing in them and getting tossed around and going under when a big one was about to crash near you. I felt soo happy in the ocean and just smiled and spread my arms wide open and giggled and squealed and thought about the Notebook quote about the bird (
a: Noah come on. Whoo! Look at us. n: what are we doing? a: do you think in another life i could have been a bird? n:what do you mean? a: like reincarnation. n: I don't know. a: I think I could. Say I'm a bird. n: no. Don't do it. a: say I'm a bird. n: stop it. stop now. You're not. a: say it! n: you're a bird. a: now say you're a bird too. n: if you're a bird, I'm a bird.) Oh! And also a few times, possibly and probably on this day we played this really fun game called land darts or maybe jarts or something. Which I was pretty bad at. But it was still really fun. Two people played against two others and threw these darts that you wanted to be caught by the wind and tried to get them to land in this circle.
When we got back to the house we all showered and got ready for dinner. We ate at a cute pizza place then went to see the new Spiderman movie which Maria was especially excited about! It was a good movie, kind of longer than needed maybe, but I wouldn't consider it one of my very favorites like Maria did. I'm glad it really cheered her up though! A similar effect to what the ocean does to me. Then we had a quite night back at home. At least I did.
Thursday July 12 it was rainy in the morning. Oh! I forgot. It rained while we were there. And we were happy! We had all missed raining being back home in dry Indiana plus it never interfered with our day. It just rained at night or early in the mid-morning. It was perfect! I was a little afraid we might not get to ride the wave runners which we were all excited about and was reminded of ziplining in Costa Rica (which we did get to do thankfully and was super adventurous and fun! but was chanced a few times by the rain). But by 1pm when we were scheduled to ride (or maybe 1:30) it had cleared up.
We got our life jackets on and listened as the guide Ryan went through the rules and procedures with us. We rented 6 total. One for Michael, Trent, Jacqueline & Sara, Brett & Julia, Dan & Maria, and my mom & I. I was going to drive ours until the last minute when my mom was a little freaked out remembering I had never been on one before and decided she would drive. We followed Ryan in a single file line out to the area where we ride and in a big circle around the inside of the green flags marking our area. Everyone else took off and did their own driving after that lap. But oh no, not us. My mom asked if I thought it had been an hour yet. After that first lap. Oh dear. Then we continued to just do lap after lap, again and again, for the rest of the hour. It was too funny. Whenever Dan & Maria or Michael would try to slow down and stop beside us to talk my mom would have none of it, she was scared to stop. I just laughed as we kept going and the left those trying to talk to us behind and confused. I don't think she really was too fond of it at first. Although I have to admit while we followed the guide I had to relax myself enough to calm down and breathe. Then I was fine. Eventually my mom was too and had fun. Eventually. We even did a few cuts straight from one edge of the area to the other so we could get the speed up past 27 for a minute. Everyone else was zooming around at about 50 mph the whole time. No not us. I just laughed and laughed at my mom and at her fright and her driving. Oh it was so fun. But every now and then I wished to be on the back of Trent or Michael's wave runner holding on for dear life on a much wilder, more intense ride than the one I was on. But that's okay. A few times Trent turned really sharp in front of us and splashed us with a wave of water. This was a little scary-mostly to my mom. But I didn't enjoy it because getting wet and going that fast made me cold since the sun wasn't shining very strongly. That's okay though. Then one time Trent did that again and both my mom and I's sunglasses were knocked off with the strong wave. When he realized what had happened Trent felt awful and sat there looking for them for a long time. We tried to tell him over and over that it was no big deal and that we both wore our cheapest pair of sunglasses. All of that is true, though I still don't think he is convinced. As we did our laps sitting there watching him, we talked about how he is just such a great guy and sincerely cares about people, but both agreed that he needed to let it go! Renting and riding the wave runners was so thrilling and a fun way to spice up our usual routine of beach and pool- just what we needed!
I believe after that we didn't do much. I think I was wiped out and took a much needed nap. Until I woke up to the music playing outside for the people swimming in the pool. Possibly that was that time.
Then we went out for dinner. Oh gosh. We tried to go to the Froggy Dog but the wait was going to be about 45 minutes. So the rest of our impatient group figured for some reason going to the Dolphin Den would be faster. Obviously it wasn't that it was karaoke night making the Froggy Dog crowded, it was that it was dinner time and we had a party of 11. Oh well. We went to the Dolphin Den and waited and waited. And sat in this random area on bar stools and talked and were eventually seated.
I don't think we did much when we got home from dinner. I concluded the night sitting outside in the hot tub talking with Trent. Because we were both still very awake, everyone else was asleep, and since we had a hot tub we might as well put it to use! Finally enough time had passed since the wasp incident and we were ready to enjoy the relaxing hot tub again.
Friday July 13 was our last full day. I only got a couple of hours asleep because I went to bed into the early hours of the morning, and not long after it was 5:00am and Jacqueline was waking me up. Jacqueline, Aunt Amy, and I ventured out early in the morning to wake the sunrise on the beach. I had never done this before and expected to have a hard time waking up. Maybe it was my lack of sleep, or getting to experience something new, or just the salt ocean in the air I had been breathing and that had been invading my wild curly hair all week. But I was full of energy and happy and singing and ready to go! It was really peaceful and quiet and serene. We watched as the sky lightened up and as crabs peeked out of the wholes and scuttled across the sand. Then after about half an hour we decided it was time to walk back to the house (with our new pictures but also with many new bug bites. We were eaten by so many mosquitoes throughout the entire trip. It was maybe the biggest downfall/worst part. but that's okay. they're gone now.)
When we got back my mom was awake. The four of us girls went out for an early breakfast. We drove around a little while and finally settled on this place called Ugly Mugs or something. Which sounded cute. But then we went inside and they were selling them and they really weren't even attractive. And the lady helping us or the bartista or something. Well she was pretty grumpy. Which really affected my mom. I tried my best to keep in my cheerful mood as I ate my cinnamon roll thing and drank my caramel machiato. Yummy!
After we returned to the house and everyone else got up and had breakfast, we headed back to Cape Hatteras. With Maria's request, we got there a little after 9am right after it had opened. Well. Everyone went except for Michael. I thought it was cool climbing all 260-some stairs to the top of the light house and looking out and also hearing about how they moved it inland and how they went about doing so. They made it clear to us that you were not allowed to throw anything off once you got to the top or spit or anything. While looking down Dan said I could see why someone might want to spit. It does make me want to. And this park ranger lady came out of no where after I had said Dan you can't do that- and says in this really weird voice/accent "yes no spitting please dad." Ya nice try lady. I said Dan actually. And he wasn't even going to. But someone's ticket did end up getting swept away and we watched it flutter down in the wind all the way to the ground below.
We also did a little more shopping afterwards (Michael joined us for that of course). Maria and I both got new cutee pairs of TOMS! So exciting. I can't wait to wear them.
Then we spent the afternoon at the beach. The sun wasn't looking to promising but we continued to play. Suddenly it did get much darker above us and started to pour down rain. We were in the ocean already and didn't mind getting wet from the rain. It was really weird getting rained on while in the ocean, but really fun! Even all of the adults came in and joined us.
After we got back home Trent and I took on Dan and my mom in a game of pool. Dan is really good and Trent isn't too far behind. We laughed a lot every time Dan had to adjust his glasses when he shot. Since they were just reading glasses they weren't big enough, and he was looking down the table at a weird angle I guess so they would end up tilted completely and the ends no where near his ears, but up the sides of his head. Trent helped me a lotttt. He and Dan taught me how to hold the pool stick when I shot. Then Trent helped me with every shot I took. He told me which ball to go for and helped me line up the stick so it would hit it at the right angle to go in. It was great! We ended up beating them (Dan was playing nice) and played a few more rounds. Somehow Trent and I ended up winning the 4 games we played against Dan & my mom/Dan & Michael. It was actually pretty fun.
For dinner we ate at home and had burgers cooked on the grill. They were really good. Although basically everyone scarfed down their food and darted. It was a lot for me to eat so I was slow I guess. I don't know. Years of eating dinner with my grandparents growing up, that's just what you do. Eat as a family and sit around and talk. I think Trent for a little while and then mostly my aunt Amy too stayed with me as I finished. That was kind of them. Then we joined the others who were outside roasting smores by the grill. They were quite tasty but eventually we couldn't take the bug bites we were getting. So we pulled chairs up on the deck in a circle and sat and talked for a little while. Then went inside because the bugs were still pretty bad. Plus it was getting dark and people were getting tired.
Trent, Jacqueline, and I watched Family Guy and then a little bit of House upstairs for a while. Jacqueline left to go talk on the phone/ read and everyone else had already gone to bed. So Trent and I just sat on the couch again and I watched him play the xbox atv game a lot and even attempted it a few times with him encouragement. Then finally even we got tired and went to bed.
Saturday July 14 Jacqueline had woken up quite a few members of our crew to go see the sunrise but she herself was too tired and went back to sleep. I didn't even attempt to wake up. So I guess as we were attempting to get a family picture on the beach in white shirts, that's why some of us were grumpy and unhappy. Well 3 of them were. Aunt Amy went with us and took the pictures for us. No one else really seemed to enjoy it, but I did. And they actually turned out really well! Yay!
We got back and changed into our swim suits and walked back to the beach. It was probably the hottest, sunniest day we had (and we had a lot of sun). It felt so good and we were all happy to be there enjoying it while we still could.
Basically the rest of the morning was spent packing up our bags. We stopped at one more shop where I got my baseball cap that I love (especially after seeing Trent in his all week. Michael would have been there with him, but he forgot his at home. There's just something so fun about hats and the people that wear them). And we had one last round of froyo.
We said goodbye to our house, packed up our belonging in the vans, and pulled out of the driveway for the last time. It was such a fun vacation!
I'm not sure what it was about this one, but unlike most I was not ready to leave even at the end of the week. Maybe it was the salt from the ocean in the air, or the sea breeze and water and rain unlike anything back home in the drought, or soaking up the sunshine with my browning skin, or maybe the freedom and lack or responsibility, or that I felt like I was always around someone who was happy-that was probably mostly Trent because he literally was always happy but also I was able to be around the others while they were happy but avoid them and give them space when they were grumpy and still have enough other people to be around that were happy that it didn't matter. It was probably a mix of each thing. I loved it! This happiness lasted well into the following week. As did the dancing bug I had been bitten by amidst all of the mosquito bites. Maybe that was partly because I had been surrounded by music all week even more than usual, or because of the new dance Dan came up with while we were at the froyo place-the chair dance. Where you sit in your chair while you dance. Or maybe from dancing at Julia's birthday celebration. Who knows. But I embraced it no matter what it was the result of :)
We drove and stayed in a (weird) hotel that night. And were up early the next morning to leave and continue driving homeward bound.
Once we got home the evening of Sunday July 15 and got all unpacked we ordered Pizza Hut and ate dinner together and talked and told stories and watched youtube videos. Then the brothers left and it was just Dan, Maria, my mom, and I talking. After a little while I went over to Josue's house because it had been so long since I had seen him (well a week. Which is long). We watched White Collar (a show that Alex Gasaway started me on and I got Josue hooked on and has been an important, exciting part of my entire July. It's so good! And Matt Bomer and his character is so cute). Even though I was so excited to finally see him and hang out, I was wiped out and didn't last long. After I left I got home and went right to bed.
Oh and a few other things I've remembered and forgot the first time I wrote this-
1) One morning when he was eating breakfast (possibly the morning about the euchre game? It just seems like that's when cards would have still been laying on the table) Trent challenged Maria to who could build a taller house of cards. This became their morning ritual and sometimes Julia joined in too. I usually chose to just sit and observe rather than build my own.
2) There seemed to be a lot of drama with two people named Larry and Jeanie/Jenny/Jayne? Larry was the owner of the house and the lady was like the cleaner or worked for the real-estate company. Who knows really. But ya it all started off bad back with the locked out situation when we got there on day one. The rest of the relationship/interactions with them included lots of random visits of the lady just walking in and appearing in the house. And also my Aunt was upset that there weren't towels included when we paid extra to rent linens but we stumbled upon Larry's personal closet that the lady was supposed to have locked but didn't so we used those towels and they were aware of that. Then they were going to give us a dinner gift certificate to compensate for what happened with the lock but then apparently that wasn't agreed upon and to make up for it Larry was letting us use his "special towels." It was all pretty stupid and unprofessional. And not a big part of the trip. Just something to be noted.
