Please DON'T Go to Hatteras Island, NC

I believe that everyone who lives in the eastern half of Virginia, north Carolina and Maryland is required by law to vacation at least once in the Outer Banks of NC. Its a rule, and if you haven't yet fulfilled this requirement then by all means you should, and soon. However, I want to urge you to visit and stay in the popular Nags Head or Corrolla beach side locations. There you can have the busy beach sceane and all the bars and restauraunts you could ever hope for while enjoying the sound of the waves against the shore... or is that the cars whizzing by? Sometimes its so hard to tell through the noise of your partying college-aged neighbors.

Whatever you do, please do not plan on spending much if any of your vacation on the island of Hatteras further to the south. Perhaps a short day trip to see and climb the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is permissable, but other than that you will want to skip this area entirely. Trust me when I say that driving through the unique and fragile landscape of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and being able to view both sound and ocean from the same sand dune are things that are quite uninteresting to most vacationers. Really, how many cranes do you want to see wading through the marshes and Pamlico Sound anyway?

There's truly not much to do and see south of Nags Head unless you enjoy quiet and peaceful days of soaking up the sun on the ocean or sound beaches. You won't find many people to talk to or beach babes to stare at over dark sunglasses. Lots of open sand even in the peak of summer makes it hard to choose the perfect waterside spot. You'll really only have the company of a few casual surfers, young families and, on the sound side especially, some friendly but quite solitary kite boarders. Trust me when I say you will miss the planes buzzing overhead with their advertisement banners and the cozy feeling of sand kicked on you every minute from the swarms of people passing by your tiny blanket area.

Shopping is much too difficult on the island as well. Chain stores are few and far between and almost nonexistant until a few years ago. Only one major grocery store means you may have to shop at a smaller locally owned market, or plan ahead to bring specialty food with you. And you'll probably have to bring food, because there are very few 'name brand' places to eat out while you're there. True, there are some smaller restaurants, most of them mom & pop shops with a weather beaten exterior, but if you can't eat at your tried and true Ruby Tuesday's you may as well just stay home, right? I know we wouldn't want to ruin our vacation by planning meals ahead of time and having to actually cook, maybe even outside on a grill, while we're supposed to be relaxing. Best to just stay on the north of the OBX were Shoney's and Outback Steakhouse are easy to find.





If you are vacationing with kids you will be even more frustrated. Yes, there is a somewhat run down water park and go-cart track on the island, but you will find no arcades or extravagant putt-putt golf courses or, God forbid, a McDonalds. In fact, there is NO PLACE on the island to get a fast food kids meal that comes with a toy. So what will your children do? Seriously, how many hours can kids actually play in the sand and water? I wouldn't know since mine have never yet told me they were bored of it, but I'm sure I wouldn't want them to be out there for more than 5 or 6 hours, tops. I guess you could always go to the shipwreck museum or take the neat (and free) ferry over to the even more remote island of Ocrakoke, or visit the one small local toy shop or pottery studio or Native American museum, or even complete the Cape Hatteras National Seashore junior ranger activities, but don't you think your kids would be better off near 'civilization' and arcades and fast food? Plus, you know they can't possibly be happy without being shuttled from one shopping mall to the next, so I advise you to not even consider the villages of Hatteras Island as vacation alternatives.

But most importantly, whatever you do, DO NOT tell your friends to head down to Hatteras for a truly relaxing vacation. We wouldn't want them to be dissapointed by having nothing to do at night besides watching the same old spectacular sunsets over the water. There's way too many empty houses and campgrounds down there too. Anyone visiting for any length of time might become lonely or actually come to feel like they are one of the unlucky few who get to enjoy such a quiet, if temporary, life. Although you can find an occasional small local spa or coffee shop, amenities are few so those who go have to make due by keeping themselves occupied by a reading good book and walking some of the trails in the park areas. Be sure your friends do not underestimate the incredible solitude they may experience if the venture past the popular OBX tourist spots. Its certainly no vacation for the faint of heart.

I urge you not to go, just skip the lower secton of the barrier islands entirely. If you don't, you might accidently fall victim to the lure of this protected national treasure and be lost to the overcrowded and over commercialized beaches farther north forever.

Camping at First Landing: When Plans Go Awry

This weekend we finally went to the beach! I can officially now believe that summer has started. It certainly was hot enough!

Unfortunately, very little this weekend went as planned.

I had planned that we would get to First Landing State Park quite early on Friday, preferably around 4pm when check-in begins. I knew that a good number of the campsites backed up to a very busy road that connects two sections of busy Viginia Beach, and I'm a light sleeper so wanted to make sure we got a site as far away from the road as possible. Well, we didn't end up leaving very early, and of course got stuck in all the rush-hour traffic leading to the tunnel, so it was nearly 7pm by the time we arrived. Suffice to say all the "good" sites were taken, and as I feared, our site backed up to the road. It was a really beautiful site nestled in the forested dunes and surrounded by beachy trees with lots of good climbing branches. If it hadn't been for the near constant roar of traffic, it would have been a little slice of heaven. But thankfully, it was not the end of the world, and we almost got used to the noise by the end of the weekend. I did sleep badly the first night with all the annoyingly loud bar traffic roaring through, but by the second night I was tired enough to not notice it as much!

Since I had planned to get to the camp ground early, I also had wanted to go to the welcome campfire program being hosted by the Rangers at 8pm that night. We set up camp as quickly as we could and then drove over to the visitor center to find the campfire. The description mentioned stories and I hoped to hear something about the area or the Indians or anything I might use for Scouts. We looked all around for the campfire. No luck. Sigh... Well, instead we went down on the beach and played around in the sand and water while the sun finished setting. It was a nice evening, even if I didn't get a new story to add to my repitoire.

Back at the campsite I lit a fire and started getting the kids ready for bed. I was thoroughly amused by the small group of teenages that walked hesitantly over to our site to ask how I got my fire lit. Apparently this was their first foray into the woods and they'd been trying for hours, unsuccessfuly, to light a fire to cook their hot dogs. A Scout is helpful, so while DH took the kids to the bathrooms, I went over and helped the next generation by showing them how to build a fire. They were nice kids, not at all rowdy as some teenagers can be, and very thankful for my help. I hope they have an easier time of it on their next trip out in the wilderness!

So, the next morning I had planned to go on the "Swamp Stomp" hike being led by park interpreters at 11am. It sounded really neat, with the kids scooping up buckets of swamp water and looking for bugs and animals that lived there. It figures that 7am found me scrambling to get the tent unzipped before OS threw up all over the blankets. He hadn't shown any signs of being sick, it was a total surprise. He seemed to feel better after that, so we started our long walk over to the bathrooms and he got sick again on the way. Ummm, no Swamp Stomp for us that day. Bummer. After making it back to the campsite, my poor sick boy crawled back into the tent and went back to sleep for a few hours. At this point we weren't sure if we'd end up having to leave, but we figured for now he was probably more comfortable in the tent than he would be in the car. DH took YS to the playground for a while, then I took him on a bike ride up to explore the visitors center. Miraculously, when OS woke up late that morning he seemed to feel much better and kept down a small amount of food and water. But then he had issues with the other end of his digestive tract, if you know what I mean. Note to self - pack even more emergency underwear for the kids next time.

Well, by 4:00 all the odd sickness seemed to have passed and OS was happily running around the site and swinging from the rope swing that some previous camper had strung up over a pit formed from the bottom of several dunes. So, finally, we got to head to the beach for a little while. The kids had a blast, they love the shallow water and small waves of the Bay. I was very thankful that my big boy got well fast enough to enjoy some part of the day!

After a super yummy dinner on the grill - steak, corn on the cob and garlic bread - I decided to make up for the missed Swamp Stomp hike by going on the interpreter-led Night Hike, which started at 8:30pm. I knew it would be a streatch to have YS hike that much when it was already past his bedtime, but I was determined to get at least one good hike in. I'm so glad we did it, hiking at night was a new experience for the boys, and the interpreter was fantastic with the kids. We listened for different kinds of frogs and owls, watched for bats, and got to test our night vision with a neat experiment. Even though I ended up having to carry YS back on my shoulders, it was a great way to end what had started out as a questionable day.

We woke up late Sunday morning to a stifling heat. The weather on Friday and Saturday had been hot, but tolerable in the shade, and at night it was pleasently cool. Sunday decided to bring on all its heat and humidity with full force. We were already drenched with sweat before we even got out of the tent. Of course, I had thought we'd be up early and take a hike before the heat really set in, but who knew we'd all be so tired we'd sleep in that much? Ahh, but that didn't stop me from making pancakes and bacon for my hubby's Father's Day breakfast! After loading up on the carbs, we decided to try a bike hike instead. We got on our bikes and headed out of the campsite and across the road to do some biking on the Cape Henry Trail. Even though it was hot, the breeze while biking made it a little more tolerable. I'm so very glad that a Scout aquaintence of mine lent us her bike rack for the trip! I'm not sure what we would have done without the bikes there, it really made a big difference, especially just getting to and from the distant bathrooms! I have no idea how far we biked on the trail, but I know my legs and rear end were screaming for mercy by the time we were back at the campsite! It was a good ride.

After the bike hike we hit the beach again for a little bit and then packed up to go home, thouroughly exhausted. Considering we weren't even sure if we'd be able to stay the weekend, I think we had a great trip and still managed to fit a lot of fun stuff in. The kids both kept saying how much they didn't want to leave (they obviously don't long for air conditioning as much as we adults do!), and in the car, just before he fell asleep, YS let out a big sigh and said, "I love our camping trips." Those five words alone made all the stress of plans gone awry completely worth it.