My Week in the OBX - Postlogue

My expectations how the travel would go for our vacation were wrong for both the trip down and the trip home. I wasn't sure how The Man Zachary would handle being cooped up in his car seat on the way down, and it was my hope that by leaving at 5:00am he would stay asleep for a good chunk of the first half of the trip. Zachary stayed awake until around 10:45, and was surprisingly good the whole way down. We got onto the island around 1:00pm, which was a pretty good result. I also expected to have some minor navigational issues, since I hadn't driven to the Outer Banks in over four years. We had no problems finding our destination, and I was proud of my routing skills. The trip home had moments that, combined with my various burnings during the week, had me feeling very much like Clark Griswald.

The trip home started with our getting a slightly later start than intended. Then, after dropping off our keys at the Realty office, I almost ran over my Mother In Law. I love my MNL, and this was not a subconciouss on-purpose thing. I was on my cell with my Dad, Kim got in and closed the door and I guess I was eager to get on the road. I started to pull forward while my MNL only had one foot in the car. She screamed and was startled but luckily she was unhurt.

I tend to be one who dwells incessantly over mistakes and I had the near trucking of my MNL on my mind for most of the way home. I had some extended time with my thoughts as it took us 45 minutes just to get off the island. I was solid on my directions, but the 168N to 64W to 13N interchange always gives me pause. After stopping at Sonic on Rt. 158 (more on Sonic later) we made it to 64 pretty quickly. That is when things went bad. I knew we were supposed to take 64W to 13N. However, with my mind still on almost killing Kim's Mom, I was a little shaky on my directions. Then, Kim hit me with an "I don't remember this. You're going the wrong way". I must admit I can't completely blame her for what happened next but for the record I was going the right way. I jumped off of 64W when I saw a sign for Rt.13. It was not the right exit. We spent the next hour alternating between looping around the Virginia Beach city limits and my going into 7-11s and gas stations to ask for directions. I almost let out a "look kids, Big Ben, Parliament!" at one point but my MNL beat me to it. We ended up finding our way to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and eventually home. Zachary was rammy for a good chunk of the trip, and even tried to escape once when we stopped for lunch in Delaware, announcing "Daddy, I walk now" before attempting to flee the McDonald's parking lot via Rt. 13 South.

As I have said, I love the Outer Banks. That being said I do have two minor complaints. First, there are no attractions for toddlers on the island. There used to be a handful of kiddie amusement parks but they have all closed shop. Also, just about everything closes early. Kim and I tried to find a place to get a drink after seeing Harry Potter V, but struck out almost everywhere. It felt like being stuck in a coastal version of Salt Lake City. Some places were open, but there were two people at the bar.

I would like to hereby state my newfound love of Sonic. Sonic rules. I love Sonic. I will leave it at that. I had been seeing the commercials ad nauseum for months on cable but never actually saw one. They just opened one near the Lancaster outlets and I may take Kim shopping just so I have an excuse to go to Sonic. Sonic good. Sonic nice.

Speaking of nice, we rented a Durango for our trip south and back. Enterprise hooked us up with an upgrade and we needed all of the space the behemoth provided. Something that large shouldn't move that fast. I was instilled with a sense of power as I drove it. Driving the Durango after being used to my 6-cylinder two-door Blazer was like taking a new evolutionary step. My guilty conscience for driving a ridiculous gas-guzzler such as the Durango was somewhat eleviated upon learning that it takes the new E85 Ethanol fuel. Too bad we couldn't find one gas station between the Philadelphia Suburbs and The Outer Banks that offered it.

I am getting the itch to play sports again. I am 34 and too young to be retired. I may try to get a revised version of my basketball team back together to run somewhere around West Chester. I have calmed down a ton since my stepping away last season. I keep saying I am going to do some research on hockey leagues in the area but I tend to laze out. I have already been earmarked for our company softball team next year but I need to do something else. Poker satisfies my competitive drive but I don't play often enough and God knows I could use some exercise. I'll get it figured out. In the meantime I have three fantasy football drafts to prepare for. That will keep me occupied for awhile when I'm not working or sleeping.

[Currently Listening: James Taylor - "Carolina In My Mind"]

My Week In the OBX - Part II

I am 34 years old and I remain as clueless today as I was as a 4 year old when it comes to managing my sun exposure. One would think that with a father from Southern Italy, that I would be able to handle a little sun and that I might be able at some point to establish some sort of tan. My younger brothers both get tan, although they work outdoors a lot and are in the sun far more than I. However, while my dad is from Southern Italy, he chose one of the Kentucky hill people for his bride and it would seem that I received those skin genes. It is Thursday morning and even though I doused myself in SPF 30 sunscreen yesterday, I am lawn flamingo pink and feeling it. I am reminded of pictures from a day trip to Wildwood when I was five that we took with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. In the pictures my cousins (Mark and Michael) are both very tan. I am white as a ghost. I took a nasty hit of sun poisoning that day and ended up covered in blisters. Ah, fun in the sun.

Prior to my realization of being burnt to a crisp, I spent a very enjoyable half hour swimming in the ocean. I had made some progress with Zachary and his fear of the water, getting him to allow me to carry him into the surf. However, the first two waves that met us where we were wading came in chest-high on me, and face-high on The Man Zachary. After catching two partial waves to the face Zachary's sea-based fears were confirmed and we were resigned to trying again tomorrow. After handing him off to Mommy I stayed in the surf and had a fun, relaxing swim.


Speaking of The Man Zachary, the last two days have seen him take a significant step backwards in his restaurant behavior department. Normally, he is fairly well-behaved when we go out to eat. It would seem now that with his second birthday less than a month away, we might be well into the "Terrible Twos". We will probably eat take out the rest of our stay.

It's Thursday night and I am getting a bit down as the realization hits that tomorrow is our last day down here. My week started fairly crappily and I didn't really get into the vacation swing until the last couple of days. I hereby swear to come into vacation next year with a completely different mindset (and hopefully a new level of fitness). Vacation when you have a child is a completely different animal than vacation pre-kiddies. The onus isn't on relaxation anymore, it needs to be on playing with the kid and spending quality time with family. I did get to swim some again today, and I enjoyed it. Swimming in the ocean makes me feel like a little kid. I never went on vacations with my family. We just never did that sort of thing. I did get to go to the Outer Banks twice with the Alessi family during my mid-teen summers and they were two of the best weeks of my life. Tom, Jamie and I couldn't wait to get into the water and had to be dragged out for meals and other family activities. I always told myself that if I were to ever be blessed with a family and the means to take vacations, we would go to the Outer Banks. I am very thankful to be able to follow through with it.

We have had non-stop fantastic weather since early in the week, and today (Friday) was no exception. I had to fold my 6'5 frame the past two days so that I stayed in the shadow of one of our umbrellas but it was still a nice day on the beach. Due to my el-blotcho rushing sunburn I even kept my shirt on when I wasn't in the water. This probably saved a bit of my honor as I am built like a manatee and shouldn't be exposing my torso in public anyways. I have a nasty stretch of burn that extends across my back at my waistline which is particularly painful. Between my pants/shorts rubbing across my sunburn and my not having any skin on my feet moving at all pretty much hurts. I spent a lot of time with Zachary today picking up shells and trying to ease him back into the water. Got him to let me take him in once but he got spooked and we got out.

I should probably cut this short and post before I get caught on here again. I am supposed to be showering and getting ready to go back to the beach for pictures before going to grab something to eat. Not looking forward to packing everything up to go home but that will likely be our last vacation activity tonight. Here's hoping for a smooth trip home.

[Currently Listening: Shaggy - "Oh Carolina"]