OLIVIA IN NC

Outing to the Outer Banks

my first bloomed magnolia since getting here—the middle part (pardon my non-technical language) was the best—that yellow thing is held up by a bright fuscia stem!

Muchas gracias to Craig who offered to let us tag along with him to the Atlantic Ocean while he worked the ER there at night. I've wondered about the Outer Banks ever since I my 5th grade state report on North Carolina. :) The nearest lighthouse was under construction, so that is still on the list-to-see, but it's a good thing we live here.

Here's what we did see:

The first thing Ben did after walking in was raise the blinds and open the window.
That window stayed open all night—what a good sound.

It made waking up pretty magical too. Allow my face to tell you I really couldn't believe it.

After a good breakfast at Gritts Grill, we headed to a certain memorial honoring some cool brothers:

Gotta love the type. This monument was constructed for the 25th anniversary of that first flight—which was December 17, 1903 in case you're wondering.

"Don't worry, she's never seen a goose before," Ben pretended to say to passersby. :)

But hey, I liked that they were part of the whole scene...

There were models galore! Oh how I wanted to be their with my model-loving family...
(especially Aviation-loving Ashton!)

The Wright Brothers Memorial also offers very luxurious parking spots.
I know state parks do this a lot for motorhomes, etc, but all the parking spots were huge!

———

From there we headed to the beach and just walked up and down the big wave-y shore since the "no swimming" flags were waving (we were impressed at everyone's obedience!). We came back for a dip in the pool before the game started. Ben was happy to even see a bit of it on a real TV. But his smile kind of faded as the game progressed—not in favor of BYU. :(

This trip marked seeing my first real live NC cicada up close! You can always hear them, but they hide well in the trees. I thought I was lucky when Ben pointed one out when we ate on the deck of a restaurant—but it was still far, and in motion. This one seemed to have ran into something and caught itself upside-down. It's head almost looked like a frog! After Ben confirmed it was a cicada, but before I thought to grab the camera, he flipped it over and it flew off fast...

Oh, and our final thrill:

Catching blue crab!!

Thanks Craig for putting up with my curiosity, and then for tolerating my zero help since I was so anxious to show off the process to my fam. Hey, Juárez-es: this is for you—

Anyway, it was a nice outing. Thanks again Craig.