We had gorgeous weather, sunny and upper 80's to low 90's every day, and spent almost every day at the ocean jumping into the huge waves, looking for shells along the beach, digging for sand fleas, basking in the warm sunshine and searching for ghost crabs on the beach at dusk.
Our vacation was providentially (sp?) cut short by the threat of Hurricane Irene and we were issued mandatory evacuation orders on Wednesday evening. We had to be all packed up and out of our rental house by noon on Thursday. Though we were disappointed to have to leave 2 days early, we were (and are) so thankful that we had such a wonderful time during the days that we WERE able to be there.
We drove to Greensboro, North Carolina on Thursday and stayed in a hotel. We were able to visit a natural science center on Friday before heading further north towards home. We stayed one more night in a hotel in southern Ohio, and arrived back home on Saturday afternoon.
Following are some pictures I took of all the fun we had. We made some wonderful memories, and will always look back fondly on the time we spent together in the Outer Banks!!
Gorgeous view of the mountains in West Virginia, early Saturday morning on the way there.
Sunset over the sound on our way in.
Our first look at the ocean!
Calvin enjoying himself on the beach.
The entire family enjoying dinner together.
One of the many ghost crabs we caught.
The entire group after crabbing one night.
We were able to use the huge community pool in our neighborhood for a day. It was a bit of a relief to the younger kids, who were not fond of the salt water of the ocean.
A baby shark my uncle caught while fishing one evening.
Some of the clan enjoying the beach on our last day there.
The house we stayed in.
A family picture by the ocean on our way out.
