The Land of Cotton - Part II

After my football trip to Memphis and Mississippi with my dad and brothers (see Part I below), I kept heading east to join Jaime and the kids in North Carolina for a much needed vacation.  Along with Jaime's parents and the families of two of her siblings, we rented a large beach house in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, where we had a fantastic time.   We were in the pool and at the beach every day for hours.  

While I lack the time or energy to write much about the trip, I will say that one of the best things about living in Southern California is the lack of large, biting insects.  We were there in the Outer Banks the week following Hurricane Irene, which left a lot of standing water -- perfect for insect breeding and hatching.  For the first few days of our trip, the mosquitos were so bad that my t-shirts were showing visible blood stains.  Some of my mosquito bites had mosquito bites of their own.  At one point I saw a Volkswagen being carried away by a couple of tough-looking mosquitos.  But then we got a robo-call from the local mosquito abatement authority telling us to stay indoors while they did aerial spraying.  It sounded like we were being dive bombed by Air Force bombers, but the spraying did the trick.  After that, everything was PERFECT!

Beach House

 The four oldest cousins had a great time sleeping in the bunk room together.  And while they all had a great time playing together, some of the battles over toys were epic.

Cousins all eating Moon Pies

Davis and Kate at the sand dunes

Sand dunes, anyone?

The kids visiting monster truck Gravedigger's home base garage 

 For Davis, the highlight of the entire trip was easily the few hours we spent at the garage/gift shop/cafe of the best-known monster truck on the Monster Jam circuit: Gravedigger.  When we passed the big sign on the road on the way to the Outer Banks that said "HOME OF GRAVEDIGGER!" Davis about lost his mind.  He had recently become a near-religious fanatic when it comes to his love of monster trucks generally, and Gravedigger specifically.  I had no idea that Poplar Branch, North Carolina, is where Gravedigger calls home.  The kids got to walk around and touch an older model of Gravedigger, ride through the mud and over a school bus in a modified monster truck, and have lunch in the Gravedigger cafe.

The REAL Gravedigger (at least one of them)

Gravedigger's daddy

The beach was great, and while we live just a short drive from the beach in California, we don't get there very often (at least I don't).  It was great being just a 5 minute walk from the water again.

See you soon, Outer Banks.