Where are we anyway?

For those of you who do not know, we live out in the country, about 20 minutes outside of Raleigh, the capital city. The area is beautiful, woods all around. In fact, when you are driving on any road, lane, highway or major freeway, all you can see to either side are the trees. It can be a bit much at times when you’d like to catch a glimpse of “the big city” or figure out what is off the freeway exit-you never know what you are going to find! One time, Rick and I took an exit that was called “Greenfield Parkway”, we thought we’d see where it led. We headed off, and it looked interesting, some offices for Papa Johns pizza, UPS, and other businesses. We noticed that we seemed to be driving in a large circle, and wound up in a parking lot with nowhere to go except back to the highway. Rick was like “Parkway? Really? How can you call that a “Parkway?” It was more like an extra long off-ramp to a parking lot! Had we been able to see through all the trees, we might have noticed that it went nowhere, and passed it by.

We are lucky enough to be within 2 hrs of beautiful white sand beaches & we often take day trips down to Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, & Surf City. In fact, when we were in Surf City, the 4 of us were waded way out to our waists in the ocean. The waves were rolling in clear blue warm water & we were all talking about how easy it would be for sharks to just ride up to the shore & get someone. I was a bit freaked out by that realization because we were too far out to hop out of the water. So, like I said, were chilling out there and all of a sudden, this big wave roars up and in the wave coming at us we see a huge school of stingray. My first thought was “Eye crikey! That’s what killed the Crocodile Hunter, mate!  I let out a yelp and start propelling myself backwards as Rick is notifying the girls to look & stay put.  Before we knew it, we were surrounded with stingray just gliding along at our waists, not caring at all if they bumped us. I was wigged big time, but tried not to let the girls see. We all did get out of the water for a bit though.

I will say our most memorable beach experience has got to be on the Outer Banks. The Outer Banks is a row of barrier islands that is incredible. You have heard of the wild Spanish horses that roam free? They are still there! The infamous pirate Blackbeard actually claimed Ocracoke Island, part of the Outer Banks, as his home & was killed there in 1718. Anyhow, Nana & Papa were here on vacation, & we had just visited the site of the First Flight by the Wright Brothers at Kill Devil Hills, and attempted to see one of 4 lighthouses that line the NC shore. It was cold, & raining, but we had to stop at Kitty Hawk to see the beaches. Nana & Papa stayed in the car, but the 4 of us got out and onto the sand we went. We all walked along at our own paces, and occasionally called out to each other regarding some neat discovery we had made; the beach stretched on for endless miles upon miles and there was not another soul on the sand that day beside we 4. All you could hear were the sound of the waves crashing along the coast & watch the Pelicans gliding low overhead. It was so serene; even with the cold & rain, Rick & I hold that day as the best beach experience we have had since living out here.