The Tide is High

Day 4: The Tide is High

After a pancake breakfast, we decided to head to Jockey’s Ridge, where we heard that one could sled on the sand like you do on the snow.   We armed ourselves with boogie boards and sun block and headed over to the largest sand dune in the US.  Jockey’s Ridge has an interesting history.  In 1973 when there was a land boom in Nag’s Head, residents banded together to save the dune from being bulldozed.  We are so happy they worked hard to do that, Jockey’s Ridge is an amazing place.  We explored the visitor’s center and then lugged our boogie boards up the sand dunes.  As we climbed the enormous piles of sand, a woman who had clearly spent some quality time at Jockeys’ Ridge gave her young charges detailed instructions on how to get the best trip down the sand hill.  She mentioned that the bottoms of the boogie boards needed to be plastic coated and not the foam bottom.  Fortunately, two of our boards had a plastic coating and following her instructions, we found a great spot on the hill with a jump at the bottom right into a fresh water pond.  We also put together the trick kite and the kids had a ball steering the kite through the high winds.  We watched the hang gliding school teach their charges how to hang glide and watched gaggles of families climbing over the dunes.  As the sand heated up, we decided to head back for lunch, Michael had the genius idea of walking back through the shallow ponds instead of on the hot sand.  The kids
had fun playing in the fresh water and were amazed at how much kinder to their eyes the fresh water was. 

After lunch and a phone call to Sugar Shack to order crabs for dinner, I had a nap while the rest of the crew hit the beach.  The waves were considerably larger and the kids had a ball battling the waves.  Elizabeth worked with Ellie on the surf and under her careful tutelage; Ellie learned how to dive into the waves and loved it.  After more fun on the beach, the family returned and we figured we’d use our bikes to bike down to Jenette’s Pier and go fishing. 

You bring your reality with you no matter where you go.  When we thought of the few miles bike ride to Jenette’s Pier, we thought of the cooler northeast, not the blazing heat of North Carolina.  We got a mile and a half in and decided to turn back.  Josh and Ellie had returned earlier and Josh and I switched places, me leaving to run to the Sugar Shack for our dinner and Josh joining the bike ride.  The bike riders cooled down with a delicious treat from Booty Treats.   Booty Treats had shaved ice and Booty Treats, which are basically the ice cream dots, you can get your booty treats buried in shaved ice or straight up.  For many of the kids, this treat was the highlight of the trip (making the parents question whether we should have just driven to the ice cream store instead of NC!). After we convened at the beach house we dove into our crabs.  The beach house, always prepared for everything, was fully equipped with crab cracking and extracting tools.  We dug into the crabs, the majority of our crew enjoying the Carolina blue crab.  After a good meal, we settled in for an early night, getting ready for a big day tomorrow.