You Got The Wright Stuff

Day 1: You Got the Wright Stuff

Ellie, Sean, Andrew, Michael, and Owen at a NC farm stand.

Any day that begins the night before has a huge disaster potential, especially when involving children. It was only the beauty of the Outer Banks and the magic of friendship the turned a day that shouldn't have been into a smashing success.

Aside from a bizarre 1 a.m. traffic jam in New Jersey and being totally agog at the length of the Chesapeake Bridges and Tunnels, the trip down was pretty uneventful.  We hit the Outer Banks around 9:30 and got to the Wright Brothers Memorial at 10:00.  The house we rented wasn't available to us until 2:00 so we had some time to kill and checking the Junior Ranger pins off of the scavenger hunt seemed like a good way to do it.

The Wright Brothers Memorial is a large open field with a small visitor's center to one side and a big monument on a hill on the other.  It is a humble setting for such a significant discovery for our society.  The Wright Brothers were bicycle mechanics who were bitten by the bug of aviation and dedicated their lives to it.  Looking at that time, it's pretty amazing that an average person, without any specialized education, could just decide to tackle something as monumental as aviation and then actually do it.

With a world full of potential, breakfast was the first order of the day.  Elizabeth and I have a proclivity for needing to feed the world and feed it well, so breakfast in the car was simple, but good.  Nourished, the kids began their path to Junior Ranger-dom.  Breakfast slowed us down so we missed the 10 a.m. program about the Wright brothers.  Instead we explored the gallery and the kids began their work on the booklets and listened to the occasional shouts from the ranger giving the talk, we've met many passionate Park Rangers in our times through the National Parks, but never one so loud as this Ranger.

The ranger program the kids were excited to do was the kite flying exhibition, so we moved outside to check out the lay of the land and ready ourselves for the program.  The boys went to look at the markers of the first four short flights and discovered the small prickly pear which is prevalent in the little dune grass-like grass of the place.  The big things we learned were:

1. Prickly pear cacti are not delicious.
2. If you pick up a prickly pear, even if you take the large spikes off, the smaller spikes will get into your hand.
3. Do not pick the prickles off with your teeth, otherwise the prickles will be in your mouth, which is less fun than the prickles on your hand, and may lead to cotton ball swallowing.

We thank Andrew for 2 of the above learning experiences.  I'll let you decide which ones.  The kids flew these fantastic garbage bag kites in the ranger program until the thunder rumbled in and although the program was cut short, the lightning held at bay, only a cooling rain which felt too good to run from.  Instead of heading inside, we choose to explore the monument, filling a requirement for our Junior Rangers to be. The monument is on a hill and the view is spectacular, you can see the ocean and miles around.  After exploring, we returned to finish off the sheets and get sworn in.  In no time we had 5 Junior Rangers fully sworn in, Owen with the added swearing of not taking the car out without permission, keeping his room clean, and being nice to his younger brother.  The last stop was the bronze replica of the first flight, which was a blast.  The kids had a ball climbing all over and interacting with the bronze sculptures.  After a picnic lunch, we were ready to hit the beach and check out our new digs.

The house that we rented belongs to a dear friend of Rob's parents and it is everything you could want in a house that you rent at a beach.  The men took the kids to the beach and Liz and I unpacked the food we brought, which would feed a small army for a month.  After the food was ready to go, we met up with the kids and played on the beach.

The beach in the Outer Banks is everything you want in an ocean beach for the summer.  The sand is fine and plentiful and the waves roll and crash playfully toward the shore.  The kids were having a ball jumping through the waves and it was only a combination of hunger and exhaustion that compelled them to leave the beach without a fuss.  After a delicious dinner and movie, kids were trundled off to bed and adults sat on the beautiful porch, enjoying the company of friends and the sweet breezes from the ocean.