OBX (The Outer Banks of NC)

So, what's a crazy single (but in a serious relationship) dad supposed to do to follow up after a spring break like the one I just had?

Well, grab his son, The Neighbor's eldest son, strap a canoe to the top of the car, and head to Frisco in the OBX for a Lord of the Flies type weekend with his brother and some of his friends.

Before we left Friday night we stopped in to see Chris's eldest son perform in his Tae Kwon Do belt advancement test. He did awesome and I got some great pictures of him.

After that we sprinted to the outer banks. We got to the campground about 11:30pm. I set up the tent for the boys and I slept in my brother's tent (really it is the size of a medium sized house, but with the flimsy walls we'll call it a tent). The stars that night were the most magnificent I've seen since being in the desert in Nevada in 2002. I saw four shooting stars while talking to my brother before we finally went to sleep.

The boys were really extra excited.

We got up the next morning, had coffee, and had our own little version of Brad's Bacon Day (maybe I'll say more about this later, for now it is an inside joke). We had some healthy food, like Dr. Woo's All Bran (which really looked like he picked up a bunch of twigs off the ground). Mostly we had three to four different types of pork. Pop tarts too. There was a discussion I started about nut milk (Almond milk) for Dr. Woo, but that didn't get to far with that group. The Neighbor's eldest son (13, nearly 14) stepped on a piece of glass while fetching a football. We got him bandaged up and he was fine the rest of the trip.

We took our time getting ready in the morning, and about 10:30 am we were on the water in kayaks and my canoe. We decided to head into the wind going out to make it easier going back. If you think having one teen and one tween there to help paddle was an advantage then you've never taken a child canoeing before. That is ok, it is a common mistake. We'll call it a handicap and a team building exercise...leave it at that.

When the group finally picked a destination, a beach, we were the last to arrive. Upon arrival though, my brother was chasing down a water snake. It was a very feisty water snake. I hope to have pictures of it soon as Dr. Woo was taking some.

Once that excitement was over the boys proceeded to investigate and dissect anything and everything they found. They couldn't catch any fish, though they really really tried hard. We did catch a crab. There is also some kind of jelly/plant they had fun with. They found a ton of scallops too. The scallops are really quite active, almost aggressive. They would open and close their shells pretty rapidly. Maybe because they pulled them out of the water...sort of like airboarding (waterboarding for aquatic life?).

Around noon we pulled up anchor and set out to the next beach down before eating lunch. Once we started heading back, the boys really pulled together to paddle hard. We were the first ones back to camp. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the sound with a football, a frisbee, and an Aerobie.

This wasn't extreme camping, so we went to a local restaurant for dinner. We also went to the store for S'mores supplies. :-) The S'mores were excellent!

The next morning was more pork...and some fantastic coffee thanks to Jamie. The boys and I got packed up and headed back home by 10am.

We had a fantastic time. I really need to spend more time in the OBX.

Pictures
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