Part VIII

Well, as you can imagine - Saturday morning was very hectic. Ben had to turn in the keys to the realty office by 10 AM, so the scrambling to finish packing and loading cars began early. Rachel let me sleep in a little bit, as I was up and running by 7:30 AM at the latest each day. Everyone got their cars loaded, and then did a quick sweep of the house to make sure we didn't leave anything under a chair, in a couch cushion, or in any of the bureau drawers. It suddenly occured to me that Rachel nor I had taken any pictures from the back deck of the house, or from the view we had from our room. I quickly snapped a few pictures before we left the house. It was funny, about 8:30 AM, there was a pick-up truck sitting in the driveway with people inside. We naturally assumed it was the cleaning crew to get the house ready for the next occupants. Boy, I'm smart. Anyhow, here's the pictures from our room and the view from the third floor deck we had the whole week.

Rachel and I didn't get a chance to see the Bodie Island Lighthouse, except from afar, so we decided to make a side trip. Everyone pretty much went their separate ways at this point, since the agendas of the families were also so different. We went to the lighthouse, checked out Nags Head Hammocks, and basically just wanted to stay as long as we could before heading back. We stopped at a place on the border of North Carolina and Virgina to get gas, and ended up buying a 5 lb. bucket of Carolina BBQ for later. We busted it open on Sunday when we got home, and I was a little disappointed. Just not that great.

We made a stop in the Williamsburg area, not only for bathrooms and to stretch our legs, but because I needed a new pair of pants. Yes, I know it's an odd thing to stop for. Vicky and Ben both had asked for all four brothers to be in the blessing circle for their infants, as both had permission to bless them in Mom's ward. I knew from the Sunday church fiaso that my pants were still way too dirty to wear for a blessing. I was able to secure a new shirt, pants and tie for the occasion. Thad and Brooke graciously opened their home for us to stay with them on Saturday night, and we decided to stay. We arrived at Mom's house in the afternoon to the relief of Lindsay who was screaming bloody murder for the last ten minutes of the trip. All in all, a great trip with minimal problems and blow ups. The next post will be funny and memorable moments that didn't make it into the posts of the week in the OBX. I invite my family to submit their own stories to me, as I probably missed some.

Love to all.