Tuesday, October 14, 2008

A rainy Hatteras Weekend

10 years of experience should have taught me what I need to know about vacationing with H on the OBX.  He says he loves it down there, but I've actually concluded that he's a big fat liar and that he hates it down there.  Sorry H, but I'm starting to catch on.  

On Wednesday of last week we cancelled our OBX trip.  It was still cancelled on Thursday morning when I took a nice 6 mile run with R.  And then, I went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for dinner on Thursday.  This whole time B had been running around like a maniac and driving us all nuts.  When she woke up from her nap, H went up and got her, and she was still wild child and I said, "WHY?  Why have we cancelled our weekend away?  She's obviously fine, let's just go!"  So H had some reservations... why don't we wait until tomorrow, or Saturday.  Uhg, I argued.  It's a 5 hour drive to our house (which is down on Hatteras Island in Buxton), so if we go, I like to have an extra day dedicated to travel.  You know?  It's a lot of travel time to drive down and turn around and drive back the next day.  Not impossible, but still, just a lot of travel.  Still, H was right.  We should have waited...

We decided to go on late Thursday afternoon.  Three hours into our drive we stopped at Sonic for dinner.  And B was starving, so I handed her some saltines and her cup of water.... and we hit the road... and about 3 minutes later I heard the unmistakeable sound of a toddler throwing up everything in her stomach, which unfortunately, turned out to be a LOT of water and 2 Saltines.  Yea.  So, the choice is- turn around and drive the 3 hours home?  Or, muscle through and go to Hatteras.  We decided to go on.  That way we'd have a bed, some rest, and if we needed to leave, we could sleep and then leave in the morning.  Ok.  Bad choice number 1 was going to the OBX.  Bad choice number 2 was not monitoring the amount of water B drank.  Bad choice #3 was NOT turning around.  It started to rain as we arrived onto Pea Island.

It poured rain from Thursday night until Sunday morning.  And, except for a 2 hour break while I ran 10 miles, it was consistently raining.  The forecast kept suggesting that it was clearing up or already sunny.  It was.  In Nags Head.  But we weren't in Nags Head.  We were in Buxton.  Anyway, it was a disaster.  The house doesn't have cable yet- it's brand spanking new, so there's no TV.  We spent 2 days in a non-childproofed house w/ no TV and lived to tell the tale.  Anyway, it wasn't the end of the world.  On sunday when we woke up it was beautiful.  I rolled over, looked at H and said, "get up, get dressed, grab the kids and get in the JEEP, we're hitting the Orange Blossom (bakery) and driving out to the beach for breakfast."  He agreed and we hit it.  We sat in the sunshine, drinking coffee while the kids ran and played.  It was beautiful, and we had the whole beach to ourselves (gee I wonder why?).  On a whim I baited a pompeno rig for G with two sand fleas and cast out to the bar.  As I walked away from him he starts screaming that he caught a fish.  I said, "Honestly, G.  You have a weight on the end of the line.  People just don't catch fish on their first cast."  Only guess what?  He had and it was about 14 inch long puppy drum!  We threw it back though, because I didn't know the rules and I'm not going to chance a $500 fine on a 14 inch fish.  A 31 inch fish, maybe...

By the end of the drive home we concluded that we never should have gone.  We could have hung out at our own home this weekend, getting odds and ends done, gone to the ZOO, whatever... it would have been better than pouring rain for 2 days straight in a house w/o TV.

ONE good thing that came out of this- w/o a TV it's hard to think about politics and the economy.  

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