It was our first full day on the beach!
We got up and decided to go for a walk. Jim's mom and dad had already gone on a walk, so they offered to play with Reagan. They said to look for a big crab they saw living under our stairs to the beach. Sure enough, there he was. He's huge! Jim and I named him Sandy Claws. LOL!
ANYWAY, we walked down to where the beach fence is for the horses. There is a little opening where people are allowed to pass through. On that side of the beach, cars are allowed to drive up and down to an area where you can park and keep your car with you right on the beach. We walked quite awhile just watching the cars drive up and down the beach, it was fascinating. We then headed over to the dunes. On that side, you are allowed to climb on them. It was pretty fun!
After watching lots of cars go up and down, we decided we would give it a try.
We are at the very tip of the Outer Banks and Corolla is the top town. After Corolla, there is no paved roads. We are right around the corner from there, it's so cool!
We walked back to the house and told Jim's mom and dad to come along. (Adrienne, Jake and the kids went to breakfast so they missed out on the off roading...LOL!) I was going to be the driver...YIKES! We piled in the car and set off. We rounded the bend and I thought, OH no. It was really kinda fun, but so weird! It almost felt like you were driving on ice and through 6 inches of snow. We hit some really deep ruts where other cars were going and you could feel the bottom of the car pushing the sand! I just kept my foot on the gas and kept on trucking, because you aren't allowed to stop for a mile and a half. We were new at it and a little nervous, so we went down a little bit, then decided to turn around. The Saturn is AWD and was doing great. I don't think we would have gotten stuck, but it's built on a car frame, so it just doesn't have the height for some of the deeper ruts. We're going on a tour up that way, so were going to see what's up there and maybe try again later in the week.
We got back to the house, got out and were laughing because, the front tires were just FILLED with sand! It was crazy! I would like to try again, we'll see.
The rest of the afternoon, we played on the beach. We had a lovely little camp set up and the girls loved digging in the sand. Greg brought some chairs down from the garage and got them all set up. They looked a little worn and a bit rusty at the joints, but who cared. He went to sit down and lean back, when we just heard, crack. The whole back of the chair just bent back and he fell backwards on the sand. Luckily, it was one of the really low kind, where your butt is just an inch or two off the ground, so thankfully, he didn't fall hard. LOL! He acutally said it was pretty comfy the way he landed, so he just stayed that way for awhile.
We got to play on the beach for an hour or so, then we noticed some dark clouds rolling in and it started raining. Bummer.
After that, we just had some lunch and then took naps.
This evening, Greg, Nikki, Adrienne, Evan, Jim, Reagan and I went to dinner at La Dolce Vita. It was a really great restaurant at the Tim Buck II shopping complex. We all enjoyed our dinner and the kids were really good, too!
After dinner, we came back to the house and decided to walk back out on the beach for a little bit. Greg, Nikki, Jillian, Jim, Reagan and I had a good time splashing around. It was the perfect end to a nice day!
The photo of the day is our sand filled tires....
And, here is Sandy Claws....
