Favorite Vacation Spot

This week for the ABC and 123 picnic it's all about vacation! I'm sure if you have read my blog before you already know the answer to this question. What is my favorite vacation spot? South Nags Head in North Carolina. The whole Outer Banks of North Carolina are great, but South Nags Head offers a quiet retreat, while still keeping you close to lots of fun activities.

I don't know about you, but the week before vacation is AAHHH! I am one of those people that get worried I will forget something. The whole week before, my dining room table becomes the vacation table. I divide it into sections--one area for food, one area for the medicine bag, one are for the toiletries, one area for beach towels, flashlights, beach blanket, etc. Nothing like telling everyone who walks in my home I am soon leaving for vacation. My poor husband comes home from work, (he's our packer), and I can just see him thinking, how am I supposed to fit all that in the van? Every year he says, "Why don't we just do the grocery shopping down there?" and every year I say, "Okay, I'll just pack a few staples so we don't have to run out right away." My few staples usually end up being every meal for the week, 2 coolers worth of food along with 2 big boxes of food--and we still end up at the grocery store about 3 times during the week.

I know this has already gotten read a lot, but I forgot the best part. After my husband packs up the van he puts on the bike rack, then loads 6 bikes on the back. By now the van is about 1/2 inch off the ground. It was so funny on the way down, you could actually see pople counting the number of bikes on that rack!

Then we take our van, put two carriers on the roof, pack them tight, pack the back the best we can, and shove all the children and ourselves in last. I must say, this year my oldest son drove down in his car so I was able to pack his car tight too--it did alleviate the need for 2 roof carriers this year.

Now off we go! It usually goes pretty smoothly. If we drive straight through it takes about 7 hours (like that's really going to happen). But once we get there---to me heaven. It's quiet, there's the clean beach with the beautiful ocean, pelicans flying overhead, dolphins in the water(not everyday), just wonderful.

While we are there we will visit Jockey's Ridge--the great sand dune. We always go miniature golfing, bike riding along the bike path, a visit to the Elizabethan Gardens, a visit to the aquarium, we may even take a day on the sound. The sound is something too. You have this vast expanse of water, but you could probably walk from one land mass to the other. We rented kayaks this year and went out on the sound. The kids kept jumping out to see if they could stand--and they always could.







So there you go. It's a place I will always want to return. Now off to visit all the places you find great!