Wild Horses, Great Biscuits; The Eastern Shore of Virginia, Chincoteague Island, VA

Chincoteague and Assoteague Islands
Virginia’s Eastern Shore

I have almost been run over by a moose in the Tetons.  I almost ran down a big brown bear in the Alaska's Chugach wilderness who thankfully took off.  But, I put my family at risk from a giant wild mustang who simply wanted an apple slice from a Subway kiddie meal.  You know those giant signs in Yellowstone that say “do not feed the wildlife!,”  and “do not get out of your cars!”  Why then, was my two year old out of the car with an apple slice in his hand within hoof kicking distance of his head?  I have no excuse but to say, “ I F’d up!”

Virginia just keeps getting better and better.  We did manage to join together in one of my Bucket List items; to walk amongst wild horses in the marshes of Chincoteague island.  Do I get points for hoisting the boys through the marsh to join me even though we had to leave wifey behind?    It was a mystical highlight of an eventful southern tour.  The beach here wasn’t too shabby either.

As we head across the Mason-Dixon I was terrified that I wouldn’t check off any southern trip must: Bojangles Famous Chicken 'n Biscuits.  Single-handidly the most terrible food for you and an almost near to G-D experience for the soul.  

I dedicate this haiku to Grandma Flora (F for the Finn in Liji Finn), who filled her fridge with a bucket every trip to Miami:

Biscuit’s dreamy flakes

Crisp, fried, salty, tender thigh

Slurp sweat southern tea…


 

Cradle of Liberty, watch out!

Dare to Play Indi League Ball; Kill Devil Hills Daredevils, Kill Devil Hills, NC

Kill Devil Hills Daredevils

113 East Sothel Street

The Outer Banks

Kill Devil Hills, NC

Every summer is an opportunity to build my knowledge of our nation’s (and my boys) favorite pastime.  This summer I’m tackling the new biography of Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy by Jane Leavy.  Sandy was a kid of immigrants, a sandlot player from Brooklyn who left Lafayette, my grandparents’ high school for the big show.  As we sat on the bleachers at First Flight High to watch the Daredevils, you wondered whether these boys were headed their some day too.

Despite the DH, the perfect turf and Fox broadcasting, baseball hasn’t changed much in the last fifty years.  Independent summer ball teams here, like their colleagues in the Cape Cod League still give these boys a chance to hit college and get ready for the bigs.  It also gives my boys a chance to learn the fundamentals of walks, strike outs and the infield fly sitting behind home for free.  

The Daredevils drew a pretty decent crowd for a small park.  Perhaps it was their mascot, Homer the Wild Mustang, who was willing to offer up at least ten high-fives to Elijah.  Maybe it was the icee mascot who offered Sydney a chance to win a free one between innings by rolling giant dice on the field.  I am pretty confident though that it was the fine bbq pork sandwiches from Pigmans’ (second night in a row baby, what luck!)  Either way it was a perfect end to a perfect week with our Carolinian friends.  

The Waves are Alive with the Sounds of Dolphins; Outer Banks Cruises, Manteo, NC

Outer Banks Cruises

1 Budleigh Street

Manteo, NC

My kids are the ones you see at the Aquarium debating the merits of echolocation with their cousins.  Unlike their cousins, their mom isn’t the Curator of Marine Mammals.  Their mom didn’t train dolphins for a living either.  But like them, their mom loves her some animals.  Sydney hit his first whale watch in utero up in Maine.  Kam hit the boat’s bathroom, a lot.  She would do anything for her kids to catch some whales.  She made sure we got out last summer in P'Town.  At this point whale watches and beach vacations are a family tradition.

The Outer Banks is notorious for their dolphins.  Several mornings we woke up, only to discover pods migrating outside our living room window while picturesque pelicans floated overhead.  We headed out to Manteo to get a closer look.  The Outer Banks Dlphin Cruises has only been following them for sixteen years, but their family had been fishing off the OBX since the eighteenth century.  It’s possible these dolphin and this family’s ancestors have been trolling these waters together ever since.

We seem to have a penchant for hitting homers on whale watches these days.  We spent an hour sliding in and out of a pod of over thirty bottlenose.  Little twenty-five pound babies crested over the backs of their mommies.  Daddies showed off their flippers, smacking the waves.  A few even jumped up and out of the water to show us their stuff.  It was the best showing this family outfit had seen in weeks.  Chalk one up to another successful cetacean outing and more fuel for the biologist in my boys. 

The Other Cape; Cape Hatteras, The Outer Banks, NC

The Hatteras Light and Pea Island

Cape Hatteras 

The Outer Banks, NC

Turtles and light houses.  Hmmmm….  The Outer Banks is a Cape-like juxtaposition of natural wonders and man-made fun.  There are bumper boats and bogs.  Kite stores and hundred-foot dunes.  Nowhere is this more true than Cape Hatteras.  Home to centuries of shipwrecks (including the infamous Blackbeard the pirate), this spit of sand should have featured in the Old Man and the Sea (atop the list of my Hemingway favs), because nowhere else has man versus nature played out more splendidly (not even on TV).

The Hatteras light; score one for the home team.  Nature won this battle so triumphantly that man had to move his creation hundreds of feet inland away from the shifting tides.  While this beacon saved thousands of lives, it is a wonder how many were lost in pursuit of glory.  Sydney and I were joined our Carolinian friends Brian and Ainslee on the one hundred and twenty step ascent up to the top.  Nature won again though and we were barred from the observation deck by the same winds that allowed the Wright Brothers to fly.

Score one for man at the conservation land at Pea Island.  We poked through a marsh full of snowy egrets and humongous turtles only to discover a bulldozer and backhoe.  Now my men love their trucks, but it was a little disconcerting to discover man’s machines in the middle of an otherwise pristine landscape.  We dug a little harder and found retaining walls constructed by Carolinians to preserve such beautiful and wild places.  Folks like Brian who directs the North Carolina Conservation Network are working hard to make sure that man works with nature to make this place a gem for generations to come.

The OBX Beach Experience; Nags Head Beach, Nags Head, OBX, NC

Nags Head Beach

3335 South Virginia Dare Trail

The Outer Banks

Nags Head, NC 

We are beach snobs.  We devour beaches like we do zoos.  We should be beach connoisseurs for the National Academy of Beach Assessors.  We drove over fourteen hours to join our friends Brian and Kaci and their three kiddos Ainslee, Chase and Lyla down on the Outer Banks.  And we studied this beach hard!  Six straight days at any beach is a record for us.  We didn’t even cheat on it with other more beautiful or rustic beaches like we usually do.  We couldn’t resist, it was so pretty and fun.

Boarding.  Our four-year old son learned how to boogie, wake and surf.  Clearly he is more coordinated than either of his parents.  Despite the jellyfish and beantown-like water temps this kid twisted and twirled, spun and dove through two and three foot waves for hours a day.  He was fearless.  Seven-year olds watched him in awe.  Blame it on the perfect four-year older waves.  Well, I noticed it didn’t help those other kids.

Elijah got into the wave act too.  Our little daredevil rode his daddy like Seabiscuit through the surf.  But his mojo was the sand.  The gentle slope was home to a million shells and millions more ghost crabs darting in and out of their holes all morning and evening.  Nags Head was that perfect balance of heat, sand and waves.  Even for dads.

Taking Flight on the Outer Banks: The Wright Brothers National Memorial, Kill Devil Hills, NC

Wright Brothers National Memorial 

Wright Memorial

Kill Devil Hills, NC

It was just about Sydney’s age that I began the wonderful pilgrimage every month via good ole Eastern airlines from Hanover, NH to my dad’s new home in New Jersey.  A four-year old flying solo?  Terrifying you say?  Oh no, it was the 70’s and I got first class treatment without the regs.  Tours of the cockpit on every flight.  Super, attentive flight attendants who who’d rarely met a kid of divorce.  I fell in love with planes. I was determined to get my pilots license by fourteen.

The boys have flown a lot.  Check out their recent jaunt to Rome or their semi-annual pilgrimages to Miami. I had hoped Sydney might catch the bug.  What better place to go viral than Kitty Hawk.  I tried with my poor physics skills (a D on my first test in high school = no more physics, ever, not MC squared) to explain how they created flight.  The museum does a decent job, for rocket scientists.  We spent a long time reenacting the first, second, third and fourth flights as he ran the distance between the markers.

The highlight of the day was by far the park ranger program.  Every park we go to they get more and more kid-friendly these days.  This one was kite flying, no joke!  And voila, Sydney asked all the right questions about flight.  Even Liji was able to figure out how to put a man on the moon that day.  Perhaps my boys will fare better in physics than either I did or those crazy Wright Brothers.

History Alive; Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, VA

Colonial Williamsburg

427 Franklin Street

Williamsburg, VA

As a history teacher, I love reenactments.  In fact, my friends and I got a grant one summer just to trail the civil war throughout the south.  We didn't get in one reenactment!  Perhaps it was my early experiences with Plimoth Plantation.  Maybe it was 7th grade when we got to reenact the trial of the Boston Massacre.  I got to be the lead bad guy, how cool. I think we may wait a little on that one for the boys though. In the meantime, we eased them in with Lexington and Concord this winter.   We were ready for the show.

I had always planned a trip to Colonial Williamsburg, but just never hooked east from Richmond.  On our trip south to North Carolina, the chance presented itself.  Sure it was 95 and humid as all get out, but we were ready.   We slid past the plantation (boy is slavery tough to explain) and started toward the shady gardens by the Governor's palace.  The kids loved the run through the intricately carved bushes.

We were pouring sweat and desperate for lunch (daddy, lunch!  Daddy, Lunch!)  Our options were the Tavern and…. The Tavern, so we picked Chowning's.  I wasn’t sure how we would introduce terms such as grog and wenches to our young kiddos.  Thankfully besides the dress and the décor we were given the choice of modern conveniences such as turkey sandwich and bbq pork sandwich.  But, the highlight of the trip was the reenactment.  FINALLY!  Sydney literally chased the pied pipers down the street as they paraded from the beautifully restored brick capitol building to the end of town.  Hot, sticky and a bit over their heads?  Perhaps.  An educational destination for their teen years sandwiched betwixt a stop at Water Country and Busch Gardens down the road?  For sure.