I have no doubt I'm not alone in saying that the weight of the pandemic constantly on my mind has caused deep sleep to be elusive. There's too much to process and more nights than not I'm awake in the wee hours of the morning. I frequently find myself saying, "I'm just tired of always feeling tired."
Enter the ocean.
Writer Tamora Pierce is quoted to have said, "Waves are the voices of the tides." Our house, mere feet from the sea, is appropriately named Tide Song and the voice of the waves last night sang me a lullaby that granted a peaceful slumber from 11 until just after 7. I think I would have slept even longer had it not been for the sunlight streaming through our sliding glass door that opens to the ocean ~ okay, it opens to the deck, but it's just so close...
I probably could have gone back to sleep, but the waves were singing me a new song of being refreshed, so I tiptoed to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee and headed out on the deck to enjoy some solitude and sunshine. I suppose it is possible that morning coffee in such a glorious setting could become repetitious enough to lose its magic, but I lean toward no. At any rate I'll test it out this week!
Before too long everyone but Ky was up and an intense game of scum was going down.
Next plan of action was for kids to head down to play football on the beach while Ian and I finished up our church service.
Unfortunately that didn't last long...even for our 'polar bear' kid. The temps were hovering right at 40 and there was a wicked wind blowing. I think they made it five minutes before conceding to the forces of nature and coming back up. At least the hot tub was...well...hot and they quickly warmed back up.
This is where the day started to go a bit south. Anyone who knows me well knows that while I can be spontaneous, I usually am quite the planner. I had a loose idea of how we'd spend our two free days (today and Friday which is a teacher workday for the kids that Ian put in time off). With their response to Jockey's Ridge back in October, I knew we'd have to spend the better part of a day sand boarding. That left the other free day to make our way to Ocracoke. Wild ponies, Ocracoke Lighthouse, and retracing some of the stomping grounds of Blackbeard himself were points of interest on the island as well as exploring the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum and the Hatteras Island Ocean Center in Hatteras, both driving by the futuro house and visiting the Native American Museum in Frisco, and once again stopping to marvel at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton. A full day's worth of activities right at our fingertips!
So I knew what to do, I just hadn't worked out the timing. If only our Transit had floatation devices or was like Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and could fly so we weren't subject to the NCDOT "off season" ferry schedule. Try as we might, we just couldn't get the day to work out based on the available ferry times back and forth to Ocracoke. Oh, and there's the fact that Teach's Hole, a pirate museum of sorts focusing on the most notorious of them all, has closed permanently (thanks Covid) and the realization that the "wild ponies" of Ocracoke aren't actually all that wild.
Okay, so Ocracoke was off the table, we could at least still drive down and catch three museums further south on Hatteras without working out the ferry timing. But further Google searches revealed that both the Graveyard Museum and the Ocean Center are closed on Sundays and that the Native American Museum is another victim of Covid closures. Putting the crew in the van to simply drive by the futuro house and to walk the grounds of a lighthouse we saw back in October (would have been a totally different story if we could actually climb it) didn't seem like the best use of our day. So plan B was quickly hatched.
(I must insert here that I'm thankful for the diligent Google searches by Ian and the forgiveness of my eldest child who had seeing wild horses on her bucket list).
Punting was to figure out what to do heading north that didn't involve Jockey's Ridge (because there are BIG plans on the dunes for Friday) that we hadn't checked out on our most recent trip. NC Aquarium with very clear Covid plans in place on Roanoke Island for the win!
We felt pretty good about the timed ticket entry from their website and felt even better when we pulled in the parking lot to see only about ten other cars.
While I worried initially that having spent so much time at the Fort Fisher aquarium would cause boredom, everyone was enthusiastic about our visit...maybe something to do inside out of the wind was the main draw, but I'll take it.
The sea turtle assistance and rehabilitation center renewed Kylie's excitement about attending Marine Biology Camp (with a focus on sea turtles) this summer.
Other highlights mentioned over dinner by multiple kids included the 'lava lampesque' jellyfish exhibits,
the playful otters, and of course, the sharks swimming amid the (quite realistic) replica of the USS Monitor shipwreck. (Several also caught the documentary of how the Monitor defeated a Confederate iron clad only to succumb to a storm off the coast of NC)
Since we were already on Roanoke Island, we made a quick drive down to Wanchese for our Wicked Tuna Outer Banks fans. While we didn't get out of the van, it was fun to see the the OBX Marina and imagine the crews of Fishin' Frenzy, Hot Tuna or Pinwheel selling their giant Atlantic bluefin to the buyers.
It was a quiet ride back to Tide Song, even I *may* have rested my eyes for just a few minutes. Upon arrival I mixed up our casserole and popped it in the oven and headed out for another try on the beach with Ian and the three kids up to braving the wind.
By this point the actual temperature was 42 with strong, gusty winds up to about 20mph. We made it about ten minutes before deciding the hot tub seemed a better option.
Dinner was followed by the rest of our ice cream pints and multiple games of scum, golf and Farkle. Not quite what I originally had in mind for the day, but a good one none-the-less.
Here's looking forward to some warmer, less windy days ahead!
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