Citizen of the World

North Carolinians (at least from my part of NC) find it interesting and sometimes funny that out-of-state tourists think of the Outer-banks, they think of pretty much Duck, Manteo, and Kill Devil Hills (the Wright Brothers). Growing up in Pitt County, we were only 90 minutes from the southern Outer-banks (SOBX). We kids went to Cape Hatteras (the furthest north we went), Bath, Southport, New Bern, and Ocracoke (ferry) on field trips and to camps. We never got up to Duck and that area.

My family and I tend to go to the SOBX - the Crystal Coast around Morehead and Beaufort. There's lots of shopping, fun things to do, and decent restaurants. The island with Atlantic Beach is called Salter Path. Toward the northern section of the island is Fort Macon (from the Civil War era) and the national seashore park (there used to be a gay / nude beach there in the 80s, but I'm not sure now). In the middle of the island is the Marine Resource Center, which is REALLY cool. The MRC is also newly redone. It's an aquarium and nature facility with walkways into the marshes and loads of visible wildlife.

The summer months are typical beach months - hot and humid. Later in September and then in October are really cool (literally) times to be on the Outer-banks. Stuff that you'd normally wanna do around the northern NC Outer-banks would probably be closed - the outdoor theaters, water parks, etc. But there are great places to eat pretty much everywhere, which I don't think ever close. Our destination this week is the Southern Outer-banks (Morehead & Beaufort, NC) and it should be a really fun time.

Today we woke up early to get a head start on the day. Well, I did. I woke up at 6:40 AM because we'd gone to bed at 10:00PM the night before - we were exhausted last night. Matt was coming out of the condo and overheard an elderly couple talking:

"I can't let you plan it," spatted the wife. "No, I can't."
The husband retorted, "I'm not gonna go snorkeling. I'm not gonna go skin diving and if I let you plan it you would have me doing all these things."
Flailing her arms, the wife yelled in her best Queens accent, "I can't let you plan it because I can't trust you."

Giggling about that exchange, we started driving at 9:30 and headed to the Waimea Canyon. We made our way through Lihue - again - and went further on to the other side of the island. The trip up was very windy and very steep. Halfway up the mountain I realized that we had about 1/2 tank of gas and I thought, "That should be fine to get us up and down."

While I stopped to take pictures at the overlooks, Matthew mostly stayed in the car's A/C. He's not that into mountains (I had forgotten this tidbit before we started out and he didn't think that we'd be going through mountains.). The views were spectacular. By the end of the canyon trip, we had no more words, frankly. Breathtaking, stupendous, awesome, awe-inspiring, and other words started escaping our vocabulary. The Grand Canyon is interesting because of its depth and colors, but the Waimea Canyon is mostly red dirt, but lush and green. mondragon and faghatesgods took the same trip up, but unfortunately were met with mostly thick fog. We happened to have a clear day; all the weather reports and travel sites said it was a crap shoot whether we'd have good views.

We went all the way up into the Kokee State Park, but found fog where we should have been able to see the ocean. We did get some decent views of Nihoa and Lehua (islands off the south western shore of Kauai) later on.

On the way down the the mountain, our gas tank showed less than 1/4 tank and Matt was basically asleep. I mentioned we were low on gas, so would have to put the car in neutral and turn off the A/C in order to get down safely for a fill-up. So, he white-knuckled it all the way down, remembering a recurring dream he has of driving down a mountain at break-neck speed and going off a cliff, not knowing how far he would fall. I had forgotten that dream until he mentioned it again because his blood pressure was soaring.

I kept wanting to stop and take pictures, but had to give up on it in order to make it down the mountain quickly and safely. It's both a shame and a good thing we got a sold metal Mustang convertible for the week - they go downhill without much prodding and neutral sufficed most of the way down. We made it to the gas station and put in a full tank of more than 11 gallons!

We stopped at Kauai coffee plantation to see the coffee plants, and then got to the outskirts of Kapaa, where I bought two Hawaiian shirts - one vintage print from the 50s by Tori Richards (very limited reprint), and another with a reprint of Elivs' shirt from Blue Hawaii:



The day ended with us racing back up to Haena State Park to watch the sunset - again. In front of the rocks we mounted for our photoshoot, another group set up their model photo shoot almost in front of us with models, four photographers, and lighting guys, waiting for the money shot at 7:20 PM. We all got the money shot and took off.

On the way home, a dog barked at us passing his yard, so I barked back. It was a great day!

This was our route for the entire day.

Made it to Hawaii!! Made it to Princeville!! Made it to our condo!! I say these things separately because on 4 hours of sleep, it was a true adventure: Together with our GPS telling us every inch where we needed to turn (new experience for us - in NJ, it's slower - yes, we brought our GPS), me driving, Matt gripping the Jesus handles every time I said, "Oh, wow!! Look at that tree!!" or "Look at that house!" or "Wow - Chickens are EVERYWHERE!" for fear that I'd careen off the narrow, precarious, dangerous road.

We got about four hours of sleep because our neighbors in San Francisco got home at 2:30 AM and starting banging each other for TWO HOURS! We called the front desk, but heard the guy giggle as he closed the door and they starting up again about 15 minutes later. No, it wasn't a Motel 6, and no the walls aren't paper thin. A solid wood headboard was the issue. In the morning, we set the alarm to go off after we left (and had the radio blasting for about an hour before that). The alarm was scheduled to go off at 7:30, which would then stay on for 30 minutes at maximum volume positioned to touch that wall and vibrate NPR into their room. Then again at 8:15 for another 30 minutes of it. Hopefully, they got less sleep than we did.

We've been here just under 24 hours and have heard "Aloha!" no fewer than 24 times!! Also, yesterday at the condo association's "orientation" (the sales pitch from the sales office), we were asked to repeat some Hawaiian phrases to practice "our Hawaiian". Meh.

BUT!!! The scenery from our condo is spectacular!! Mountains on the left and ocean to the right - we're not next to either of them, but we can see them. In our condo, we have a two bedroom place with a kitchen, two bathrooms, a living room, flat screen TVs in three rooms, a lanai, and a jacuzzi! The space is beautiful (yep, we took pictures). The only drawback is there is no air conditioning in the condo at all. They rely on trade winds, ceiling and floor fans. Last night's sleep was unexpectedly really nice - one of the best night's sleep I've had in a long while. But during the day, the heat is exhausting.

There are these little birds flitting around that are so cute - and look really intelligent. They're black and white and look like mocking birds, but they have yellow around their eyes (looks like yellow at least). We saw in passing another bird that has a little red tuft poking out the top of his head - almost like a red headed woodpecker, but those wouldn't be here I don't think, nor would they be running with other birds out in the open.

And, BOY, there are TONS of chickens EVERYWHERE!! In fact, our buddy who gave us the place for the week warned us about hitting them on the road. There is even a fridge-magnet warning in the condo that reads, "Please do not feed cats and chickens". Strangely, the feral cat population can't seem to keep down the chicken population; we have seen a ton of the cats, too.

We went through a few jungle-y spots yesterday on the way up from the airport after we hit Costco, and the flowery trees are simply breathtaking against the backdrop of the volcanic mountains. The Costco was REALLY interesting. They have a special Asian food section laden with Japanese wares and foods. The fish here is happily very cheap - we picked up swordfish, tuna (dinner last night), Mahi-Mahi, and halibut along with a shrimp platter. We also got fruits and veggies to eat at the condo (because the island lacks restaurants). We're hoping to find local tropical fruits, too.

There is NO nightlife. We will be going to bed by 11PM every night and waking up at 7:00 AM, which is a good thing. Everything - including most gates to the condo property close at 9:00 PM! By 10PM everything's quiet. Very quiet.

The pool is about two buildings away and the beach is a short walk away, but we're going to explore the end of the roadway up here and other beaches. We might do some minor shopping, but just sitting in our white convertible Mustang (!!) driving along the highway will be fun.

Gotta shower and GO!

Well, we made it to the Bahamas, but didn't come without some minor drama. We got to the airport at 4:45 AM this morning and our flight was delayed from 6:25 to 8:00 AM. We were able to switch from our one-stop over flight (via Cleveland) to a direct flight to Nassau on the same flight with Matt's sister's family, which was GREAT!!

The flight was interesting because for about 20 minutes another plane was flying next to us about 100 feet above our flight path to the west. Then as we were coming in to land, we passed by quite a few HUGE cruise ships along the way that we saw in the ocean. That was a first for both of us. I didn't sleep as long or as much as I normally do on planes, so my BP was up a bit. When we changed our flights, we made sure that our bags would make it with us onto the new plane and when we landed we asked if our bags would be on the next flight in because they had not, in fact, been on our flight after all! That was a bit irritating and stressful because me BP meds were in my check-in baggage.

Our bags ended up arriving nine hours later, just in time for changing to go out for a drink. Matt's sister wins "Best Mom of the Year” award for arranging back stage passes for her daughters and son to meet the Jonas Brothers.Seriously, if we didn't have neices and nephews, I wouldn't know WHO the hell the Jonas Brothers were.

We are enjoying the resort so far, but the prices are utterly outrageous. Two for a less than mediocre buffet - with dry mahi-mahi, stale sushi, overcooked other fishy fish, frozen Swedish meatballs with pasta (?), moist-free chicken and steak, and stale desserts - $50 apiece!! Also, Matt's sister got two salads, three sub-par sandswiches, and chips with soda for $120 for lunch. Unbelievable! So, we might have gotten a good deal for the rooms and flight (NOT!), but they're really getting us in the separate things.

One upside - we passed by and said hi to Bobby Flay on the way to the casino. That was cool.

In typical family-beach-trip fashion, this year will not be without a good ol' hurricane to meet us on the path - Hanna. The storm swells are really cool, but won't be as much fun without the pier close to us. They tore down the pier at our beach back in 2006. It was a shame, really, that Atlantic Beach, NC, decided to begin changing the face of the beach front so drastically that they felt the need to remove a historic landmark - the Sportsman's Pier at Atlantic Beach. They're making way for HUGE condo buildings and resorts in the hopes of bringing tons of business down there.

Thing is, even though the warmer season is longer than on the Jersey shore (5 months or so in NC compared to 3-4 months in NJ), people tend to forget that hurricane season begins early to mid August and goes through September.