Outer Banks Trip: The Drive

We were really thrilled that we got the chance to take our first ever family vacation to the Outer Banks this year. Friends of ours from college have been going down with their family since she was a little girl. Her aunt wasn't able to make this year and her share of the condo was offered up, so we (a little nervously) decided to snag it up.

Packing up all that a family of 6 might need for a trip of this sort went surprisingly smoothly. A few friends who have travelled to the beach before offered up a few things that we might need and our wonderful friends, the Berrys, lent us their cartop carrier. There is no way we would have fit everything with out it!!

We hit the road early, hoping everyone would be groggy and fall right to sleep for the first few hours of the trip. Of course, that didn't happen. Natalie flipped out about me bringing along her blanket, so we started off with a screaming kid! Thanks to a Little Rascals DVD, there was soon laughter filling the van. Yes...our kids were laughing hysterically at Little Rascals at 5am. Overall, the drive went well. There were several more stops than we really intended to make, but it was probably better for Mark's back that we did. Natalie even went tinkle in the potty at a few of the stops! The last hour or so did become somewhat chaotic. Natalie and Levi were pretty much done being in the van. They would simultaneously go from screaming to laughing. Mark and I just kept looking at each other like "What have we done?!?!?"

We were relieved to arrive in Pine Knoll Shores after 13.5 hours. We had a great room in a condo right on the beach. We didn't waste any time checking out the ocean! We quickly learned that Levi was scared of it! Thankfully a couple friends mentioned that bringing a baby pool might be a good idea.