A Tarheel Weekend

So I promised yesterday I'd talk all about our weekend getaway to North Carolina. And even though I'm so tired I'm pretty sure I'm going to disintegrate into a puddle of mush on the floor, but I promised so I'll deliver. Prepare for the longest post in the history of ever.

Calen's best Coast Guard buddy Mason moved away to North Carolina in April. Or March. Or sometime around there I can't remember. They are only there for a few more months and then will transfer to who-knows-where so we figured hey we better go visit them while they live a "short" 8 hours away. 

I also needed an excuse to visit the Tarheel state since it is my roots and in a tricky way my home state. As in, my grandpa was born and raised there and the only reason that he ever moved to Washington is because in the early 40's my great grandpa (his dad) beat the crap out of some guy and the law told him to either go to jail or move out of state as far away as possible. So he did - and moved as far away as possible to Washington. How is that for some down home tarheel justice? He also made his own moonshine. What can I say. My great grandpa was a badass.

We did not get to see Waynesville (my grandpa's hometown) because it was a further 8 hour drive PAST where we were headed and I'm pretty sure if we were in the car one more minute with our kids we were going to throw them on the highway with a "FREE" sign so we saved it for another time). 

Okay, moving on.


So the trip to Elizabeth City, NC involves a 1.5 hour ferry ride from Cape May to Lewes, Delaware. Followed by a six(ish) hour drive through Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and then North Carolina. 


I think I got the order of those states right. I'll admit it I'm really bad when it comes to East Coast geography. I'm pretty sure some colonial jerk in the 1700's wanted to see how many states he could cram onto one side of the country. And half of them have the same name. 

Dolphin family right by the ferry

Camden slept through the entire ferry ride (praise Jesus) and Calen really enjoyed standing out on the deck and looking at all the boats and the crapton of dolphins that we saw. And for the most part the boys were really good on the forever car ride, especially considering I forgot the portable dvd player. Mom FAIL. 

I think one of the funniest things we saw on the drive was the chicken trucks. We drove past three major chicken factories (Purdue, Mountaineer and Tyson) so there were five billion chicken trucks. Chicken trucks are semi trucks. Full of chickens. And you can see all the chickens and there's tons of clucking and feathers flying all over the place. Sadly I thought these trucks were morbidly hysterical. Mainly because when I looked at that truck I instantly thought of the frozen chicken breasts in my freezer. And Chick-Fil-A. And McChicken sandwiches. I showed Calen a chicken truck and he goes "awww so cute" and I said "yeah, those chickens are going to be made into chicken nuggets!" because I'm such a nice sweet parent and wanted to give him images of "cute" chickens turning into his favorite lunch. But instead of him being mortified he just chuckled and said "Nooo Mommy. Not chicken nuggets. Just cute chickens. That's silly." Hmmmmmmm.

Hey Mom, What's for dinner? CHICKEN.

Also on this trip I got to check off a few states I haven't been to yet. Like Virginia. It's pretty. And obviously North Carolina. Which is pretty too. And very farmlike. Which I think is pretty. 

As soon as we made it over the North Carolina border we went on a mad hunt for a barbecue joint. Because there are some places in this nation where it is imperative to eat barbecue at, and North Carolina is one of those places. We found a place that all the locals said was "darn good eatin'!" so we stopped in and had dinner. Importantly dinner outside in a field so that the boys could stretch their legs and run all over kingdom come. Brad's ribs and hush puppies were astounding and I had a pulled pork and coleslaw sandwich with baked beans which was pretty damn good too. And I got bit by angry ants which everyone claims weren't rabid fire ants but I'm pretty convinced that they were because they were snarling and angry and they bit me and it burned. 

Camden says: WHY are you making me sit on a pig with my brother? At Currituck BBQ, NC

Elizabeth City is pretty much a dump but we still had a blast with our friends. The first night we just let the kids play since they had been in the car for 150 years. They showed us their family of wild box turtles that live in their front yard and have babies and there's nothing cuter on this planet than baby box turtles the size of your big toe. Camden stayed awake until 11 FREAKING 30pm for some reason, probably because he had been in the car so long. And then proceeded to wake up every 15 minutes or so the rest of the night. Did I mention all four of us were in one bedroom? We were. None of us got any sleep. 

Calen, Mason and a baby turtle. Calen kept asking if he could take it home.

Saturday we took the boys to see the monster truck Gravedigger which I talked about in yesterday's post and I don't feel like repeating myself. But if you're too lazy to read yesterday, here's the abridged version. Kids.Love.Gravedigger.Super.Awesome.Fun.

One more Gravedigger pic. Hey boys, you don't really have to duck.

We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant since Cape May has a terrible famine of culture involving food especially when it comes to anything Mexican. Then we went back to their house and let the boys swim in the pool in their massive back yard since it was 900 degrees out and about ten thousand percent humidity. Calen and Mason played so.damn.hard. throwing themselves down the slide into the water for over three hours. We expected them to just collapse and sleep right on the spot. We barbecued burgers and corn and the boys had a slumber party on the living room floor watching a movie. Shockingly they didn't fall asleep. Then we planned on letting Calen and Mason sleep by themselves on an air mattress in the play room, but Mason got a little nervous so Calen ended up sleeping in their alone. Which he was so tired he didn't even care. And we were elated that it was one less monster sharing our room.  

Fun tidbit. The boys were laying down in the living room watching Yogi Bear and NEARLY falling asleep and Calen closed his eyes for a moment, then sat up quickly, whipped around to look at me and announced "I am NOT sleepy!" Just in case I thought he might be. Right buddy. RIGHT. 

Slumber party!

Today we left right after breakfast. It was a short visit (and a LONG couple days of driving) but it was way too much fun. We plan on going back for Thanksgiving, which should be super awesome fun.

 

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