So, It's not exactly Europe...

The yayas are traveling again - but not to Europe. We've had several people ask us if we're blogging again this time. And I thought, why not?!

If you're not interested, no worries - just delete or unsubscribe. Just as it was last year, I write this for us, so we can remember and look back. Well this year we are Ocracoke (NC) bound! ...eventually... But first Raleigh... And then Kill Devil Hills (Kitty Hawk). Who doesn't love a little history wrapped up in their vacay? The group this year is minus Amy, and we've added some baby yayas who are studying at the knee. So its Susen, Dana, Patti and the Brittanys (Powell, who we call BP, and McKay who answers to almost anything including McKay, Britt, Brittany, and yes... even BM). We started off at Lambert airport, flying out of Delta at 7am - and once we figured out the process (you have to self check in at the computer and then stand in a reeeeally long line to weigh and drop off your bag) we headed to our gate, amid a little airport construction from damage done by the tornado on Good Friday.

We had one of those small planes that make even me feel tall - but had a very smooth and uneventful flight (save the weird "stale" guy sitting next to BM who was either flapping his legs to air out the heat from his under carriage, or gaining some kind of pleasure from the repeated motion).

Landed, got the rental - super nice Chevy Traverse that BM loves. Fits the 5 of us nicely.

We were a little hungry and it was about lunch time, and we had done a little research on the Food Network (Man vs Food). There is this place called “The Pit” in Raleigh that cooks whole pigs in a pit until the meat is so tender that they just go through it with their hands and pick out the bones. THEN they continue to cook it on the grill, marinating

it in this vinegary BBQ marinade – we couldn’t resist the promise of NC BBQ. You walk into the place and it smells amazing – like they’re cooking a whole hog in the back (they are). For starters we had fried green tomatoes (love that movie – “I’m older and I have more insurance!”), and fried pimento cheese, c’mon! It's fried cheese!

We got a variety of the BBQ and sides, including fried okra, fried chicken, pulled pork, BBQ brisket, baked beans (that included red beans and kidney beans, and bean that you would normally think of baked beans all in one dish), and of course the chopped pork which is what comes from the process with the whole hog. It was so good! The sauce is a perfect “tang” and the meat just melts in your mouth.

On the road again – it’s about noonish and we have about 3 hours to Kitty Hawk. We have a beach house rental in Ocracoke, but we don’t check in until 3pm on Saturday – so we decided to go in a day early and take our time getting down there. We have a hotel at Kitty Hawk and we’re planning to check out the “Wright” stuff (sorry for that) and then it just so happens that the Kitty Hawk kite festival is tmw, so we’re going to pop by there on our way south.

The road trip was fun – we sang along to the Hairspray soundtrack and other favorites; BM delighted (I mean DELIGHTED) in the fact that her window goes down (OH MY GOD, MY WINDOW GOES DOWN!!) – not sure what that was about, but I really took pleasure in recreating the moment from time to time.

We stopped off for a beverage at a little gas station with a one seater stall and took turns in the bathroom. But Dana got wise and decided to go into the men’s restroom. BM and I were patiently waiting our turn, chatting… and there was a little weird guy kinda of laughing along with us. He was just sitting at a table and chair in the gas station, sipping his Yoohoo, watching us and nodding along as if he were just hangin out with us. Then another man walks in and heads down the hall toward the men’s restroom and BM and I look at each other and giggle a bit, knowing that Dana is in there, and expecting there to be an awkward moment as he finds the door locked, and then again as Dana emerges from the men’s room…. But what we got was MUCH better! The guy walks up to the door, turns the handle and DOES NOT find it locked! Nope – it’s open, and he walks right in on Dana (and she wasn’t washing her hands). He backs out VERY awkwardly – comes back out to where we are now laughing a little too much – and THEN the little weird guy says in a little bit of a “Sling Blade” voice, very matter of factly, but with this HUGE grin on his face, “That door don’t lock”.

OMG!! We LOST IT! We imagine Dana being walked in on, this poor man walking in on her – and this weird sling blade dude knowing that the door didn’t lock, watching this play out and not saying anything until after the fact. Then Dana comes out and we are trying to repress the laughs (not really) –and the poor man who walked in on her tells her, “Your friends think it’s real funny”…

oops. But yah. We did.

The ride is beautiful – we follow a little stream most of the way – and the Brittanys are scanning the sides of the road for “Swamp People” – they could be anywhere. Just lurking. As we get closer to Roanke Island we cross the Alligator River. It looks like ocean, with white caps – and the bridge over it feels like we’re crossing Lake Ponchetrain into New Orleans. We’re a little slap happy and we joke that they moved it up here… we’ve been up since 4am, so it was funny, but I know that it’s not really. Off to the south we notice this HUGE plume of smoke – it’s billowing miles into the sky and looks like an erupting volcano. We start to smell smoke, and we see signs to be careful of dense smoke (Dana thought we said “dangerous smoke”… ooooh, watch out… that smoke is daaaangerous) – and we also saw signs to watch out for BEARS (“next 7 miles”).

We travel about 3 miles, and we see another sign to watch for bears “next 7 miles”. Bears must like the number 7 … there are also signs to watch out for red foxes (lame Sanford and Son references ensue: “I’m coming to see you Elizabeth!” “You DUMMY!”). Foxes, bears, dangerous smoke, and swamp people. We are overwhelmed with the potential danger that could jump out at us as a moment’s notice. As we head across the bridge into the outer banks (YAY!!) the smoke is getting thicker, like a think grey fog that’s everywhere. Once we find the hotel we step out of the car, and it smells like a bonfire, and still smoke everywhere. We learn that the big plume of smoke that we saw is a forest fire that’s been burning in the Alligator park since May 5^th (which my brain turned into “for the past 5 months”) – it’s been this smokey for overa month now and they can’t get the fire out because its surrounded by water and it’s burning underground, or something. We’re actually kind of confused by it – it seems to us you could reach it by helicopter and dump some water in there. But this smoke is everywhere – just part of life up here for now.

Well, we check in and the first thing we want to do it dip our toes in the ocean!! We are RIGHT on the beach, and we just have to walk out the back door and down the boardwalk to see ocean! BM has changed into her suit, but the rest of us are still in “toe-dipping” clothes. BP has on her skirt, but goes in anyway. The water is COOOOLD – but you do get used to it. The Brittanys look for shells for a bit – BP knee deep in the ocean and fully clothed. BM has a floating tube and tries it out, but the waves are little strong right at the shore and she gets slammed around a bit.

It’s almost time for dinner once we’re done playing – we head back to the TINY room, there are 5 of us on two regular beds and a roll out in a very small room (but we’re insisting on calling it cute). We needed some seafood and asked the locals the place to go. We end up at Bob’s, whose motto is “Eat and then get out”, we’re charmed. They have an incredible fruity sangria (yes, please!), and all you can eat crab legs and shrimp that I jump all over. Patti and BM have crab cakes (famous

for having no breading, all crab), Dana has the flounder, and BP has a pound of shrimp. We all walked away very satisfied – and still smokey.

We made a quick trip to Wal-Mart (as suggested by experienced Ocracoke vacationers because as we get further south it’s further away from supplies) and we get some food and other items for the week at the beach house. Now we’re back at the “cute” room – we have the Brittanys in the same bed because they both had what they thought were endearing stories about how they have ended up cuddling with their bedmates – so we thought that they were perfect for each other. We’ll see if they’re spooning by morning. BM is experience shoulder pain, possibly rotator cuff, from sleeping funny – the old ladies are just laughing at her a bit because she’s not old enough to experience that creaky body syndrome that is creeping up on us. It’s the simple things in life that give me pleasure.