Lazy Day

It’s Thursday – but we called it Lazy Day… seriously, just when you didn’t think that we could do less in one day, we did it. It was a very sleepy day, and last night after I finished writing the blog (and failed in uploading it), I woke BP up and told her to go to bed. She was sitting with her legs crossed, but laying back on the couch. I had to shake her for quite a while, and then she woke up really confused and groggy. She says to me, “I didn't know I was sleeping”… and this morning has no memory of it, but she asked, “Did I say something to you last night?”… it was cute.

In other sleep related oddities, BM came downstairs this morning and asked if anyone yelled, “BIG FAT COW!!” (say that loudly with a high pitched voice and you’ll almost have it right) – We just bust out… um no… she asks us a few more times, as if we’re lying and we’re going to change our answer. NO – no one said big fat cow – that’s why she woke up, she heard someone downstairs yelling “Big fat cow!”… must have been an interesting dream.

We finally get moving at about 10 and head to a late breakfast back at Dajio so that Dana can taste that French toast for Ellie. We had a GOOFY waitress this time – really scatter-brained. She repeats everything and tells us how confused she gets, and that she forgets everything. She said that she'll put our orders into the computer after she gets waters for another table because the computer takes all of her focus. We're a little worried about our food. It takes a little longer than when we’ve been here in the past, and we’re regulars now - they're setting up for lunch (which starts at 11 and we're just getting our breakfast). At some point and she *SMACKED* BM on the back – who then sits up straight, stiff with pain - "oh do you have sunburn?... Have you tried putting vinegar on it?" Thanks for the tip. She’s working with another table who came in right after us and she asks them if they mind if she sits with them while she takes their order, and they get their food WAY late.

The food was incredible. Again. I could not go there and not get the Eggs Oscar, so I did. BP and Patti got omelets, and Dana and BM got the French toast. Dana said that it was so good that it melted in her mouth, and she didn’t share even one bite of it with anyone. We also ordered another dish to share, the eggs trejas (?) – I may have messed that up – they were eggs with spices and served with corn tortillas (which I’m not a fan of)… it was ok. But I’m glad that I didn’t order it as my main dish.

Eggs Trejas

Dana with her French toast!

We’re getting ready to leave and Patti decided to hit the restroom before we got on the bikes to go around to some more shops. We all waited for her to come back and it was getting to be a really long time, maybe even up to 10 minutes, and we just assumed she was having some issues… She comes back and she does NOT look good, pale and shaky, so I thought that she was getting sick from something. She barely speaks, and when she does, her lip is quivering and she needs water. She finally can tell us that she got locked into the bathroom and apparently it was scary. She came out a little traumatized. The place was small and has no ventilation. It was HOT - she got overheated and we didn't even hear her banging on the door and screaming. Dana said that she heard something that she thought was Patti walking back from the bathroom, but then she looked up and she was never there, it must have been Patti banging. But we didn’t hear a thing. Scary.

Once Patti cools down we head out on bikes. The Brittanys hit a couple of shops that they wanted to re-visit before heading back to the house. BM is going back to work on her play - but she's also nappy, so we'll see. Dana, Patti and I went to a couple of shops we hadn’t been to yet, and we went to the historical society. It was really interesting; they had a few different displays. They had a room dedicated to Muzel Bryant who was a lifelong Ocracoke native and one of the only long standing black families on the island. The Wright brothers made their first flight just 3 months before she was born – and she died at age 104 in 2008. They also had artifacts from every war that affected the island, from the civil war to WW II.

One of the most educational rooms for me was the study of the island “brogue” – it’s almost like the creole of New Orleans. Linguists have studied and documented their dialect, differences in grammar and vocabulary use and they had a dvd documenting what they found. It was playing in the room, and I bought a copy of it to take home – it may be useful for my Linguistics class. We learned new terms that the natives use - mommuck (to bother or harass), dingbatter (foreigner with no knowledge of island culture), quamish (sick to the stomach), O'cocker (native); and the russian rat (HUGE rodents found on the island that we hope not to see). They also say their “I” as an “oy” – so “high tide” is “hoy Toid”. They went around and videotaped natives talking to each other and they show all of that on the dvd, it’s very difficult to understand them with all the different words and idioms in addition to the brogue

We also ride down to the British cemetery -a memorial for 4 British soldiers who washed up on shore after their sub was bombed in the WW II...

The British cemetery

BP stopped off at the book store to buy the book that she already had once, but lost, and she had her own odd bathroom experience. She asked for a bathroom, and they walked off… um hello??... when she came back she had a key and told BP that it was out back, through the fence and in the first door. She went around back to this REALLY tall fence that opened up into what looked like a family’s back yard (not the back of a business) – and there was only one door (so she looked for another to make sure this was the “first” door) – and there is this huge padlock on the door to what ends up being a step up from an outhouse. She was a little scared herself.

Today was our laziest day yet. We got up and around late - "breakfast" at 10:30... Then a little shopping. We all end up back at the house by 1:30 (or earlier), and then we just *crashed*. I had a little sinus headache I was trying to get rid of, BP fell asleep on the front porch while reading... We all took big fat naps. The dangerous part was that we were using each other as a gauge – I would wake up and see that BM was still sleeping so I’d go back to sleep – BM would wake up and see that I was still sleeping and do the same. Not good. BM did some work on her play, we watched a little American Ninja, and we got up around 3:30 to get ready to go eat dinner. I told you we were lazy.

We tried to go to the Cafe Atlantic because it was strongly recommended by our dolphin captain, but they were crazy busy, so we went back to Dajio. That’s right, we’re eating at the same restaurant twice in one day, and really for our only 2 meals of the day. On the drive to the restaurant the song “Lazy Day” comes on the radio – there is a consensus that this is our theme song for the day.

We get to Dajio and they bring out the bread, and OMG – there is this cornbread in there that is barely bread – it’s more like a corn mash that is put in bread form. It tastes very much like that corn tomalito at Chevy’s (the little corn ball). We are loving it. BM got the steak Oscar (topped with lump crab meat, asparagus and hollandaise) which came with these AMAZING mashed potatoes seasoned with horseradish; BP got the chicken romalade with the mashed potatoes, Patti and I got the lump crab mac and cheese (YUM), Dana got the salad that she ordered for lunch on our first trip to Dajio’s because she loved it so much. This is our last meal there – we will miss it. There was a live musician there tonight, and we really liked him – BM and Dana even bought his CD!

The cornbread...
Lump crab meat mac and cheese...
Steak Oscar... and those potatoes!

Chicken romolade...

We head out, and as we get in the car, as further proof of our lazy day, the Lazy Song was on the radio AGAIN - TO and FROM the restaurant. “Today I don’t feel like doing anything… I’m just gonna lay in my bed.. “ We go by and get our slushies for the day (and get mermaid pictures) and head home.

It’s getting a little later, but it’s hard to tell because there are no clocks in this house - except for the one in the that is stuck on 5:00 (BM said the first day, "I think that clock is wrong..") - but it’s actually a Jimmy Buffet thing saying "its 5:00 somewhere". So it’s easy to lose track of time here - it’s like a casino - they're trying to lull us into island time. And it’s working. The only clocks we have are on our pagers and BP is phoneless after an incident yesterday at the beach. She went into the ocean... With her phone in her pocket. UGH!! She’s going through a mourning period and withdrawal.

We decide that we’re going to walk down to Springer’s point to see the sunset. It’s supposed to be a great view, but you can’t park there, you can’t even take bikes past a certain point on the path – so we hike over there. We get to the trail, and it seems endless – it winds through the woods on a very narrow path. About half way in I realize that we’re going to watch the sun set, and we’re going to have to walk back through this wooded area in the dark… maybe a flashlight would have been good. Well, we finally make it to the beach and the sun is behind a bank of clouds so we can’t really see anything, but it’s a great spot. Very pretty. Since we can’t see the sun set anyway, we decide to head back while we still have some light so we can get through the woods. There’s quite a bit of cover, so it seems dark – very reminiscent of the woods in the Wizard of Oz – and these trees are gnarly looking, they could definitely be the sort that jumps to life and grabs us. Dana is more concerned about killer possums – she’s sure that one is going to jump out and attack us. BP and I try to tell her that possums are scared of people, they don’t “get” you. As we’re walking down the road back to the house, a cat walks out of the brush and BP and Patti nearly jump out of their skins…. BP says after all that talk, she thought it was a possum – I remind her that possums don’t get people. BM decided not to come down with us, so we concoct a story to tell her when we get back – the sunset was the most beautiful that we’ve ever seen, and it was only overshadowed by the fact that we saw dolphins swim right up to the shore while we were standing there (and when she didn’t believe that we were going to tell her that it was a lie, but we did see about 5 or 6 just right off the shore, playing)… she was very upset that she missed it. But we didn’t let it stand for long and told her the truth.

Our view of the sunset...

BP's dirty feet from our walk..

After we gave BP and BM their lesson in spades last night, BM is fired up to play again – BP not so much, but we twist her arm. They get a little cocky and say that they’re ready for a challenge, so we propose that it will be Patti and me against the Brittanys… challenge accepted! They start off well… at least in terms of scoring. They’re having a little difficulty getting their bids right so they’re under bidding and setting us. The first two rounds, we go negative numbers. We finally get the hang of bidding with their bidding (leave two open tricks) – and then the pendulum swings. They start bidding more than they think they can get to compensate for their under bidding, and they start heading back down in the negative. It’s all good – you have to do that to figure out how to bid better and I think that BM is hooked. Once we kick their butts, we play a round of LCR, and then start a game of Farkle. Patti is making up Farkle rules.. and this is another 1500 points, and that’s another 3000… and we wonder how she wins.

BM has “rocky top” – a term I coined as the opposite of “shaky leg” – when BM and I get tired, we have to shake out legs to keep them from feeling uncomfortable, but if you’re in a position where you can’t shake your legs, you rock, like you might if you had autism… Here’s a picture of them playing Farkle – BM is a blur because of rocky top!!

Tomorrow we’re planning on going to the beach in the morning and going to Café Atlantic for dinner (we made reservations) – what we do in between who knows, but it’s our last full day in Ocracoke. We have to return the bikes in the morning. We’ll really miss them, even BP and BM have admitted how much they’ve really enjoyed biking around town.