Average American Family Vacation Day 6

I was up at sunrise on our first full day at the beach. It sounds crazy, after the long day we put in on Wednesday, but how often do you get the chance to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic? Unfortunately, the haze kept it from being picture perfect, but it's still rather pretty.
I also made friends with the hotel cat, who liked to hang around the pool. She also liked to follow me around. I went back to the room to get her some deli turkey, which she enjoyed. (Judging from the number of bowls left around with food in them, she's spoiled rotten by hotel guests...) She seemed enamored of us though, and spent a lot of time on our patio, which was on the first floor. Her meowing woke up the family when I came back in that way after feeding her. We eventually "named" her Carolina, which seemed appropriate. Many of the shops we went into along the beach had cats that wandered freely. It's a bit odd, but in a fun way.





When the kids got up, the concierge at the desk told them about a man in a full, bushy, black beard who had arrived at the hotel around 3AM and insisted that he give Kairi and Nicky in room 132 a message. The message turned out to be a pirate treasure map! So Kairi figured out the code, Nicky found the X that marked the spot at the end of the directions, and they started digging.

Pretty soon they had uncovered a wooden box....
Full of pirate treasure! There was a pirate boat puzzle you build with cards, gold chocolate coins, candy necklaces, pirate stamps, and two Pirates of the Carribean coloring and sticker books.
Not to mention, these snazzy pirate hats! (Leave it to my kids to be worried that none of the other kids at the hotel breakfast seemed to be getting secret maps. *sigh*)
Then we grabbed our boards and sand toys and headed down for a morning at the beach. The kids had never used boogie boards before, so they were a bit hesitant at first.

But they got the idea quickly enough, and were soon having much more fun in the ocean than out. (Didn't hurt that being IN the water kept the nasty biting flies that were on shore away!)

Nicky and I did build a sand castle, but there's definitely been a shift since our last trip to the beach. Both kids are now MUCH more interested in watersports than sand play or collecting seashells. It's nice, because that's how Scott and I are as well. They still feel too young to be "too old for sandcastles" to me, though! And speaking of sand, can anyone identify this sand critter for us? We found it on the beach, but never got back to the wildlife center to ask what it was. It has multiple legs tucked under its body, and is "squishy".
We ate lunch in the room. By this time, the heat was killer, so we decided to drive down to Roanoke Island to the North Carolina Aquarium. It was free, since we are Philly Zoo members, which is pretty darn cool. We saw all sorts of cool fish (most of which were moving way too fast for my camera).
The kids and I enjoyed this close up view of a cottonmouth.... Scott just quoted Indiana Jones: "I hate snakes!"

But "Jaws" aside, no one could hate this really cool shark that we saw in the Graveyard of the Atlantic tank.
No one but me would touch the sting rays, urchins, and sea stars in the touch tank. They were cool to look at, though.
The many turtles, otters, aligators, and other critters on exhibit made the aquarium part zoo, as well. It was a nice, air conditioned way to spend the day.

We finished out the day with dinner at the Bad Bean Taqueria. The food was really tasty, but a bit pricey for what you got. Scott said the margarita was fabulous, but I'll take his word for it. We liked the one staff member's shirt : "Don't hassle me... I'm not a tourist" but when we mentioned that we were from a tourist town, too and loved the shirt, he was a bit derisive of Bethlehem, PA being anything like the shore. He obviously didn't have to fight his way through Musikfest a few days before! ;-)

By this time, it was threatening rain, so the kids spent some time in the indoor pool, and we headed to bed.