Ari's Amazing Travels: North Carolina

It seems I've been missing for the past two weeks. Some of you may have noticed this. Some may not have. For the latter, kiss my butt, I missed you too. Heheh. So where have I been? Here, I'll give you a little hint...



But first things first. We started off by loading the car with everything you can possibly think of, even the dogs. Yes, they came, too. We drove round trip. Our first stop was North Carolina to visit with my mother for a few days. We drove to Kentucky, then Tennessee. So after driving through Nashville (where I had a mini panic attack, because I hate when drivers surround my car, especially on a highway), we made it to the border of North Carolina. This is the point where after almost twelve hours of driving, Chris was too tired to go on. So I took over driving at this point. Do you know what is at the North Carolina border? Mountains. Not just any mountains, the Smokey Mountains. And I got to drive through it. Needless to say, although breathtaking, by the time I was through the mountains, I was reduced to tears. That shit is scary. It doesn't help that people drive like maniacs. Imagine driving in an area where if you go a foot to the left, you fall down a mountain. Yeah, scary stuff.

Eventually (after 17 hours) we made it to Mom's house, where we were rewarded with a comfy bed and good food for a few days. She was adamant that we go to the beach. John drove us to Atlantic Beach, where Kade and I touched the ocean for the very first time. It was amazing. And really, really cold.

Kade watches the waves come in.

Hitchcock would've been proud. Birds, everywhere, birds.

Kade watches a parasailer glide through the water. It was at this point that we saw a fin in the water. Chris swears it was a shark fin, but I think it was a dolphin. Chris was quite the alarmist being that he is petrified of sharks. I fancy them quite a bit, though.

This is the pier. Now something quite interesting happened on the pier...

These guys caught a sting ray. They were fishing off the pier and caught a friggin' sting ray. Weird! Anyway, both were too afraid to touch it, so Chris shuffled it back into the ocean for them. Don't worry, the sting ray is okay after his little trip to the pier. We made sure he swam away safely.

I must note that it was far too cold to swim (for me anyway, but I did notice some brave parasailers out there). So we collected shells for the afternoon, before making our way to a local restaurant called The Sanitary Restaurant. Now when I saw the name of this place, my first thought was "That's so wrong!", but now that I think about it, maybe it's a good thing that they pride themselves on cleanliness. Afterall, we ate there. I told my mother not to order crab legs. I was trying to get through the meal without anyone ordering them, but no, she would not listen to me. So she and Kade wrestled over them, until she finally gave up and gave him some. I kid you not, the kid was trying to grab them off her plate Helen Keller style. And no, I did not just sit back and let him do this. I tried to get him to behave, but there were crab legs and there are times when parents can do everything and still have a willful child. This was one of them. When we left the restaurant, Kade's belly was sticking out over his pants. He ate so much. Darn child.

After a few days of rest and relaxation, we started the second leg of this trip.

To be continued...