Channeling our 'inner eskimo' on the Outer Banks

This weekend Brenda and Cheryl graciously invited us to crash their vacation for a few days at a beach house in Carova on North Carolina's Outer Banks. We love the Outer Banks anyways, and this time was a special treat because we were very far north on the beach, where roads and little Honda CRVs do not go. Cheryl picked us up with her 4 wheel drive truck and drove us up the sand 9 miles to a very accommodating (if not completely spoiling!) beach house about 3 times the size of our house.  Along the way, we even saw some wild ponies. We had a wonderful time with them, exploring the beach, relaxing, and sharing magnificent meals. It gets harder to leave the ocean every time. Thank you B and C for hosting us!

We were greeted Saturday evening by a magnificent sky.

Cheryl and Gavin enjoyed their morning treks to the beach to find 'treasures'. The first morning, he even found 'pirate money'! Arrr!

We all went down to the beach Sunday morning to watch the waves and look for shells. Even Arlo got in the spirit of searching and celebrated by chasing down and eating a tiny crab. It made us reminisce about our June vacation together where Arlo proved to be quite the crabber!

This is the mile post near the beach house. It is definitely bizarre to be far from roads and lots of people, but trust me - on the beach you get used to it really fast!

Whether it is 85 degrees or 35 degrees, my kids love the beach. We had to stop Merritt from walking into the crashing waves. 

And Gavin just couldn't figure out why his feet were so wet. . .

While gazing at the waves, we saw porpoise  swimming off shore. I guess I was startled to see them, since the last time we saw them they were swimming around our kayaks in June. It's just so cold! I guess not every living thing in North Carolina shuts down when the temperature drops!

 Sunday night, we had a pirate themed birthday feast for Cheryl, complete with eye patches and earrings.

Even Merritt got into the spirit, though he looked at us all like we were crazy!