heading to the beach

We headed out bright and early this morning for our trip to the beach. The kids were bouncing off the walls with excitement when we began, but as you can see, the excitement faded a bit as the road trip stretched into hours.

When we stumbled on this huge sign for one of my most favorite beach treats, we thought we might find a place to picnic after our peanut purchase.

The kids marveled at the old peanut picker. They don't make 'em like this anymore!

We did find a picnicking area, fortunately, as we were all ready for a chance to stretch our legs and breathe some salty air for a bit.

Our next stop was the Wright Brothers Memorial, which wasn't on our route to the beach exactly but was only a 10 mile detour. Here you can see a model of the airplane the Wright brothers flew.

And we found the rock commemorating the beginning of the first flight.

Then...the long, hot hike to the top of the hill where the memorial sits. The hill was originally just a dune that many of the Wright brothers' glider started from.

Keep on truckin' kids!

At last we reached the pinacle and saw the memorial built to the Wright brothers.

The kids were mostly glad it was a memorial that they were allowed to climb on.

The view from the memorial hill was quite amazing. From the side, you could see the ocean and beach houses.

And from the back, you could see the stone and marker where the first flight began and ended way off in the distance beside the sidewalk heading straight.

When we finally arrived at our destination, and filled our bellies again, we headed out to marvel at the wide, blue sea and to spread our toes in the warm, grainy sand. Ahhh.

Finn doesn't really remember our trip to the beach 2 years ago, and he was beside himself with excitement.

The older 3 were mesmerized by the vast expanse of open blue sea.

Finn couldn't resist plopping right down in the sand and starting to dig with a shell.

As the sun began sinking low behind us, we headed back for our beach house for a good night's rest so we can make the most of our beach play tomorrow.