WHAT? MORE NAGS HEAD

Time Out: My senior editor has perused the prior days and informs me that I don't know squat. Actually, the problem is Day 3. The real day 3 was so uneventful that I totally forgot it, so..... On the real day 3 we walked and went into the ocean ( the brave one) and watched TV and ate (as an aside, we overate and some of us gained significant pounds, tempered only because of the excessive walking).
Therefore, what I called Day 3 was really Day 4, and Day 4 was really Day 5. so now we are actually up to Day 6. Also because of my confusion I forgot the excitement of the ladies going shopping on Tuesday (it was senior discount day). They hiy every store at Tangier Outlets, but didn't have time for the other places - stay tuned).

DAY 6

For those of you who have difficulty keeping track of days - Day 6 is Thursday (try to pay attention - better than the author).
Mom is still having difficulty with her back. Got her some Icy Hot patches (if Shaq uses then they should be okay for Mom - maybe she'll become a basketball star). Also Dr. Anderson prescribed Aleve and after some persuasion Mom started taking them. She was still uncomfortable sitting, but was able to walk on the beach as usual (although even slower than before).
Beryl had passed by, but the waves were now really high (6-8 feet) and quite strong, but I still managed my morning dip (with great care) and only got pounded a little bit (waves 3, Mike 0 - slight scrape on my right knee). Water warm and NO JELLYFISH (since Cora wasn't there - no reason to hang around). After lunch, we had a bit of rain and it got rather cloudy so decided to take a chance and head off shopping (for shopping, Mom's back showed great improvement). We opted to take a chance and leave Shelby in charge of Grandma. We now got to all the 'special stores' that had been previosly missed. We also found a new Christmas store (The Christmas Mouse which is huge and is located right on Route 158 - unfortunately it has only Christmas stuff - no food).


DAY 7

Mom continues to improve, albeit slowly. Standing and walking good. Sitting better. (I think the whole thing was a cop out to avoid having to take Shelby for walks). Regardless today the weather was delightful (if you like sunny, hot, humid weather). Today was a day for the ocean - it was too breezy to sit on the beach - umbrella blowing away. The waves were perfect, fairly large and well shaped for riding. They were a bit strong, but great fun (I missed you guys - not as much fun without you). We continued the tradition with a family portrait on the deck (I did the best I could), and a final sunset. See above.






















DAY 8

Once more we get up in the middle of the night - yup we tried to leave early (about 5:30) to avoid some traffic. It worked perfectly until about Exit 6 on the NJ Turnpike when the Jersey shore traffic arrived and slowed us to a crawl. The Thruway was also very crowded and slowed by rain, but still managed the entire trip in 11 hours (only 3 stops - miracle of miracles) with Dad doing all the driving in an effort to take it easy on Mom's back.

It was a good week all things considered. Grandma really wasn't any worse than she is here (except for the one evening when her mouth started to bleed because she brushed too hard). It was nice to have Aunt Nina for company and to use as an occasional 'baby sitter'. It was lonely with no younger people on premises, but there will be other years that we hope we can again all share this fun week.

EVEN MORE NAGS HEAD 2006

DAY 3 REVISITED

I forgot the most important happening of Day 3: Mom pulled her back out trying to hit me with a frying pan. Actually she pulled it out just 'turning funny'. This created some interesting problems - she couldn't sit down, but was fairly comfortable standing up and so spent most of the evening on her feet. Luckily she was able to lie down on her side and therefore managed some sleep.
Also an ocean update: on day 2 it was rather warm and calm and only a few jellyfish. On day 3 it remained warm, but the waves were better for riding, there was also a significant increase in the number of jellyfish (Cora they were looking for you - a couple had signs: "WHERE'S CORA?).

DAY 4

Awoke to a most interesting sky and sea. Beryl had decided to remain about 150 miles off shore, and so we did not get any wind and only one light shower in the morning. However, the sky and sea were quite interesting. See pictures above -( Help, can someone please tell me how to get the pictures I want in the middle of the text rather than always at the top). However, we were right at the edge of the cloud bank - see picture of the sky to the west.
Because we were largely unaffected, we continued with our usual daily routine. The ocean was still warm and even though the waves were rather wild, they were not too strong and they cleared the jellyfish. However, by late afternoon at higher tide, most of the beach was under water - were still able to walk and go into the water.

MORE NAGS HEAD 2006

Obviously I managed to not download the pictures I tried for on Day 2 so I'll try again now. SUCCESS, so on to:

DAY 3

Same as Day 2, except after the morning walks, Mom and I set out on our annual shopping expedition and found that the Christmas Shop was "Closed Forever". However intrepid shoppers that we are, off we went to the Tangier Outlets - me to try to find some 'kitchen stuff' and Mom to try for eveything else. A failure - neither of us found what we wanted, although Mom did not have enough time to get to "all the stotres" - more on another day. We then went to The Farmers Daughter and The Cotton Gin and made some purchases - might be related to the holidays - wait for it. The rest of the day was a repeat of Day 2, except while watching the Weather Channel we found out that a small tropical storm was only a few hundred miles away and potentially could impact us on Wednesday. Stay tuned!!!!

NAGS HEAD 2006

DAY 1
Okay Kiddies, now it is Dads turn to try his hand at 'blogging'. Thought you might get a kick out of our week at Nags Head - actually want to make you jealous that you weren't there.
As always the first day is about 27 hours long. Getting up at 2:00 am to begin the great southern excursion is not as much fun as it was when we were younger (or when Grandma was better able to understand why we were waking her up at that hour). Anyway, we were on the road by about 3:15 - Mom driving, Dad napping (see Dad is getting smarter in his old age).
Trip was actually pretty easy - having the handicapped sticker made stops a bit easier and we arrived a bit early. Miracle of miracles were able to get into the unit before 4:00.
The unloading, shopping and getting set up went as usual. It was during this time that Aunt Nina arrived so all was ready for the usual Chinese dinner take out (you know us - if it works, don't change it).
We were so zonked that we didn't even get to the beach. Shelby barely made it down the steps to use the facilities before going right back upstairs and back to sleep.

DAY 2

Up early - about 7:00 - we decided that not sleeping the day away would be a good thing and so attempted to get up early every day - and we succeeded. Dad exercised, Mom and Aunt Nina ate and then went for a walk on the beach. The sluggards only managed a couple of miles. Upon their return, Dad went off on a three mile walk/jog on the sidewalk (you'll notice that we did not leave Grandma alone at all). After the walk, a ten minute dip in the ocean and a five minute dip in the pool were needed for a cool down. Meanwhile, Shelby has not yet stirred from her bed in the walk-in closet in our room (in fact had to wake her for lunch and other things). After lunch Mom and Aunt Nina went down to the beach to read while Dad watched sports. Upon the return of the ladies (sounds like a movie title to me), Dad went off on another three mile hike along the beach - initially wanted to walk to the other pier but was unable to do so because the two houses with sandbags were now literally in the ocean and at high tide was impossible to get around them (see pictures- hope I downloaded them properly???).
Pictures were actually taken later in the week at low tide - suffice to say at high tide the wave action was considerably more interesting. Anyway, enjoyed walking the other direction and again a cooling dip in the ocean at walks end (note Dad got into the ocean twice a day to compensate for the ladies barely getting their feet wet - including Shelby).
It was then time for our daily 'wine and cheese' snack (Grandma had both wine and cheese to be "one of the family").
After dinner Shelby condescended to go for a walk on beach, making friends along the way. Unfortunately once it was time to return, she wasn't real interested and it was a struggle to get her back home. Suffice to say there were no further beach excursions with her. She went to the beach for bathroom use and immediately turned around and went back to the house, after which we went for a walk (Nina kindly (foolishly) stayed with Grandma).