NC Trip – Wright Brothers Memorial

I could not fathom visiting the Outer Banks without seeing the Wright Brothers Memorial. After all, it is the place where history was made.

And so, on our last full day in North Carolina, we visited the site where the Wright Brothers flew the first power-driven aircraft to successfully make a controlled, sustained flight.

Kai had learned about the Wright Brothers from a Peanuts video. But I don’t think he was all that interested in seeing the actual place. Still, he sat through a 20-minute film about the first flight.

But once we started walking around the grounds, he started complaining.

We didn’t take more than a few steps toward the monument at the top of the hill when he started saying that he was tired. We scrapped plans to see it.

Instead, we proceeded to walk directly to the numbered stone markers that show how far each of the brothers’ four flights traveled. We thought that with Kai’s love of numbers, he would surely enjoy seeing them.

But, no.

He insisted that he wanted to leave. I, stubbornly, insisted that he at least see the markers.

We finally got him to walk to each marker. He wasn’t happy. But he saw it. Whether he got anything out of seeing them is an open question.

It certainly would have been a lot more pleasant just to let him stay at our rental house and play Mario with his cousins (who visited the Memorial earlier). And maybe I’m trying to treat him like any other child when he really isn’t.

It is something that I will ponder before we take our next vacation.

NC Trip – Sand Dunes

On our first full day in North Carolina, we visited Jockey’s Ridge State Park where they have the highest sand dune in the Outer Banks. It looks like a desert in many spots, and you would have thought that we had left Kai in the middle of a desert for all of the screaming that he did.

He actually had fun there at first. He enjoyed seeing his cousins race up one of the dunes, and then wanted to join in the next race with them and me. But after awhile, the heat and climbing got to him and he had had enough.

And when he reaches his limit, there is no getting him to calm down and persevere. He starts whining that he wants to go home, and soon it turns into screams.

He wanted us to pick him up and carry him. We did not, as he weighs nearly 60 pounds now and was fully capable of walking. We did offer him water and plenty of time to rest, but that did not soothe him. Instead, he got angrier, saying mean words and attempting to spit at us and hit us.

We hadn’t gone all that far into the dunes, but that walk back to the car seemed like forever.

Day 1, and it was a preview of what we would experience periodically throughout the rest of our vacation.

Over time, I have a feeling that the bad memories will fade and we will remember the beauty of the dunes and our laughter after the races.

But I don’t want to totally forget the bad moments either. It is part of our reality right now. And maybe one day we will look back and recall how Kai used to be when he could not tolerate many things, and hopefully marvel over how much he has changed.

NC Trip – Diving for Shells

During our stay at the Outer Banks, Kai’s favorite activity was looking for shells in the Albemarie Sound. The Sound was convenient, just down the stairs from the back of the house we had rented for the week. And Kai loved the calm waters where he could easily swim. So, he went diving every day, while I was left holding the bag (to collect the shells).

The shells are not really something you’d want to collect, most being broken and none being very pretty anyway. But, since Kai made such an effort to collect them, I wanted to save them. Now, as we are making our way home, they are stinking up the back of our car. And I love it because it reminds me of when my son was most happy on this trip.

A Vacation Grinch

We have been on vacation for almost two weeks now, taking a road trip out to North Carolina. There have been a lot of ups and downs along the way.

We are now on our way back, making a few stops along the way. I’ll be writing all about our adventures in the blog soon, but in the meantime, please check out this week’s Patch column to read about the first part of our trip.

Click here.