Heh...First we went north, and this time we went south =P

We stayed at a beachfront home with another family for the week of September 2-9, in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Here's what we did (assume it was just me and my parents going to these places, apart from the other family, unless otherwise noted):

• Everyone went to beach a few times (only two of the days were any good, due to the weather), and I got sunburned.
• A game of miniature golf was played...which took awhile with the group I was in (my Dad and I were in the same group, the rest were in another) because we unintentionally selected the longest (and most difficult) of three courses - it was funny when some of us just couldn't get the ball in the hole, though.
• We went to an aquarium and saw quite a few interesting fish, otters, horseshoe crabs (one was on its back for a moment, and I got a picture of it just before it righted itself), and even touched the top of a stingray (it feels like velvet), though I accidentally poked it fairly hard the first time due to some bad depth perception (the open tank was fairly shallow and low to the ground, but I could only reach into it while standing). We also saw a few more sea creatures...and one thing I took notice of at one point was a monitor displaying a "no style information is associated with this XML file..." error message...and I'm guessing it was running a Mozilla-based application ;)
• Four lighthouses were visited: Currituck (the only one that we went up), Bodie, Hatteras (was under maintenance at the time, so we unfortunately couldn't go up it), and Okracoke (which we had to travel by ferry to see).
• We went to the sand dunes, and I saw a big pond with a lot of tadpoles in it - it's interesting (and a bit funny) seeing them come to the surface and watching their mouths open =) We also flew a kite (it's one I had as a child during our earliest vacations here), and I ended up breaking the dowel rod after pulling on the reel too hard (the rods were as old as the kite, and my parents said it was a surprise that they held together for as long as they did) - the wooden rods may be replaced with fiberglass ones next time around to avoid this problem. After that, and just out of curiosity, I bet Dad that I could go up an adjacent hill on the dunes (just the first part, the second would be too much) backwards. He bet I couldn't, but I did...and my legs were tired as a result. They ran down the hill, but I didn't, as my legs were still sore. Instead, I rolled down - since I was at an angle, I eventually went into something like a corkscrew motion at the end - my parents got a kick out of seeing it! I then walked up that hill a second time (forward, as I couldn't take going up backwards again), and rolled down one more time, this time going backwards (heels over head) near the end.
• Dad and I went crabbing. We caught a few of them (everything captured was released shortly after), and right before we left, we had caught one when another family (not the one we were with) came by. I suggested holding the chicken neck (Dad brought quite a few, to be used as bait) in front of it so it would let go of the net (Dad got pinched hard enough to draw blood from one of the earlier catches, when he tried prying its claw off the net himself), and it worked - it let go of the net and started eating the neck! The other family thought the structure of its mouth - and how it was eating - to be interesting, and took a few pictures of it. It eventually freed itself enough to fall to the ground, then walked (sideways, of course =P) towards the water, and then just fell in!
• The last thing we did on our trip: Riding Segways! These actually worked pretty well, considering everyone who tried them out never rode them before. It takes a moment to get your balance, but is a rather interesting ride once you get used to it. Not only were we taught how to ride Segways, but we were taught a little about the history of the local area (Corolla) while riding them. At the end, all of us got certificates that show we have learned how to properly operate a Segway - these are necessary to be able to ride them without having to go through training on how to use them again, and should we decide to buy any, we can get them with discounts =D

Given that we haven't been down to North Carolina for a few years, I'd say it was a very nice trip!