OBX!

Manteo Elementary is a school in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and they asked our staff to come out for a day to teach some K, 1, and 2 lessons. I originally wasn't going to go, but one of the staff members that was supposed to go ended up spraining his ankle pretty bad, so the office had to do their best to switch things around. They asked if I was available over the weekend to head out to the Outer Banks from Saturday - Monday, and I said yes before I even heard the perks: $60 for food, a free place to stay for the weekend (which was ON THE WATER), and gas reimbursement! Conor took the day off of work on Monday so he could come too, and we had a blast!


The front of the house

We left Saturday and started the 4 hour trip to the OBX, which was a really pretty drive! It was nice to drive on a bridge over open water, it reminded me of home. When we got there, I couldn't believe how beautiful the house was - I could literally throw a rock from the deck into the Atlantic Ocean. 3 of my co-workers also showed up on Saturday: Betsy (and her husband Greg), Caitlin and Gillian.


Awesome chair in the cabin

Saturday night the 6 of us went out to dinner to my co-worker Betsy's favorite Nags Head restaurant: The Black Pelican. Conor ordered the crab legs, while I ordered the prime rib. I got a picture of Conor's meal, but I couldn't even fit my hunk of meat into the frame of my camera for a photo. It was enormous. I ate as much as I could, and it didn't even look like I had touched it...


This was in the front of the restaurant - pretty clever!



After dinner we headed back to our cabin for some games around the fire. Conor and I brought Loaded Questions, one of our personal favorites. If you've never played the game, it's a great game to play to get to know people.


Caitlin (Finn) on the left, Gillian on the right


Finn showing off her Secret Santa gift from Betsy - an F'in cup! (Funny story - when she was little, she had a cup with the letter F on it, because her last name starts with the letter F, and she once asked her brother for her F'in cup, and her brother got really mad at her - she didn't quite get it.


The family that we borrowed the house from even left us a Christmas tree!


I don't really know what's happening here...


I seriously don't know what's happening here...

After playing games, leaving a voicemail to Caroline from Finn, and some chit-chat, we went to bed so we'd be well-rested for our next day! We woke up and Betsy made us some sausage bread (Betsy - if you're reading this, I want that recipe!) We then parted ways for the morning to check out the area on our own. Greg stayed behind to watch football while Betsy, Gillian and Finn went to the local aquarium. Conor and I decided to check out Kitty Hawk to see the Wright Brothers museum. I know, we're nerds. If you haven't already figured that out by reading my blog, then you only have yourself to blame...

Since Conor and I are together again in NC, he's had to deal with me stealing all the blog material. We're trying to figure out how to share the love - we'll either combine our blogs, or take turns. Conor really wanted to blog about Kitty Hawk, so go to his blog to check out our tour around the museum!

After the museum, we came home to meet with everyone else so we could go eat lunch. The wonderful PTA at Manteo Elementary left us with two giftcards to local restaurants in the area. I had checked online to see where the restaurants were, and I noticed that one of the places listed it's days open as "Tuesday - Saturday." It was a Sunday, so I called just to be sure, and they were closed both days we were going to be in Manteo! Oops, we missed our chance to use that gift card. The other choice said it was open Monday - Sunday, so we headed there. We set off to try out the Hungry Pelican, which was a deli in Manteo. I'm not sure if you've ever visited a beachy-resorty type place during the winter, but if you have, then you know that the town literally looks like a ghost town. Needless to say, the Hungry Pelican was also closed, so we ate at a restaurant across the street.

After lunch, we came home to veg out for a bit before heading to the store to buy dinner supplies - we ended up making spaghetti and meatballs, which was really tasty. After dinner, the final scientist showed up, and he unpacked his car and joined us for some games. Jimmy is actually the scientist that sprained his ankle, which brought me out to the Outer Banks in the first place, so it was kind of funny that he ended up coming. We played Taboo first, but everyone was itching to play Loaded Questions again. After games, we all headed to bed since we actually had to work the next day.


Conor and I snuck outside to stick our feet in the sand.

Our day at Manteo Elementary was a lot of fun. I taught two 1st grade lessons, and one 2nd grade lesson. The kids were very excited to have us! Betsy, Caitlin, Gillian and I even had the same lunch break, so we were all able to make it over to the Hungry Pelican for some sandwiches - sorry Jimmy! Conor and Greg found a local, cheap place to play 18 holes of golf - although Conor said he had a bad day, it was a beautiful course and he had a lot of fun.

After our day at Manteo, we headed back to the cabin to quickly clean up and get on the road. The weekend went too fast, and I wish we all could have stayed one more day.


I had to say that I have dipped my feet into both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, so Finn and I headed down to the water to get our feet wet.

It was so great getting to know my co-workers better - I'm looking forward to getting all of the scientists together in 2010 for a game night! The weekend was SOOOOoooo much fun.