day 2 @ peppertree

I got into the picture taking mood a little more on Friday, but I still was a little embarassed to whip out my little Sony Cybershot when all around me were guys and girls who had the coolest cameras that made my little wanna-be photographer heart race. Needless to say, I got over that pretty quickly, knowing that it would only be a little while before I had one of my very own! :)
This little car...

...gave us quite a bit of trouble. The day before, Thursday, we decided to go to the aquarium the next morning, which was Friday. We purchased our tickets at the rec center at the resort the day before, then woke up bright and early to get to the aquarium right when it opened. Well, that didn't really happen. Mom and I stayed up until 11pm the night before watching the season finale of some show, so we had a hard time waking up at 8am Friday morning. As soon as I had stuffed my face with Cheerios, I hopped in the shower, only to hop right back out (after I had done what I got in there for...get clean!) for someone to take a potty break. Oh, how I hated sharing one bathroom with four people in the morning! Anyway, back to the story...
We headed out around 9, armed with a map and our tickets. What does that car have anything to do with this? I'm getting to it, so hold on one more second. If you know anything about me, you know that boxy little car is my dream car. Seriously, I love it! Clark and I made up a "game" of sorts that we play when we're in the car, and the goal is to spot one of those cars, an Element, before the other person does. If you keep count  of how many you see, and you've seen more than the other person, you win bragging rights for the day. It's kinda like "punch buggy don't punch back", if you take away the whole punching part.
We didn't really know where we were going, so we where on the outlook for both Element's and the sign leading us to Pine Knoll Shores. Clark claims to have seen the sign, then said something about it, but no one heard him. Why? Because of the Element, of course! Dad was too busy shouting that he saw one, so Clark saying something didn't help. At. All. Needless to say, we were in Emerald Isle before we realized that we had gone to far. Clark decided that it would be a good time to tell us that he saw the sign, oh, let's say...4 towns back! So, yes, we're blaming the Element for making us late when we (finally) got there. Are your eyeballs hurting from all the pictures yet? Too bad, because you've only seen one out of the 15 or so I've uploaded! :)
These two are what you see when you pull up to the parking lot. Dad says that each aquarium and zoo in NC has one of these, um, sculptures, outside the building. Anyone know if it's true?

When we pulled up, half of the schools in the district were there, and we had no idea why. Turns out that it was Field Trip Day, and all those little kindergartens with their parents, teachers, and even littler siblings had to come see the shark dive. See that big shark next to the black blob, which was the speaker? Yes, that's a shark, and yes, we left after that. Our family isn't to keen on sharks. Plus, that wasn't even the biggest one.

One of the divers with his shark pole. They used it to keep the sharks away, obviously.

After that we saw alligators, which we didn't really care to stay and watch for very long either.

We also saw turtles right next to the alligators. This one was sunbathing!

This has to be my favorite one. Can you see what I see?

No? Well, how about now? Mom and I were fascinated by the seahorses. And, get this...there were even littler ones in there with this guy! I didn't bother trying to take a picture because I knew my camera wasn't strong enough, but some of the field trip people had fancy cameras tried.

And, even though these pictures are out of order, Mama and I had to show you guys that we went into the snake place. They had albino snakes, and just about every snake you can find there. And, let me tell you, the albino snake was scary enough to give you nightmares. I'm shivering just thinking about that place!

And the lovely pictures that they decided to display for the whole world to see weren't real kid friendly. I mean, a picture of the snake swallowing a mouse. Um, no thanks.

After the aquarium, we headed back to the condo to change and go down to the beach. It wasn't until we were hot, sweaty and starving that we realized that it was past lunch time...by two hours! We ate lunch, then...did something. My mind's a little fuzzy. All I remember was Mom and Clark went to check out a book at the rec center, I Blackberry messaged Sam to see where they were, and then laying out at the pool until we met them in the parking lot. I probably lost a lot of brain cells from laying out that day!
Once they were unloaded, Mom and Dad started supper while Sam and I went on a walk on the beach. I was out of breath by the time we were back at the condo. Sam is one fast power walker!
After we ate, Clark scheduled everyone's showers (really, it happened.) and we got ready to watch the Blind Side. Yes, we were THAT family who couldn't bring themselves to spend the ridiculous amount of money that  you have to pay at the movie theater to go see the famous movie. And, personally, I really wasn't all that into it. Sure, it was a good movie and kept all of our attention, but Mom and I didn't think that it was all it was cracked up to be. It ranks high on my favorite movie list, though. I'm glad we weren't one of those families who went to see it twice...
When the movie was over, which was around 10:30, Dad and Clark went out to the truck to blow up the air mattress we slept on that night. Don't ask why, but apparently we have to use the cigarette lighter to blow it up; it's an older model, so that's my only guess. Once it was blown up, the boys weren't locking up the truck when we heard Dad yelling at someone. Us girls had heard someone screaming as they were running in the parking lot earlier, but didn't think anything of it. Three people were standing around some blinged out car, and they had forgotten their keys. The younger boy, maybe 13 or 14, decided to use every cuss word he knew, even the really bad ones. Clark heard it all, poor guy! Dad alerted them that they ran right past Clark while the said them, and all they could say was they were sorry. Even when we went to bed, they were still in the car, doing something with a cigarette lighter (the hand-held kind). No clue what they were doing, but they were LOUD! We thought about calling security, but decided not to.
All in all, it was a pretty good day, ruined by those teenagers who thought they were old enough to use those profanities since they forgot their car keys. No comment.