We went to the Outer Banks about a week ago for our school’s Road Trip. We left on Tuesday, May 11. It was the ULTIMATE bonding time. Trust me on this one. If you ever end up on a bus of 50 or so tired, cranky girls with sand in their shoes, make sure you bring your headphones and possibly a large rock. But even though we got irritated with one another, we still had a great time.
After waking up extremely early, we left CECHS around 5 AM. I did not get a good seat, but that is okay. We had an all-girl and an all-boy tour bus. We visited Aurora Fossil Pit on the first day, arriving around lunchtime. We ate a lovely packed lunch in and around a gazebo thing beside where we could dig. It was much smaller than I had anticipated, but still interesting. I found rocks and the occasional shark tooth. We went into the Aurora Fossil Museum and looked at the teeth and bones that were found there. I filled up a couple little bags with dirt for my mom (she is a science teacher). We then loaded the busses and drove to a ferry. It was about a half hour ride on the boat. I was very impressed that both tour busses were riding on the ferry with us along with some other cars. I proceeded to be excited and said “WE’RE ON A BOAT, WE’RE ON A BOAT” for a couple minutes while bouncing around. When we got off the ferry, we drove for an hour and a half to two hours. We ate dinner at the Grits Grill. I was not too excited about this, but remained optimistic. I ruptured my appendix when I sat on Kindley and Stefani sat on me. (Not really, but it hurt inside my hip.) I did not eat a lot because my stomach was hurting (not because of the appendix thing). Then we went souvenir shopping. I bought a green Outer Banks shirt that matched Kindley’s. When I was hanging out in the parking lot, some seagulls came and started swooping. I have an unnecessary fear of birds, so I screamed and covered my head when one came too close to me. Biecker came up beside me and waved his arms like a bird and told me that he would “protect” me. He did not do a very good job. Trevor put his arm around me and said “DON’T BE AFRAID” in his man voice. Anyway, after shopping at the souvenir shops, we (the girls) convinced the teachers to take us to the Tanger Outlets nearby. I had my heart set on finding a birthday present for Mom, but I never succeeded. I waited for Kindley outside the bus, but she failed to come out. I was not impressed. So I walked by myself for a few minutes and then found Brandon, who was also by himself. We went to the bookstore and looked at the ocean. We got back on the busses and went to the hotel. We were relieved to get there. We were dead tired….Until we found out that we had balconies that looked out onto the beach. I went out there and got excited all over again. I walked downstairs (barefoot, of course) and got some ice. I proceeded to throw it into the outdoor pool below. That was not a good idea. It was also not a good idea to use outside voices on the balconies around eleven at night. After these shenanigans, me, Kindley, Morgan, and Aja shut and locked the balcony door and laid down on our beds. I must tell you first that CECHS teachers have the tradition of taping our doors so that if we open them, the tape breaks and we are caught for getting out of our rooms. That night, I committed the not-so-bright act of opening the door when it had just been taped because I thought someone was knocking. It was not a big surprise when I found the security guard outside our door. Mrs. Doughty, our counselor, informed us that someone had complained about our exact room number, and that we needed to behave ourselves. We apologized a lot and said that it was probably not us, it was probably the lovely loud girl next door. I was not happy and I felt really bad. We finally, after a long day, went to sleep. (Aja sleeps in the shape of a boomerang. I love her to death, but I seriously thought about pushing her out.)
We had to get up fairly early to get ready to go to Jockey’s Ridge. When we got ready, we were allowed to go down to the beach with supervision. I played in the water for a minute before getting on the bus. We headed to Jockey’s Ridge, which is a huge expanse of giant sand dunes. We hiked up the dunes and got to wander around and play in the sand. I did not choose to roll down like some others did because I would have been miserable for the whole day. The boys acted like fools and some of them rolled down in pairs, holding on to each other. We had a group picture of all of us forming the letters CECHS! Jockey’s Ridge was beautiful and it felt like you were in a desert wasteland. We got back onto the busses and had a little trouble with finding everyone’s belongings. But soon enough, we were on our way to the Wright Brothers Memorial. The speech we sat through first was not very interesting if you were not interested in history or airplanes. After that, we walked up a large hill and saw the memorial, took a group photo, and walked down to the busses. We ate lunch at our choice of fast food restaurants (I chose Wendy’s) and then went to the North Carolina Aquarium. I took a picture with my relatives (the frogs) and looked at all the other water animals. Kindley, Emily, and I got our picture made on green screen and made it into surfing on a turtle and being hugged by a turtle. I helped buy a Think Globally, Act Locally bracelet for Mrs. Allen and bought tiny turtles coming out of their eggs for Emily and Isaac. Then we headed to a museum in Roanoke (something to do with Elizabeth II, I think.) It was interactive and fun. The actors talked to us about weapons and we got to play with some sticks and fake guns. The next ones talked about the boat, Elizabeth II, and we pushed around the wheelie anchor thing and sang a song. We also got to walk through the history part of the museum, where you could dress up, do a scavenger hunt, and touch things. We shopped in the gift shop. Then we got out of there and went back to the hotel for our beach time. We took a group photo in our white shirts and got to play on the beach for about an hour and a half. We went inside after a while and got ready for the dance/pizza party. The party was fun and I danced the line dances (Macarena, Cupid Shuffle, Electric Slide, Cha-Cha Slide). By the end of the party, most of us were ready to leave. It was fun, but I was tired. The party ended with a large group hug and the song Lean On Me. Due to our sleepiness, there was no misbevaving that night. We had zero complaints.
In the morning we finished packing all of our things for the next hotel. We ate breakfast and headed out for Cape Hatteras lighthouse, wearing our lovely matching rainbow tie-dye Peace, Love, & CECHS shirts. On the way, we stopped at Bodie Island lighthouse, the one with the black and white horizontal stripes. We also stopped at the original location of Cape Hatteras lighthouse before proceeding to its current location. We heard a speech about the history of the lighthouse and my group looked in the gift shop until it was our time to climb up all 248 stairs. It was too windy for us to go out onto the balcony, but the view was beautiful from the windows. It was a hard climb up and a confusing climb down. It felt really weird, like you couldn’t stop walking if you tried. After going inside the lighthouse, we got to look in the keepers’ houses, which were kind of like mini-museums. We loaded the busses and rode to the next ferry. It was a 20-30 minute ride to Ocracoke Island, where we ate a sub lunch and walked to the solid white Ocracoke lighthouse. On the way back, we stopped at an ice cream shop and I bought some yummy (but expensive) white lemon gelato. Me and Kindley and some other girls wandered around the island and went into shops. Some people with New York license plates asked me what our shirts meant. I could have lied like Grandpa probably would have and said something ridiculous, but I told them who we were. We were supposed to go to the cemetary where the British soldiers were buried, but Mrs. Doughty hinted that it wasn’t REQUIRED, so when we came out of a store and realized we didn’t have enough time to go there, we went back towards the beach and met up with the rest of our group. There were nasty, stinky big dead fish on the rocks. I think there was also a dead jellyfish. Yuck. Anyhoo, we went BACK on the busses and rode to the NEXT ferry. This time it was a two and a half hour ride to Cedar Island. It was the same as the other ferries, maybe bigger. I saw a dolphin. I was wearing my tiny crown for a while. In the lounge on the boat, we sat in the booths and talked. Erik sat on my lap, which was intended to be irritating. We FINALLY got to the island, only to find out that we had another 45-minute drive ahead of us. We were wet and tired. Some girls got in trouble and were being ridiculous (not in the funny/silly way) and were ticking some of the other girls (including me) off. And to top it all off, it started raining. We ate at Golden Corral and I made an army of gummy bears. We went to another hotel with fake balconies. It was really nice and pretty inside and had soft comforters and a large couch. Kindley left the room and I did bad things with her bra. I have blackmail pictures (kind of). I was very tired and didn’t even have the will to watch Caddyshack after showering. I turned off the TV and went to sleep.
On the final day of the trip, we put all of our belongings on the tour busses and went to do the Carolina Ocean Studies Expedition. Or something. It was drizzling rain and overcast, and I hadn’t eaten barely anything at breakfast (my own fault, I know). We got onto a ferry and rode to Shackleford Banks, where I think we saw the ponies in the distance, but that was the only time. One of the teachers took a picture of me and Will where my eyes are almost shut and the wind is blowing a piece of my hair so that it looks like I have a unibrow. We went onto the island and walked around for a long time. We saw a TON of horse poop and we saw a freshwater pond and a cool crab. We found shells and stuff on the beach and then walked ALL the way back to the other side of the island. I was tired, had to use the bathroom, and felt like passing out because I hadn’t eaten at breakfast. Back on this side of the island, we had to look for ocean creatures. I looked for a few minutes, but was too afraid after a while. They found baby crabs, sea urchins, and a dead jellyfish among other things. The guide explained everything to us and we got back on the boat. I got a snack finally. Erik told me I was dumb or something and I can’t remember why. We got on the busses to go to Fort Macon and ate a KFC boxed lunch in a picnic area outside the fort. Kindley and I threw around a football. We went into the fort and a funny ranger talked to us VERY quickly about the fort’s history because it was about to rain. He showed us how Civil War soldiers loaded and shot a musket (the ranger did it withwith toilet paper instead of a bullet). We explored the fort and its small exhibits and went into the gift shop. Following my friend Ariel’s tradition, I bought a pink bonnet and wore it all the way home. Kindley bought a green one but didn’t wear it. On the way home we stopped for fast food, and I ate at Chick-Fil-A, still wearing my bonnet. I did get some strange glances and thus it was named the psycho bonnet by my friends. We rode the rest of the way home, watching Shrek 2 and stopping at a rest area where I insisted on wearing my bonnet again. We arrived at CECHS around 10 PM and Mom was pleased to see me in my bonnet; she actually thought it was adorable. I got home and ate muffins, which made me happy. I went to bed and did not wake up for a long time.
I had a great time on the Road Trip. It was a great time to bond with my CECHS family and it was truly unforgettable. Thanks to all the CECHS freshmen and teachers that came with us. I had a blast! 
Picture Link:
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/gallery.jsp?gid=768a5498ce7dc0f04da4
