As Seen On TV

A few weeks ago, I was watching J & K + 8 while I was on the elliptical machine. The episode showed the family vacationing at the Outer Banks. They went on a cool off road adventure to see wild horses. They put their little kids in their carseats in the Land Cruisers. I realized that we could do the same with our little kids so I hit rewind on the TiVo so I could see the name of the company. I googled the company in Corolla and we made our plans.

Since we had the kids with us we couldn't take the open top Land Cruiser. We took this one. I have always liked the Land Cruisers and it was fun to ride in an older one (1989 model). The guide drove a slightly newer model and he had five passengers with him. It is a little cheaper to ride with the guide but of course Chris wanted to drive off-road. I also wanted him to drive; maybe next time I will drive.

We drove up the road a mile or two and then got on the beach when the road ended. Four years ago we rode on the beach with one of Chris' coworkers in his 4 X 4 pickup. Before we got on the beach, Jody let some of the air out of all of his tires so the tires would widen out instead of sink in the sand. A lot of people miss this step the first time they drive on the beach.

Our Land Cruiser already had low tire pressure so we were good to go. Driving on the beach right at the waters edge was an amazing experience in itself. It was such a beautiful day.

We stopped for this photo op. Had the kids been looking at the camera and not rubbing their faces, this might have been our Christmas card photo.
Before looking for the wild horses we had fun going over sand dunes. The guide told Chris that he had to "floor it" to get up the dunes. Well, it is probably a good thing I wasn't driving because I would have been overjoyed to follow his directions. Chris didn't "floor it" the first time and we had to back down the dune because we didn't make it up. The second time, he followed directions and we made it to the top.
This was the view at the top. Most of these houses in this area are rentals but you have to have four wheel drive (and low tire pressure). They have electricity and cable, well water and septic tanks. No roads can be built in the wild horse sanctuary.
After this photo op, we spent some time on the "roller coaster" - up the dune, down the dune, up another dune and back down while doing a figure eight. The kids laughed and laughed in the backseat in their carseats.

The guide told Chris he could go as fast as wanted. Again, it is probably a good thing I wasn't driving. Chris let off the gas at times when I wouldn't have which may have caused problems or maybe not. I might post some video of this later in the week. It made the whole "adventure" worth the cost for Chris.

We also went through this rather high water. That is our guide in front of us.

We saw a total of twenty-six wild horses. Some were in people's yards or under their houses.

When we stopped to look at these horses Lydia said "happy, happy" several times! This little foal was five weeks old. Isn't she beautiful?
The horses weren't afraid of us and often stared at us as we stared at them. They know that the humans can't mess with them.

It was time to leave so we went back out on the beach to drive to the road. It was such a beautiful day and so much fun driving (or in my case, riding) on the beach that it would have been enough just to be on the beach, but we were blessed to see four horses on the beach!

We stopped to take pictures of them and just watch them. We left our kids in the car (as we stood beside of it) because I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep them out of the water.

The little kid who owned these buckets got scared and ran over to his parents. These two horses look like they rolled in the sand, don't they?
I love this photo. The fisherman was obviously not there to see the horses.
If I had an SLR camera I could show you photos of the horses swimming in the ocean! They walked past us and we just watched them. When they got a little ways down the beach, they went for a quick swim. It was so cool to see that.

This was one of the best "exercusions" we have done while vacationing. We were very happy with the whole experience. I loved everything about it - especially that we got to share an "adventure" with our little kids who also loved it.

After returning our Land Cruiser we went to a local seafood restaurant based on a recommendation and had a good lunch. The kids loved the popcorn shrimp.

When we got back to the beach house, we spent a little bit of time on the beach while Lydia begged, "Night Night! Nap!" I am not kidding. She had fallen asleep for about 15 minutes or so on the tour and she didn't nap on the almost hour drive from Corolla to Kill Devil Hills like Wesley did. I wanted to go play on the beach so I took her with us even though she really wanted a nap. (We finally had great beach weather.) She liked playing in the sand and at the edge of the water but she did lie down a few times on the beach towells. She was so happy to go to bed at 7:00 that night.