Bald Head Island - Summer 2009

We arrived on this tiny island off the coast of North Carolina around 7:15pm local time on the 20th of June. It was planes, trains and automobiles to get there. Actually, it was planes, shuttles, ferries and golf carts but you get the idea. At least Kristen and Bill were thoughtful enough to pick us up with vodka tonics and juice boxes in hand and somehow we got 8 people and luggage for four onto two golf carts. The trip got off to a shaky start when the lagging golf cart carrying Jim, Bill, Ryan and Parker ran out of power and the passengers were picked up by the local police car. The presiding cop was on our ferry on the way over from the mainland and I suspect this was the most exciting thing to happen to her in awhile. Kristen and I turned around, found Bill and the broken vehicle, grabbed hold of the side of the golf cart and literally dragged them home for the last mile or so. Thank God for those vodka tonics. No harm, no foul. Vacation had started.

The rental home was beautiful, complete with three balconies, ocean views, hammocks, a month's worth of wine (not all great according to Jim's refined tastes) and a front row view of the 15th green with two ponds.

"Love the view of the golf course and the water. It'll be fun to watch the golfers," I mentioned casually as I took in my surroundings.

"Oh yea," Kristen exclaimed, "and apparently this pond here has the most alligators on the island."

I chuckled, assuming she was kidding. But she wasn't. Alligators? In our backyard? They eat little kids, right?

"I know, I was freaked at first too but I'm told they never come out of the water," she tried to appease me.

"Have you seen them?" I asked, watching the water closely.

"Not yet, but Bill has." Great. Another vodka tonic, please.

Some of Kristen and Bill's friends came over that first night to share a bottle of wine with us and assure us that the alligator's aren't a real threat unless you are little and slow. Kind of like our children. Bill tried to downplay it all and even went fishing in the pond the next morning to prove his point. Of course the alligator bait, i.e. our children, were thrilled by the prospect of fishing and maybe seeing alligators so they went with him. Kristen and I started drinking again. Not really but we considered it. Short story long, we saw the alligator in that pond once and a different one in a different pond several times but s/he/it never emerged from the murky water.

The real treat, however, was when Kristen saw a kangaroo. The rest of us who were with Kristen at the time saw nothing. After some golf cart off-roading to explore the woods, we were able to convince her (sort of) that maybe it was a deer since we weren't in Australia, but there's still a large question mark as to whether she saw anything (she lost some credibility when the day before she yelled to me to slow down because of the turtle crossing the road but it turned out to be an empty Doritos bag).

Our first morning on the island was Father's Day 2009. A trip to the beach club on the south shore for some swimming, lunch and a little R&R was the plan. Other than for the golf cart losing power again and Jim having to push it and three of us up a modest hill, we made it there uneventfully. It was a beautiful spot with shingled buildings, pelicans flying, families coming and going (more coming than going), biting flies and large hornets. Who could ask for more? The kids showed off their swimming prowess ranging from Parker and Ryan who could swim pretty easily without help to Sammie who's go-to move was to put her face in the water (but not her eyes) to Colby who was sure she could hang with the big girls. Half the time she was right! Mimi and Papa showed off their grandparenting prowess by supervising, along with Jim and Bill, while Kristen and I showed off our, well nothing. We supervised the supervising and did a damn good job of it.

Early evening on the beach is one of the best times of the day anywhere in the world and it holds true on Bald Head Island. A few nights we made our way over to one of the beach accesses (wooden plank steps and bridges through the sea grass and over the dunes down to the sand) for cocktails, appetisers, shell finding and pelican watching. We were washed out a bit early one night by the incoming tide bringing in the flotsam and jetsam which intrigued the kids, including Mimi (in case you don't know, Mimi and Papa are Kristen's parents, Parker and Colby's grandparents and my children's surrogate grandparents). After a somewhat expedited departure, we headed home for a bar-be-que. Since it was Father's Day, we let Jim do the grilling - great flank steak.

Later in the week, the Harvey crew beat the Freeman crew in the first ever annual Ladder Ball competition. Parker Harvey carried her team while Sammie Freeman carried the balls. Bill was in charge of making the pre-game margaritas and I'm sticking by the theory that he over tequila'd mine resulting in poor ladder ball play. We took out our revenge on the Harvey's by beating them in a windy match of tennis, something with which we have a lot of practice since we live in the high desert...ha, ha, ha.

On the second to last day we made our way over to Old Baldy (no, not Jim, but the guy did get a lot of teasing about this). It is actually the lighthouse on the island, in front of which Kristen and Bill got married back in 2001. It doesn't operate anymore but you can climb the 175 or so steps to the top and get a spectacular view of the island and some of the neighboring ones as well. The girls all made it up the winding steps - the younger two in the arms of various parents - and oohhed and ahhed over the views. Well, maybe not, but the adults did. It was beautiful and worth the climb, plus the kids got stickers reading "I Support Old Baldy" that they immediately pulled off their new halter top dresses in fear that the glamour look they were going for was spoiled by the plain round sticker. What happens when they're 15??

Parker and Ryan drove us home on the golf carts, aided by our whispered screams of "watch out for that biker!" or "stay straight, stay straight, out of the sand!" Sammie and Colby yelled back and forth between the golf carts "hi Coh-bee" "hi Sammie" "hi Coh-bee" "hi Sammie" over and over again as they waved and laughed. We all kept our eyes peeled for Kristen's kangaroo. Alas, we never saw it, but we did see sunsets and moon rises over the ocean which is almost as good.

Mimi and Papa left on Monday night and Bill left Tuesday night while the rest of us stayed until Wednesday. We couldn't bear to all leave at once so we stretched it out and made a pact to meet up in Raleigh on Wednesday. Papa claims to have had work to do back in L.A. so we didn't see him again and Bill apparently stole some of Mimi's undergarments and Jim's shoes and socks, the latter of which were recovered when we got to Raleigh. The Mysterious Mr. Harvey at work - I think he thought if Jim didn't have socks, Bill could beat him on the clay courts of North Hills Tennis Club, a plan that almost worked except they got kicked off before the third set was complete.

On our last night there Mimi eagerly volunteered to babysit the kids so we could go out for dinner. Actually, the conversation went something like this:

Kristen: mom, will you watch the kids so we can go out to dinner with Erin and Jim?

Mimi: All four of them?

Kristen: Um, yeah...

Mimi: Do I have to put them to bed?

Kristen: Kind of...

Mimi: Are you sure?

Kristen: You'll be fine. Come on guys! Let's go.

It worked out well, at least for the four of us at dinner, and we even got home in time for the pajama clad girls to show us how they collected fire flies. Sammie's method was extra special.

"Wook mom, we can catch fiah fwies. Wike dis!" She snuck up on one and then CLAP. As she opened her hands she smiled and proudly showed off her fire fly, one wing was still moving ever so slightly as she dropped it in jar. What says vacation more than half dead fireflies and smiling children in their pajamas.