Chop Chop Billy Goat

We spent a week at Ocracoke Island, in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, and by the end of our time there, we were saying it was one of our favorite places on the whole trip. To get there, we took a long ferry ride from the mainland. We stayed in a campground close to the ocean, and our site had a path that went through a cut in the dunes and right onto the huge beach. I spent a lot of time jumping off the dune cliffs and rolling down the dunes.

A few times we left the campground to explore attractions near the small town of 900 people. Once, we went to see the wild horses that roam in a huge fenced in area where they are safe but they can wander. Another day, we got fudge. It was delicious!

Also, we hiked down to the beach where Blackbeard was beheaded. On the trail there, I spent some time climbing a tree with some other kids. At the beach, we spent the morning chilling in the sand before hiking back.

One night, there was a huge storm, and the next morning the beach was covered with cool things. Ma and I went for a walk and found lots of trash, coconuts, wood, pieces of bamboo, and other stuff, all covered with gooseneck clams. We also saw Portuguese Man of War, (NOT happy about that) sea beans, cool shells, and also some stranger things. We even found a rubber ducky!

We all loved Hunting Island State Park, South Carolina. The beach was big, and the days were sunny and warm, so we spent most of our time at the beach. I spent a lot of time playing with some kids I met. One day, some kids and I swam all the way out to a sandbar. It was fun! I also dug some big holes, and I flew my kite a few times.

One day, it was a bit cold and grey, so we went to the Kazoobie Kazoo factory in town, where kazoos are assembled (the parts are made in Florida). First, we looked around the tiny museum about kazoos. Did you know that kazoos were first called “down south submarines?” After that, we got to listen to kazoos and other kazoo like instruments. They were cool! Then, we got to go to the factory part, where the three employees put the kazoos together by hand. The only part done by machines was the weighing. Wow! After that came the best part: making our own kazoo. Now, we are all having fun playing our kazoos.

After leaving our friends, we needed a place to stay for a few days before our reservations at Hunting Island, South Carolina started. At first, Mistletoe, in Georgia,  was just a place to pass some time, but we ended up loving it. We got an awesome spot right on the lake, and there were lots of kids near us. One night, me and the kids went off playing a boys versus girls game. The boys would try to get onto a little spit of land, and we would catch them and try to keep them in our jail at the end of the spit. It was so much fun!

Another night Pa and I went on a ranger led night hike. I spent most of my time talking with my friends, who had also come on the night hike. In fact, I didn’t see Pa until the end of the hike!

When I was playing on the spit of land, I discovered that most of the dirt there was red clay. I made a bunch of bowls and pots from it, and when we had a fire, I dried the bowls. I ended up with some cool ones!

We spent a few days on the property of our friends that we met in the Everglades. We all had a great time. We spent both days in their small house up in the mountains. The RV was parked down the slope a bit, so every day we climbed up their steep driveway. Everyday, there was good food and fun. I had a lot of fun playing with their dog Roxy. On the day we left, we went to Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia. The view from up top was amazing.

We spent most of our week in Atlanta with Aunt Nancy, Uncle Mac, and my cousins. We all had a great time together talking and playing games. Little Kid loved our cousins Daniel and Andrew, and Daniel and Andrew were happy to play with him. We all spent a lot of time in the basement playing foosball and other things.

On Friday, we celebrated Passover by having a Seder at their house. A Seder is a service and meal on the first night of Passover. The food was awesome, and the dessert was even better. We had macaroons, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and chocolate covered matzah. Yum!

We spent our last day in Atlanta downtown by ourselves. In the morning, we went to The Center For Civil and Human Rights, a museum about the Civil Rights Movement and other human rights. We learned about the 1963 March on Washington and other protests against segregation. Afterwards, we had a picnic lunch and went to Emory, where Ma had gone to college. Ma was very surprised to see how much the campus had changed. Tons of new buildings had been added, and Ma’s dorm room had been torn down. We walked around campus a bit, and we explored Lulllwater Park, which Ma used to go to when she was in college. The park was beautiful.

The next day, we went to North Georgia.