The funniest story of vacation to NC 2014

We took a trip to Shackleford Banks in North Carolina.  This is an uninhabited island that has wild horses on it.  The legend says that a ship back in the 1600s was transporting horses and crashed.  The horses swam ashore and have been able to live and flourish on the island.  They are one of the last remaining populations of wild horses.  Tourists are allowed to visit the island by taking a 15 minute ferry ride.  I mean look at the boat landing:

We took sack lunches with us for a day out with Chris’ younger sister, Lee.  After scavenging the beach for beautiful shells, we decided to wander the island to find some horses.

As we cut across the island from the ocean side to the sound side, I handed the camera to Chris because I was getting tired of holding everything.  There aren’t really any paths across the island, just a lot of underbrush.  Charlotte and Cooper decided to stick with me, while Chris and Lee went a slightly different direction behind a bank of trees.

We came out of the clearing of trees and chose a ‘path’ to take and Cooper says, “Mommy we can’t go this way, there are bugs.”  Although I noticed the unusual holes in the ground, I told him not to worry because we are too close to the ocean for there to be bugs.  We entered another small clearing and then I look down another ‘path’ and see hundreds of tiny crabs.  The panic begins to rise in my throat because CRABS.  oh.my.god.they.look.like.spiders.  HUNDREDS of them. 

I’m practically not wearing shoes because FLIP-FLOPS WON’T STOP THEM FROM PINCHING MY TOES!!!!  I DON’T CARE IF THEY HAVE TINY PINCHERS.

I grab the kids’ hands and start walking down what I deem to be a clear ‘path’ and then all of a sudden the crabs start coming out of the holes and going right back in.  We all scream and run (me with HIGH KNEES BECAUSE THAT KEEPS MY FEET AWAY FROM THE GROUND) down the path and right into the safety of a huge clearing.  Or so I think, until I notice MORE CRABS.  THOUSANDS.OF.CRABS!!! 

(Chris says he heard us scream just as he noticed the crabs and thought, ‘Oh yep, they found the crabs.’)

I just want to run in circles to get away from the crabs.  Where is the ground that HAS NO HOLES??!?!  The three of us are screaming and then Charlotte is suddenly attached to my leg (to hear Chris tell it, Charlotte jumped vertical and then mid-air, moved horizontal and ended up on my leg) and Cooper is gripping my hand and walking on his tippy toes crying and panicking.  I am trying to run/drag my kids toward Chris and Lee who are doubled over laughing at the sight of us poor land-locked folks caught unaware by teeny little crabs.  (Do you see that entire clearing in this photo…that ground was covered in these crabs.)

I am trying my very best to be the adult, but THERE ARE MORE CRABS THAN THERE ARE OF US AND I DON’T CARE HOW SMALL THEY ARE.  I can only laugh because this whole situation is comical.  I know logically I am huge compared the crabs and they are more afraid of me than I am of them, but I am seriously contemplating leaving my children to fend for themselves.  I CAN RUN FASTER IF I DON’T HAVE MY KIDS WITH ME.  I give up my spot as a contender of parent of the year.  Don’t care.

I suddenly realize that we are probably walking the wrong direction because now Chris is taking pictures of the ground.  I turn around and it dawns on me that the crabs like the wet sand and there are dry sand dunes behind us.  I tell the kids we need to run to the sand dunes, but Charlotte refuses to put her feet on the ground. 

Lest the crabs begin overtaking us all because we are standing too long in one spot and OH.MY.GOD.WHY.ARE.THERE.THOUSANDS.OF.CRABS.THAT.LOOK.LIKE.SPIDERS.AND.WE.ARE.STANDING.IN.THE.MIDDLE?? I quickly pick Charlotte up and Cooper asks if I can carry him too. I know I will run too slow holding 90 lbs of kids, so I tell him if we run at lightning speed the crabs can’t get us.  We all book it to the sand dunes and Chris and Lee come over shortly thereafter and are laughing at us.  Poor Charlotte and Cooper are hysterical.

So now we are on the sound side, but we don’t have time before out boat comes back to walk all the way around the island to stay out of the wet sand.  We follow the sand dunes as far as we can and when we have to cross wet sand I make Chris and Lee go first to scare the crabs down in their holes and me and the kids run across the wet sand.  When we got back to the ocean side, I’ve never felt so relieved.

We didn’t see any horses, but we did have a great hike and a great laugh.