The Outer Banks in March

Not quite 3 weeks ago we headed to my parents' house for a few days. We hadn't visited them in a while, and it was just after my mom's birthday so the timing was perfect! We spent all day Friday with my mom while my dad was at work, and then had Saturday as a family day. We headed down to the North Carolina Aquarium in the morning, arriving just as it opened. We've taken the kids there previously, and it's always a lot of fun!

 After walking around inside for a bit, we headed over to the shark tank for the Q&A show. The volunteer inside relays questions from the kids to the diver inside the tank.

 Who then writes back on a magnetic board. Meanwhile, her partner keeps the other sharks at bay!

 Natalie asked the question of why sharks have such sharp teeth. Here was her answer! If you can't read it, the answer is "To help eat. They tear food like a knife."

 

 I was taking a photo of Natalie in front of the tank after the show, and the second diver photobombed!

 Henry enjoyed pointing out the big sharks.

 After seeing the whole aquarium (click here if you want to see a few other animal shots that I grabbed), we went out to the pier you can see in the photo below. However, it was ridiculously windy out there, and the kids were very cold, so we quickly headed back. I did convince my parents to get in this photo with Natalie (Henry refused to join). Love getting these family photos!

 We then headed into downtown Manteo (the nearby town) to have lunch on the water and walk around a bit. There are a number of cute local shops there. I stumbled across this carved bench; remind you of anyone? (hint, look at the photo above!)

 Then it was time to stop by the beach! The weather was absolutely perfect: warm enough to go barefoot, and not too windy. The kids had a blast! We walked up and down the beach for a while, collecting shells and seeing what we could find. One of our finds was this guy:

A relatively good-sized blue crab who was eaten by a couple of sea gulls. You can't see it in this photo, but this crab didn't really have any insides left. The kids were fascinated, and willing to get up close to check out the crab.

I was very excited to grab some great candid shots of the kids as they ran around the beach.

We then headed home on Sunday, trying to beat the snow that was forecasted to start in Virginia. Unfortunately, due to traffic, we didn't make it - we got caught in snow for the last hour or so of our 8 hour drive home. It was crazy that on Saturday we were barefoot on the beach, and on Monday we had 8" of snow on the ground!

Also, if you're interested, I posted separately the sunset photos that I took during this visit. It was beautifully cold, crisp, and clear!