2017 – Corolla, NC

• Daily dose of Duck Donuts

• Flamingo and Killer Whale inflatables keep us company in the water

• Trips to visit Lost Colony (historical) and Monster Truck exhibit (not so historical)

• Chasing Ghost Crabs during long after-dinner walks down the beach

• Geneva STILL planning her wedding – second Schneiderfest in a row

  

2004 – Duck, NC

This is the first time we returned to the same house

• On the way down, Mark and Mary coincidentally stay at the same motel in Salisbury, MD – only realizing this when they bump into each other at breakfast.  Mary enjoys her stay at the hotel so much she leaves her purse there to ensure a stop there again on the way home

• Wes returns after taking a couple years off

• Joe attends the early part of the week but has to return early

• Dad celebrates ANOTHER birthday on vacation – 79th this year

• The family, including mom and dad, rents ATV’s and drives them in the pouring rain up the beach for several hours.  Mary, Anna, and Loraine congratulate themselves on a good decision not to go

• Almost everyone uses the tennis courts across the street

• Playing Balderdash – and Dad WANTS to play with us one night

• Evenings the 8 and under kids play baseball.   Maria chews out Christina for a poor play.  When confronted with her behavior, Maria explains that it was justified since these are “vacation games”

• On Friday, we watch Joe on a morning business program, Squawk Box

2003 – Duck, NC

• The house we were supposed to rent is still under construction, so Frank finds this house less than 2 months from the time we are planning our vacation.  It has a pool, hot tub, 2 dishwashers, an ice make, and an elevator.  It is across the street from tennis courts and an indoor pool.

• We miss Joe this time as he is starting his job at Bank of America

• This is the first vacation without Brian

• Dad celebrates his 78th birthday

• Is there a place for dad to get oysters?

• On the 4th of July, we watch fireworks from the decks

• Went fishing in the rain … golfing in the rain … ATV in the …. Nope that was cancelled

2002 – Corolla, NC

• Frank sets us up with an Outer Banks encore, we are further North on the island – between Duck and Corolla

• A pool at the house with a short walk to the beach.  Doesn’t every vacation home have a pool with it?   I don’t remember

• What do you mean you need to get to the bridge before noon on Saturday?  What traffic?

• We celebrate Ben’s 3rd birthday

• After playing tennis Brian tells Mark about some girl named Kim

• Day trips to the Wright Brother’s Memorial, the Corolla Light house and the Lost Colony ship and museum in Manteo

• Mark went sea kayaking with Geneva in among the reeds and islands south of Kitty Hawk.   His strongest memory of this is an admonition not to slap the sea snakes with your paddle.   They tend to wrap around the blade, then when you raise your paddle again, … slide down the shaft into the tight confines of the kayak.    He hasn’t slapped a sea snake since.

• The Weeping Radish

2000 – Nags Head, NC

• Frank finds this oceanfront house in Nags Head.   The house has its own in-ground pool.

• Karen checks Dad out of the hospital from his mini-stroke and then drives mom and dad down to the Outer Banks in pouring rain with the window open.   When they finally arrive, it is dark, and Karen can’t find the house.  Via cell phone, Joe tells her to look for the “blinking porch light” Karen couldn’t see any blinking lights.   Finally, Frank runs to the end of the driveway to guide them in.

• Ben attends his first family vacation

• Day trip to the Wright Brother Memorial

• We go fishing and don’t catch anything.   Dad donates a piece of treasure (grandpa Kilbert’s ring) to the ocean blue during our fishing trip - just like in “Titanic”

1998 – Wrightsville Beach, NC

• Mark picks Wrightsville Beach, NC as our destination because Loraine likes to spend lots of time in the car

• The house is gorgeous and right on the ocean

• Day trip to Wilmington to visit the battleship North Carolina

• Special family moment sitting in the TV room together while Clinton explains exactly what it was he did with “that woman”

• The Quinlans leave a little early as they head directly to South Bend to drop off PJ for his first semester at Notre Dame

• We blew out just as a hurricane was blowing in