Trisha was absolutely right. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are absolutely awesome. We only went to one museum while we were in Kitty Hawk in spite of all our big plans, but we went to it twice because it was so good. The problem was that the beaches in the Outer Banks were just too much fun. The water in the ocean was not yet warm, but it was way warmer than anything we ever get on the Oregon beaches. We worked out three of our four days there (I mention that part for Bryan), ate way too much food, talked with our good friends the Larsons, had a birthday for Kelly, went to the bible study on Wednesday evening, and generally just had a super time. We are very happy that Kelly’s friend, Ethne came to be with us from Texas, too. It would not have been the same without her. We have a ton of pictures of which I will try to post a little bit of a montage later this week.
We went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial. I highly recommend it. I learned lots of interesting things while I was there. Probably the most inspirational is that Wilbur and Orville were just a couple of guys working in their garage on a dream. It really reminded me a lot of Grandpa Milo and his friend, Del Weber inventing machines. They were just a couple of self-taught regular guys who stuck with something until they got it to work. Their workmanship was pretty amazing. They had to invent a lot of stuff and find ways to hook stuff together using whatever tools and techniques they could cobble together. I always thought the only flight they made at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903 was the famous first flight of twelve seconds and 120 feet, but the end of the day, they had made a flight that lasted for 59 seconds and traveled 892 feet. They have it all marked off with granite monuments there at the memorial. It all occurred on level ground–it shows where the plan left the ground and where it touched down for each of the flights that occurred that day. We were all inspired enough that when Kelly and Ethne went for Kelly’s birthday manicure, we went back to the museum for a second look.