Day 2

Elijah is the first to wake up, he informs us that breakfast closes by 9am, and it was a little after 8.  At this point I am pretty stiff from all the driving, so I see if I can take time to hit the workout room for a bit. I am hoping to get the blood flowing before breakfast, then get a shower, before we begin our day.

This mostly works out, but I guess it was too much stress for the wife, as I hear about it for a while, which begins to irritate me, before I know it, its a full blown fight..

Whoever said vacations are supposed be relaxing should be drug out into the street and shot..

I take some time to cool off in the lobby.  Soon enough I come back up and we all say our sorrys, and move on.

Our main stop for the day is the NC Discovery Place. We have been here a few times, but it is fun for the kids and free. Well mostly. Admission was free but between parking and lunch there, we drop a quick Franklin.  Oh well..

There aren't a lot of people there. One bus load of kids who leave by 1 pm, so after that we have our pick of the litter.

First we hit the small rain forest room.  We take turns playing ninja warrior on the rope bridge. I almost make it across hanging from the top section.

Then we move into a section dealing with building stuff.  First was a chance to see and be your own architect out of small wood blocks. Some of the "professional" designs are pretty coo.

Then we move onto the learning to build an emergency hut. Where you just happen to have a perfect array of prefab sticks and flexible lattice. 

Then into a section dealing with forces.  First the kids take turns running on a air chair.

 Then the girls and I try to beat the boy by pulling on the much lower leverage side of a pendulum. We gave it a valiant effort, but he beat us in less then a min, with ease.

 Stella enjoyed playing with the chain on a bike loop. The object was to just slightly touch the chain and get it to create new and cool waves, but she just liked jumping through it instead.

 

 We play with the air tube for a bit.

 Then try our hands on the pulley seats.

 Ellijah and I try out the bed of nails. I have to say it actually hut me a bit. I think I was a bit too heavy. I could fee the nails pressing, almost piercing my shoulder blades.

Then we try out the petting aquarium We have to keep a tight leash on Molly as she wants to do more then just single finger pet them. Especially the sea spider...

 We take some time to look at some of the other fish. and jellies, always my favorite.

 Bye bears see you again sometime.

Finally we hit the 3d movies. There were 2 short films. One was an animated short about 3 flies hitching a ride on Apollo to the moon. It was fun and  not bad. The other was about an island where hundred of thousands of penguins live and bread. It was a good educational show. I think the girls enjoyed it as well. We all kept trying to reach out and grasp the stuff coming at us.

We decide it is time to get going, so we make out way to the exit and back to the car. We were able to avoid the gift shop, so no tears.

We get back to the hotel and decide to try out the pool.  Its a pretty small pool quickly moving from 3 feet to 5 feet. The girls just enjoy getting on my back and swimming, or floating along with me or mommy on the supplied noodles. The boys has his goggles so he is having fun swimming along looking under the water.
 
It is getting past 5pm so we need to find something to eat. I check out the dwindling supply of gyft cards, and find there is a TGI Fridays' pretty close. We get cleaned up and head on out. It's always a good eat there, although I did work up quite an appetite, I may have over-done it.

It is pretty cool and the sun is setting, after we are done, so  I suggest we take a short walk. It is a nice little plaza with many small shops and some big ones too.  We enjoy the scenery and atmosphere. I personally am a bit surprised how many very high priced vehicles I see.

Stella likes trying to step on the squares that make up the sidewalk, by getting her little feet perfectly in them and not stepping on the cracks. This can be a bit of a pain if you are in hurry, but for now I just watch and let her have her time.

Finally I spot the real reason for my impromptu walk. ICE CREAM! We hit frozen yogurt bar, get a few toppings and enjoy a nice treat outside. Mostly all went without incident. I think little goose's shirt did have 4 or 5 different spots, from all the meals of day. But oh well.

It is getting late and the sun is setting. so we make it back to the car and book it back to the hotel.

This guy greats us on the way into our room.

We get into PJs and try to figure out where to sleep. We try the girls in the same bed again. And I guess I am insane as I keep doing the same thing repeatedly and looking for different results. Well we don't get them.

So I take the bed next to the air condition are with Molly. As Kris said it gave her an ear ache, but without it, the room gets uncomfortably hot quick.

The day started out rough, but ended on a much better note. Overall it was pretty good, deep into the night is a story for another day thought.

We leave NC and head to SeaBrook tomorrow.

The sky is dark the moon is deep we rock and rock ourselves to sleep.