Did you know that the Outer Banks has its own Paul Revere? In 1775, Betsy Dowdy of Currituck, North Carolina, rode fifty miles one cold December night to warn patriots of an impending British invasion at Great Bridge (yep, that Great Bridge). Not only was Betsy's ride several times the length of Mr. Revere's but she was only in her teens when she made it!

Anouk recently got a Felicity doll and has been super interested in Revolutionary war culture, so when I saw The Ride I snapped it up thinking at least it would offer some fun historical flavor.  But it is even more than that. I love how The Ride points out that even things that seem small can be of great importance. As Betsy tells herself over and over, all she has to do is ride, but as she stumbles and falls and tackles cold and fear you realize that it isn't so simple after all. The contributions of women -- especially young women -- are missing a lot of the time especailly from Revolutionary history (a fact Anouk laments every time we listen to Hamilton), so it's nice to see Betsy take center stage.

Kitty Griffin's writing is a pleasure to read. As the story picks up the words begin to gallop over the page like Betsy's horse, Bess. The swirling Starry-Night-esque illustrations by Marjorie Priceman give a sense of urgency. Will Betsy make it by morning? Of course she does, and you know she will, but you still breathe a sigh of relief when she finally arrives.



No one really knows whether or not Betsy's ride happened like it does in the book or who Betsy herself really was, but her story is no less inspiring for lack of detail! To read more about Betsy Dowdy and what her ride might have been like, click here. And to buy a copy of The Ride, click here.  The Kindle version is only $2.99 and the audio version is even less!

We've been on vacation for the past week! We go to the Outer Banks of North Carolina every year so you would think that we've seen everything there is to see there. But we're still making discoveries of new and cool places to visit! Flippers Arcade is one of those places. It's not in the Outer Banks but on the way, in Grandy, which is the perfect place for a pit stop on the way home to keep the fun going.

Flippers isn't huge but it is packed with arcade games. There are traditional skee ball and air hockey and a few racing games but the real highlight are the dozens of pinball machines that line the back and side walls. There are over 60 machines in all, and seeing all of them was almost as fun as playing them. There was a Metallica pinball machine, South Park, Flintstones, and Game of Thrones, among others. In the way back of the store are some vintage arcade games, including Asteroids, Cetepede,  Pac-Man and Tron.






My only complaint was that the tokens work out to be a little pricey, since almost every game requires two (to four) to play. And not many machines give tickets so the kids were a little upset when it came time to trade them in, there weren't many options for low ticket counts. Luckily there's pizza and soda and ice cream and candy available for purchase which you can distract them with.

Every time we go to the Outer Banks we come home with a new favorite place to find eatable treats and for this past trip we took in June, the highlight was Zen Pops in Kitty Hawk. I have a milk allergy that makes it difficult to find a place where we can all enjoy (quality) frozen treats together (nobody wants the sad token sorbet. nobody). Luckily, the majority of Zen Pops' menu is dairy free and there are tons of vegan options, so there is something there for everyone. Hooray!

Oh, there's so much to love about this place and I am not just talking the salted caramel pops (my fave) or the coconut lime pzletas (Anouk's) or the made-right-there-in-the-back vegan ice cream cookie (James's). Zen Pops uses organic ingredients (including cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup) and oh, speaking of sugar, all of their recipes feature just 3-5 grams of sugar per serving, so you don't have to worry about the kids bouncing off the walls. All of the packaging is eco-friendly, and even the popsicle sticks are cleaned and recycled and donated to the nearby kids' museum to be used in crafts. Whew!

So yes: we ♥ Zen Pops, forever and ever, and can't wait to visit them again. If you're heading to OBX, stop by!

We visited the Wright Brothers National Memorial on our vacation a few weeks ago -- nobody in our group had ever been, and I had just days before listened to David McCullough talk about his new Wright Brothers book on NPR, so I was really excited to go. Most people associate the Wrights with Dayton, Ohio, were they were born and began their work, but the actual first flight that put them on the map happened in the Outer Banks in 1903 -- right where the memorial and museum are located now, in fact.

It was about a hundred degrees (literally) but that didn't stop the kids from zooming around on Wilbur and Orville's original flight path pretending to be airplanes (with the help of a glider from the gift shop Anne got to try a little flight of her own). When it got too hot for that, we went back inside to look at all of the portraits lining the walls of the main room, of important figures in aeronautics history (so cool).

But by far the best part was the talk the park guide gave, on the Wright Brothers, their lives, their work, and the history of the Outer Banks and what it was like when they worked there. It was about a half hour long, all together, and our speaker was so knowledgeable and passionate about the topic that his words made me tear up. There is something about the "death of impossibility" that the Wright Brothers made come about that is inspiring even all these years later. It was also pretty shocking to put it all together and realize that only 66 years after that first 12-second flight man walked on the moon. Crazy!

Anyway, that was MY favorite part of the visit, the four and one year olds we brought were not so into it and got tired pretty quickly. But for older kids, especially aviation buffs, this is an OBX must-see.

In honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day today, here are some photos from our trip to the Frisco Native American Museum during our Outer Banks vacation back in September. As I mentioned when I originally wrote about it, we had the bad luck of some rain during our stay, which took away some of our beach time. But on the other hand (positivity!), it motivated us to explore some of the places around we otherwise wouldn't have.

The Frisco Native American Museum is one of those places. So jam-packed with artifacts and crafts, it can be a little overwhelming if you don't stop and take a moment to clear your head. Every inch of the space is covered with something beautiful and historic: quilts and carvings, native clothing and headdresses, drums and flutes and coins and !!! Things galore.

But it's definitely interesting. We must have gone around the place four times trying to take everything in, including the gift shop (which includes some wonderful examples of native art and jewelry!) and the kind of random but cool thrift store attached onto the back. Then, as the sun came out, we walked the boardwalk trail outside of the museum building, stopping to look at examples of shelters and dugout canoes. (It was sort of cool in itself to be outside in OBX at a place that wasn't the beach, if you know what I mean?)


One final random/cool aside about the trip:
we got to bang on a traditional wishing drum before we left! It was hilarious to watch everybody screw up their faces and decide what to wish for. Anouk wished for a dog, but it's OK that I tell you, because that one's definitely not coming true anyway.