Our first stop was in Nags Head at Kitty Hawk Kites. This is a great store for kites, toys, and souvenir clothes. We played and browsed for about an hour then bought a kite and clothes. Just up the road from the store is Jockey's Ridge State Park, 385 acres of sand and the highest dunes on the east coast (110 feet high). There is an estimated 6 million dump truck loads of sand in the park. It's a great place for climbing, running, kiting, and hang gliding. On Sunday evening, Curt had made reservations for hang gliding lessons. While he was taking his class, Eric and Missy climbed and flew kites. Curt made six "flights." The class is only scheduled to consist of five but since Curt was the best student there (he was the only one) he got a bonus flight. Curt's glides were low (less than 10 feet off the ground) and carefully monitored with the instructor running alongside holding a wire of the hang glider. As fun as it was, concentrating on how to glide distracted from the feeling of flying. The instructor said it usually takes at least three lessons before proper technique is an unconscious act. After his flights, Curt and his instructor carried the glider up the highest dune (not an easy task in 15 m.p.h. wind) so the instructor could take a joyride.

We stayed at Jockey's Ridge State Park awhile longer, flying and climbing and people watching. There were two or three class field trips made to the park so for a time the large dune was awash with small bodies climbing up it and rolling, running and falling down it.

Famished with help from the wind and sand, we stopped at a Taco Bell's for lunch (one of only three "restaurant" meals we had during our stay) and bought a filter and cap for the (used) lens we had recently bought for our camera. We drove back to Manteo to shop at a cool toy store we saw there (we bought some pirate swords) before bouncing back to Nags Head where Eric and Curt played a dinosaur putt-putt course (three aces apiece) while Missy browsed some stores.
 

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