Sights and sounds -- and smells

The Outer Banks offers plenty of sensory experiences -- gently lapping waves, soft sand between your toes, colorful pebbles that work their way into your bathing suit, marshes that smell like an abandoned sewage plant, etc. Before you even get to your destination -- that is, if you are reading an old-fashioned map instead of blindingly trusting your trip and your life to a little GPS voice -- you will notice a large natural feature, affectionately called the Great Dismal Swamp. We made the difficult decision not to tour the Great Dismal Swamp, feeling that the name was probably a ruse, given specifically to pique the curiosity of 8- to 12-year-old boys who otherwise would have no interest in going along on the annual family vacation:

Son: "I don't wanna go to North Caro -- wherever it is! It's boring!"

Desperate parent: "We can stop at the Great Dismal Swamp on the way."

Son: "Cool!"

Daughter: "EWWWWWW! I don't wanna go!"

And then, after the young male has waited excitedly the whole trip -- "We're going to the Great Dismal Swamp! Cool!" -- the family arrives at the swamp, only to find that, instead of something out of a horror movie, the swamp is actually a magical place of dancing Strawberry Shortcakes and other assorted colorful dolls, which makes the young female of the family glad she came on the trip after all.

Although we did not visit the Great Dismal Swamp, we did tour a marsh in the Outer Banks, which turned out to be pretty much the same thing. Amidst admiring the foliage and wildlife (consisting of one nesting osprey, probably placed there specifically for tourists: "Flo, it's your turn to sit in the nest." "No! You do it, Bob. Yesterday they wouldn't stop taking pictures and now I keep seeing all these little yellow spots"), we were intermittently hit with what smelled like a thousand cows all letting loose at the same time. But our guide assured us that this smell, which emanates from whatever grows at the bottom of the marsh, means that the ecosystem is healthy. Unfortunately this healthful aroma seemed to cling to us, following us out of the marsh, and for days afterward we would be chatting amiably and suddenly get a whiff of healthful aroma on our persons, causing a frantic running around in circles in an effort to air out some of this healthfulness.

There are many things you can do to have an even more enjoyable experience in the marsh, including exploring it by kayak and heaping the smelly waters on yourself and your kayaking partner with your paddle, which of course Joe and I did NOT do. More next time.