Today was the reenactment of an actual pirate invasion of the town of Beaufort several hundred years ago. Did you know the town of Beaufort, North Carolina is 301 years old? It's older than the United States of America. Just a little trivia for you. For some reason I had this brilliant idea of taking my two oldest grand boys to the reenactment. They are 4 and 6. I thought it would be something fun and that Jerry would enjoy it. So, I packed up some bottled water and a few snacks and off we went; two boys with swords in the back seat and one alzheimer "boy", who doesn't like loud noises, in the front seat. Now you and I both know that little boys are one series of squealing noises after another. Are you getting the picture? Overall, it went pretty well, until we walked into the area where we saw some pirates. Those pirates looked real. In fact, they were real....actors. As soon, as Captain Sweetie said that his wife talked back to him and the bones in the casket were hers....things turned into a slight challenge. Fletcher, the 4 year old, was so scared that he was literally shaking. Shiver me timbers! Trying to laugh, I coaxed them all over to the next group of pirates who had treasures in their chest, but it was still a "no deal" for Fletcher. He wanted to go home!
Doubt and decision filled my mind. Do we go home, or do we stay? The older one wanted to stay. The grumpy old man was quiet but "put out". In order to distract all of them, I saw a cute little tour boat that would tootle us around the harbor, so we hopped on. The little boys liked it, and quizzed the tour guide with "what makes the tide go in and out?" and the like. The Alzheimer boy said, "oh, boy!" then promptly stared at me the entire time. I kept turning him the other way and said, "Look at the wild ponies." He'd turn, look, then turn back.
Determined that this would be a good day, I completely ignored the set of eyes in front of me and tried to get some decent pictures of the harbor. But, by the end of the tour, I was ready to get off. Next, we headed back to a little shop where I promised the boys that they could pick out some pirate attire; one hook, 2 swords, and a telescope. Arrrrrgh! But, by the end of the shopping trip, Fletcher realized that the "invasion" was about to begin and cannons wood start to boom, so he started to get all shaky at the knees again. Jerry was completely confused and repeating, "It's hot." over and over. I didn't know who's hand to hold, but I just sloughed it all off and hoped to appease them both with something cold to drink that I had waiting in the car. As soon as we got to the car....he was buckled in. "I wanna go home." Arrrrrrgh! If we stayed Fletcher would have a heart attack. If we left, Granville would cry.
So I decided to let Jerry decide. "Hey Jerry. Did you know there's a pirate invasion?" I said. Clueless, he said, "There is? Let's stay." Hee! Hee!
As it turned out, we walked on down to the docks where the battle was to begin and I saw an ice cream shop. "Ah-ha! Ice cream." "Boys best friend!" and we watched the battle from the safety of the ice cream shop window."