We visited friends in Duck, North Carolina in mid-September, and one of those days happened to be international talk like a pirate day.  We took off for Roanoke Island in the morning, and 20 minutes later had crossed the bridge onto the eight mile long site of the first English colony in the U.S.  The kids were rammy in the backseat, and after a run at history (the lost colony… which as you'll hear later is very much truth in advertising), we followed the smallest signs ever, past Ye Olde Pharmacy, and the Malte Shoppe (still rolling my eyes as to how extra 'e's can impart so much manufactured history), to the waterfront, and Festival Park. 

Why?  Because there's a pirate ship there.  And a 16th century English encampment with reinactors and dress-up gear, and a lot of interactive activities.  Plus?  Pirates.  Well… a replica of an English colonist's ship, but close enough for our two four-year-olds.  After putting them to work, and showing them how all the bits and parts on the ship moved, captain gave them each their day's pay - a reeces mini-cup… which has a gold wrapper.  That was a hit.

But nothing quite matched the dugout canoe project.  Which is a log, with a bit of the top sawn off, and a couple of shells laid on top.  As in: "get to it kids!"  which they did with gusto, for a satisfyingly long time.  I admire the park for skipping the part of the historical process where you burn out the insides to make scraping the dugout easier.  They must know toddlers pretty well.

The encampment was a huge hit with our young master, who earned himself a handmade nail from the blacksmith (how was that, getting through the airport, I wonder); but the young mistress wanted to make for the museum - where there were any number of opportunities to play dress-up and climb on things.  This was approaching lunch-time, so it went fairly quickly, and collapsed into utter pirate chaos until we were able to apply food and drink, but overall, a very good day trip.  If you're ever in the area and can find your way using the signs.  Seriously?  For the lost colony - the large blue signs you'd expect for the tour-bus trade.  For the waterfront?  Something the size of my daughter's Dora backpack.  Not what you can see easily when you're chucking bags of goldfish towards the backseat to keep from being injured by toddler road-angst.  Arrrrr.