What's black and blue and red all over?

LEDGER STAFF WRITER TARA JENNINGS AND FRIENDS Me!

If you have seen me this week since I've returned from a family vacation in the Outer Banks, N.C., then you have certainly asked me what happened to my eye. Everyone has!

Unfortunately, when you have a large bruise on your face, the saying "what happens on vacation, stays on vacation" no longer applies. My accident was one of those things that you look back on, in hindsight, and think that you should have been a little more cautious. But vacation is all about letting loose, right?

Well, I let loose on a jet ski and learned that quite possibly you should ease up to (what feels like a very fast) 35 mph as a novice jet ski rider.

Picture it... Thomas and I were riding on the beautiful, but choppy, waters of the Currituck Sound. We were craving some speed, which is a craving that doesn't take long to fulfill on a jet ski, I discovered.

We must have hit a wave and gone airborne, and when we landed back on the water, my cheekbone struck Thomas' head and he hit his chin on the handlebars. Needless to say, we stopped right where we were, and checked out our injuries. My face started swelling immediately, but we finished the ride, and even switched spots so I could take the controls.

This accident happened on the first full day I was in Corolla. That means all the pictures of me, except about one, has a pretty black-and-blue eye. Too bad I didn't plan ahead with matching outfits.

One of the many jokes divvied out by my family about my eye was that I got what I wanted, since I said I wanted to get some color on the trip. Not only did I get a nice tan with a hint of sunburn here and there, but I also got pretty shades of purple, red, black and blue to accentuate my bronzed skin!

A similar experience happened to me about 10 years ago when I needed a passport for a trip to Turkey with a group from Slippery Rock University. A day before I was planning to get my passport photo taken so I would be sure to have it back in time for the spring break trip, I was bitten in the face by a rottweiler. There isn't much of a scar that's noticeable today, but if I ever want to be reminded, or prove the validity of my story, I just have to pull out my passport.

The rest of the trip to Corolla was much safer, except for a first-time experience on a Segway. If you are unfamiliar with a Segway, it is a self-balancing, two-wheeled, stand-up scooter, that moves based on slight adjustments in the operator's balance between his or her toes and heel. The version we were on for our tour of historic Corolla utilized a hand-grip steering device. If you turned it forward, you went left. Turn it back, you go right. Brilliant!

The contraption was very simple to operate after a halfhour class from our tour guide. There were a few mishaps with our tour group, however. One of the ladies in the group, Sue, spun out of control when she mistakenly used the steering device as a brake. Her brother, Ed, also had a balance problem once or twice, but managed to straighten himself up after a brief moment of instability.

I also discovered the fun of stunt kites. And I found out that they are much more expensive than the regular, run-of-themill kites.

Skim boarding, however, is quite the difficult task. I think I managed to skim the water along the beach for a total of about, say, 1.5 seconds at a time.

Family vacation is over, and it seems that it flew by too fast. These are the moments that we will always remember and forever cherish - even if I'm black and blue in all my pictures.

On a side note, I want to wish my brother Gary and his wife Tifani congratulations on the birth of their first child, Ava Rose, this past Saturday. My first niece is a beautiful little girl, if I do say so myself!