In the Field: Elliott Sadler

I'm in the middle of a Fourth of July family outing to Nags Head, N.C.

We've tried for a number of years to get our whole family together and go to Nags Head for July 4, so my mom and dad, my sister and my brother, his wife, three girls and I are all there.

We always try to go there for a couple or three days. It doesn't always work, but we spend so much time away from each other -- with me racing and now with Hermie doing his media work -- that that was always my mom's one wish: that we always would get together and spend a week somewhere.

It always happens to be Nags Head, when we are able to get together and do it. And I was really looking forward to it.

We all pile into one house there. You've got to understand -- we've been going to Nags Head on vacation forever. My family's been going there since way before I was born and I've been going there since I was a kid -- what seems like forever.

We've lived in three different houses since I've been there. The one we live in now is 10 years old and it's big enough that we all can stay in the same place. But it's kind of cozy, too.

It's pretty neat that we can all get up in the morning and eat breakfast together and hang out by the pool and all. It's pretty special.

It's going to be a short week for me, because I'll fly to Daytona Beach on Thursday.

We planned to go somewhere to watch the fireworks on the Fourth. It's pretty neat -- you go to Nags Head and watch the fireworks that come up on the other side of the sound, in Manteo.

It's really neat and that's kind of what everybody does there. It's a great place to go and Nags Head has always been somewhere that's a lot of fun for our family.

With everything that's going on this year; and right around now, it makes it even more special to be able to do this family getaway.

I think fans lose track of just how much time we, as drivers, actually spend away from home, and away from our families. So any time at all that we can spend together is very well cherished.

I've been trying to get home a lot this year, to spend time with my family and Amanda, my girlfriend, and things like that.

So any time we can get together like this, and go and spend time at the beach and things like that, it's a big deal. My nieces love it down there -- going to the beach and they love playing in the ocean.

They don't get into burying me in the sand or anything like that -- but I'm kind of like the human jungle gym. That's kind of what we do, and it's fun -- where I can be me and act up and act crazy and have fun and throw them around. (Continued)