North Carolina Vacation

Every year in September, my parents, my uncle, and I have a family vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a week.  I usually get stressed out each year because the vacation comes just a couple weeks after we open the residence halls where I work, but this year I let all that stress go.  It was a wonderful and restful week at the ocean in Duck, NC.  We did some sightseeing of places we haven't been to before, and I got in few pictures, of course!

Firstly, if you're not familiar with the Outer Banks, it has a lot of history.  It's a thin stretch of islands extending north and south over about 200 miles, on the eastern coast of North Carolina.  There were a lot of shipwrecks off the coast there due to the shallow ocean waters.  There are a few major tourist areas like Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills (where the Wright Brothers took the first flight in 1903), but compared to many other ocean communities on the east coast, the Outer Banks are overall a fairly quiet place. 
 

One of the first things we did was drive down to Cape Hatteras.  It's about 1.5 to 2 hours south of Duck, and we had never been that far south before on the Outer Banks.  I was really excited to see and climb the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  It was originally built in 1803 but was later destroyed due to erosion and the Civil War.  They built another one, which stands there today, in 1870.  It's the tallest lighthouse in North America - 12 stories tall.  The park ranger at the entrance informed us that when the light was run on kerosene, the lighthouse keeper had to carry a couple of 5 gallon containers of kerosene up to the top three to four times a day.  Whew - that sounds like tough work!  I climbed the stairs to the top and felt a bit woozy, so I can only imagine carrying around 100 pounds of weight several times daily to the top.  The view after that climb was gorgeous, especially due to the beautiful sunny 85 degree weather.  The national seashore was visible as far as the eye could see.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Close-up of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse



Cape Hatteras National Seashore



Woozy me at the top of the lighthouse!



On the same day we had lunch in Wanchese, a small alcohol-free (dry) town due to its religious roots, according to my uncle.  There's a great little restaurant there called Fisherman's Wharf, and I thought the painted mural on the side of the restaurant was cool - "Come and Dine," reads a little banner held up in the air by a couple birds.  You can definitely see the religious impressions in the painting.

Fisherman's Wharf Restaurant

"Come and Dine" mural at Fisherman's Wharf

Late in the week on a Friday, we drove up to Carova Beach, which is the northern most point of the North Carolina coastline.  If you've never heard of it, it has some unique qualities that distinquish it from just about any other town in the whole United States.  Carova Beach doesn't have a single paved road.  It's all sand.  And you won't find any roads that lead to it (Carova Beach, therefore, has no connection to Rome... haha).  You can't get there from Virginia's coastline - there's a "roadblock."  Nope - the only way you can travel to Carova Beach is via twelve miles of ocean beach.  My father has a truck with four wheel drive, so that's how we did it.  It's not the easiest task - you pretty much need to time your drive so that it's as close as possible to low tide - in order to go over the sand when it's wet and flat.  We timed it well driving to Carova Beach, but leaving it was much more difficult as it was closer to high tide.  According to a local real estate agent we met there (Twiddy Real Estate), there are perhaps about 120 year-round residents at Carova.  You won't find any businesses or stores in "town" other than the real estate office.  They have a fire department - that's it in terms of immediate local services.

On the beach near Carova

Ocean View from the truck on the beach

The best part of the trip to Carova Beach in my opinion was the wild horses.  The wild horses, supposedly about 60-80 of them, travel in small groups near Carova Beach and Currituck.  We were lucky to see a few of them hanging out near a couple different houses, but even better when we caught a great glimpse of them on the beach.  There, they seemed to be surrounded by people and vehicles.  A local official seemed to be trying to move people away from the horses to give them some space.  It's illegal for anyone to feed the horses or approach them within 50 feet or so.  We happened to be driving back to Duck along the beach at the time, but I managed to get a few quick photographs of them.  Beautiful creatures!



Wild Horses at Carova Beach



Most of the time while in the Outer Banks, I was reading.  Since my staff chose to go with a Harry Potter theme to the decorations of the Student Apartments where I work, I felt I should read the Harry Potter books.  When I saw one of the RAs' decorations - a key with wings - I was clueless as to its meaning.  Back when all the books were originally coming out, I practically boycotted them due to their popularity and young adult focus.  But now I can certainly see why people love the books.  I'm addicted to them.  I read books 3 (Prisoner of Azkaban) and 4 (Goblet of Fire) in that week-long vacation.  The book series start off so innocent and child-like, but they get darker and more complex as the series progresses.  I'm presently on book 5 now (The Order of the Phoenix).

I also got a few walks in during vacation - two four-mile walks and an eight-mile walk.  Still training for the half marathon!  (more on that in another blog later this week)  On the first four-mile walk, a deer had darted across my path only about ten feet ahead of me (amazing sight, I must say).  On the second four-mile walk, a sneaky little snake had slithered in front of me on the sidewalk.  I think it was a garden snake but I didn't get a close look at it since they frighten the heck out of me.  The eight-mile walk was exceptionally exhausting.  I was glad to do them all though, and the Outer Banks scenery made them all the more enjoyable.

Alright, I'm signing off for the night.  I'll be walking first thing tomorrow morning!