Oh, what's that? That's our setup hanging with the sunset at our campsite at the Oregon Inlet Campground at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It's been tooooo long since I've been to the Outer Banks. I've spent several vacations in Nags Head, but never quite this far south. Livin' the good life, y'all.
After setting down the trailer at the campsite, we headed north to Kill Devil Hills to learn more about the Wright Brothers and the birth of aviation. We got there with only an hour before closing, but we picked up the Jr. Ranger booklet, so we'll be back to turn that in. We did have a good time checking out the sand dune from which the Wright brothers launched their glider, and read how they lugged their glider up hill thousands of time. Amazing the determination and perseverance, simply amazing.
Our first night here, we hit the beach, just to say we did, but I had left my camera at the trailer. Our first morning here, I went ahead and brought the camera. Climbing the dunes is thrilling. Until you step on a burr. Or a bug bites you. But I love visiting the beach. Just so much fun to play in the waves, watch the birds, check out the shells, keep an eye out for dolphins...love it all!
G and I hung back while the others raced into the water. I did get my feet (all the way up to my knees, though that was unintentional) wet, and the water was quite chilly. G had a good laugh at my chill-out, but he made his way into the water, too. His shock was just as funny as mine.
NS kept doing push ups in the waves. He was "trying" not to get wet, but ended up soaked. What a shocker.
After the beach we had lunch, then headed out to check out other parts of the barrier islands. Down at Cape Hatteras, there's the museum for the Graveyard of the Atlantic. It's small, but it goes through some of the shipwrecks in the area. The Monitor is the one that drew our attention, and is one that NOAA and ECU study the most. After spending some time there, we headed out to the national seashore's visitors' center, where the Hatteras lighthouse is. We didn't have much time to spend here before everything closed down, but it was enough time for K to finish the Jr. Ranger booklet. This lighthouse is the tallest in the US. It's also not in its orginal location--it was moved because the shifting sands of a barrier island were shifting enough to be a threat to the stability of the lighthouse. There are several lighthouses up and down the coast of NC. Our campground is actually across the street from another one, which we'll check out before we leave the area.
After leaving the lighthouse, we hit the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. We actually drove through the refuge on our way from camp to the cape, but on our way home we stopped and did the wildlife walk. We didn't see a lot of wildlife, but we did get to see a few of these guys. All in all, it was a good day on the outer banks!
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