We took advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend
and made the 7 1/2 hour drive to
Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks.
After our trip to Harkers Island and Cape Lookout
last fall, we were looking forward to another visit.
Enjoying a little fun in the sun and
a little fishing time with friends~
No fish for me, but I reeled
in plenty of photos:)
We spent more time
fishing than catching~
Our weather was a mixed bag~
one day of heavy rain, one day in the 80s,
the next day 60 degrees and extremely windy.
And as challenging to dress for as finding beach access
with the closures since it’s nesting season
for the Piping Plover.
We took a little time for a
couple of lighthouse visits.
The Cape Hatteras Light Station was moved in
1999 due to the threat of shoreline erosion.
The lighthouse was moved 2,900 feet in 23 days
and now lies 1,500 feet from the seashore,
its original distance from the sea.
And Bodie Island~
And a stop at Kill Devils Hills on the way home
to see the Wright Brothers Memorial.
Wind, sand, and a dream of flight brought Wilbur and Orville Wright to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where they achieved the first successful airplane flights in 1903.
“From Kitty Hawk to the moon in 66 years.”
~ Buzz Aldrin
Hope you enjoyed a little fun
in the sun over Memorial Day :)
Very interesting post. I have not been to any of those areas, so kinda like a mini vacation. You toured all the things I would like!
Great Post, My wife and I used to live in the area. In fact, I engineered the placement of telephone cable into the Bodie Island Light house back in the earl 1990’s during the restoration project.
Take care and God Bless :-) Kenny T
I am so glad the lighthouse has been preserved-we have lost too many of them and they are an important part of our history. I love seeing them kept up for generations to come.
I love this! We’ve never been to the Outer Banks. Need to go, it’s beautiful. Thanks for the tour…xoxo. Annie
We spent a vacation on the Outer Banks when the children were small and I remember all of the wind! It was only then when I realized why the Wright Brothers went from Ohio to the Outer Banks to test their aircraft!
Beautiful pics! I haven’t been to the outer banks in years! It’s nice to know the it’s untamed, natural beauty is still in tact. (Especially, after all the harsh storms, they’ve experienced in recent years)
Beautiful photos today, Mary. Thanks for a lovely tour.
Delightfully educational trip…thanks for taking us along!
Did you now that some parts for Wilbur & Orville’s plane were built in the back room of their Dayton, Ohio bicycle shop? Yep, its true!
Dayton has a wonderful museum about them.
The beach photos are enticing & I loved seeing the lighthouses. We’ve been to Chatham’s in Cape Cod & also the ones around Lake Erie.
Check out this photo of an ice encrusted one near Cleveland, OH:
http://lighthouse.boatnerd.com/gallery/Erie/uscg-clevelandice.jpg
I enjoyed this post very much! Makes me want to go on vacation soon.
Hugs,
Rett
I especially enjoyed the high wave pictures. I live near Lake Michigan, and love talking pictures of the rough seas. Beautiful post.
Beautiful. I love it there but we have only made a stop on the way to somewhere else or a day trip when we lived closer. Where did you stay or did you camp?
A VRBO house that rented for a partial week in Frisco :)
:D What a nice trip. North Carolina is such a beautiful and diverse state! Thanks for writing this post and sharing your photos with us, Mary.
~Mary~
What a beautiful place to visit ! Is the seafood yummy there?? Thanks for sharing!
Paula
In
Looks like a delightful weekend and you captured everything so well. I haven’t been to that area but your pics are so intriguing. My husband would love the fishing and boating.BTW I don’t fish either so I would be right there with my camera too.
Looks like you had a great time. Hubby was on call and working here so I got no further than the mailbox over the holiday. :/ And was that a baby shark lying on the beach?! Your photos are beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you. Yes my husband reeled in a small shark which didn’t make him happy. They have a fishing competition and they don’t consider a shark a fish. They’ll take any kind of bait, they swallow the hook and you have to cut your line.
Beautiful photo’s! My family has been going to Hatteras by the Sea every year for the last 26 years. All the way down by the ferry. Even watched the moving of the light house. That was quite an engineering miracle. Hatteras has gone through a lot of devastating hurricanes. It always comes back as beautiful as ever. Glad you had such a fun time.loved your post.
We are on our way to OBX in a few weeks! Loved seeing these pictures. My Mom was a huge lover of lighthouses. Not sure why but they always remind me of her. Of course, beautiful pictures too. I was at Yvonne’s on Sunday and the wind was CRAZY!!! XO, Pinky
Oh how I love this blog… The Outer Banks is one of my favorite places on Earth. You have captured its essence. Thank you for the virtual vacation.. I especially needed it today!
One of these days I will drag hubby there. I have always wanted to go.
Gorgeous photos, I felt as if I was right there with you. The shot of the spiral staircase in the lighthouse was spectacular!
what a spectacular spot! Everything about it is gorgeous and I am sure you had a wonderful time! What about that shark!!!! Scary. I agree, that shot of the spiral staircase is stunning.
No, Mary, I don’t know about Pirate Speak, how do you do that?
Beautiful photos of a beautiful place. You really captured the essence of the Outer Banks as I remember it in 1977. Its charm is timeless and I want to be there though I live a long way away now! My friends in Texas would love Kill Devil Hills’ name. :)
Fabulous pics! We love the Outer Banks, but we stay in Corolla or Duck and always in the off season. Hope you checked out The Cottage Shop.
Thank you! We didn’t get as far as Duck, we were in the Frisco/Buxton area and drove home through Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills. I’ll have to remember for next time, there is lots of ground to cover :)
How fun is that? Thanks Mary!
how fun, of course i love the moon shot of the sea~
my sister was crazy about lighthouses, her goal was to see everyone, but i must say these are quite handsome! interesting to see the new placement too, times are a changing… and perfect timing i was doing a little lighthousing for the novels ;-)
scott would love to see kitty hawk land too… well me too!
such wonderful weekend pics, at least you get to wear shorts by the sea, unlike us! i also love this new meme, i am an arm chair traveler these days so its great fun to see things again.
Mary, looks like you packed in a lot of fun for the Memorial Day weekend. Your sunset shot is exquisite. It’s fun to see the horses on the beach. Used to do that growning up near the beach. Thanks for taking us along. We were pretty much house bound enjoying the sound of rain. Rain is so scarce here that no one minded trading outdoor picnics and excursions for hours of heavy rain.
Beautiful!…
My sister and her family and I and my family joined our parents for a camping trip on the Outer Banks way back in 1973…We spent a week from the time we took the ferry (with our 2 station wagons loaded with kids and gear and one camping pop-up little trailer) on the mainland (near Camp Le Jeune) for the trip across and ended up at Manteo to attend a performance of The Lost Colony…My mother loved lighthouses, so we visited them as we wound our way north…and we all enjoyed visiting Kitty Hawk and the Wright’s Brothers’ Memorial…It was all we could to to restrain the kids from wanting to join people that were para-sailing off the dunes…! You just brought back some wonderful memories!
I loved this post and your photos are wonderful! I haven’t been to the Cape either but loved Maine when I visited there. Lighthouses are so important and I’m glad to see the preserved. Thanks for sharing!
Noreen
Hey Mary! Enjoyed the pictures and reliving the fun weekend!
Hi Carol! Much fun, hoping for better weather next time! Say hello to our beach dog, I just realized I didn’t include a photo of her :)
The first and the last pic each made me say “aw” Mary. That sure looks nice, even though the weather was a little challenging:@)
So interesting about the lighthouse, nature is such a powerful force. Your photos have captured the rugged beauty of the Outer Banks, and I always love how you can tell a story without words. So glad you had fun in spite of the challenges!
Jenna
We drove down the Outer Banks, top to bottom, a few years ago. It was a wonderful road trip. I enjoyed seeing your photos. Brought back great memories.
PS: We stayed at Colonial Williamsburg, the first couple of days of our road trip. Left there in the wee small hours, for our Outer Banks adventure, just so we could see the sunrise over the Atlantic, which we did at Bodie Island. Loved seeing the lighthouse silhouetted against the early morning sky.
That lounge chair is calling my name. What a beautiful beach, the white sand is so gorgeous. I think horseback riding would be great on the beach.
Ann
When I see beautiful photos like yours I long for a little bungalow near the water! LOVE the sunset. Evening on the beach is my very favorite time of day!
Beautiful pics! I haven’t been back to the Outer Banks since my son was eight, but it seems like yesterday. Horseback riding on the beach must have been wonderful.
Your beautiful photos brought back many fine memories of the Outer Banks. In 1973, I attempted to climb the spiral steps in that lighthouse, and I was stricken with vertigo. Had to scoot down, inch by inch. Love the photo of your Jeep (I myself am a Jeep gal x 2).
Beautiful photo tour of a beautiful place. My sister has a cottage on the outer banks (Kill Devil Hill). I haven’t been there in a while, but I always love it. We climbed to the top of that lighthouse the year after my mother had knee surgery. She sent her surgeon a picture of her from the top. Great and great memories.
Mary, it’s been a while since I’ve been to the Outer Banks but I enjoyed visiting it again through your photographs. I hate to admit this, but we drove a car out onto the beach and got stuck in the sand on the way out! Some fishermen pushed us out but I bet they laughed about that all day!
Oh Mary, you got some GORGEOUS pictures of the ocean, sky, and sand!! I love the sea oats in the last picture and of course, all the light houses. This makes me ache to do our annual beach trip, but Mr. Forest Manor can’t get any time off work for a while. I’ve only been to Hatteras and the Outer Banks one time, many years ago. I’d love to go back there someday.
I enjoyed reading about your trip; thanks for sharing and have a wonderful weekend!
Denise
Wow, it looks like a beautiful area to visit and a fun place to spend some time! Visiting from MM. Have a wonderful day!
Looks like you had a wonderful time. I love lighthouses — always thought there was something romantic about them!
Glorious photos! So glad that you made the trip. It is a marvel to think of all that was accomplished in 66 short years…Kitty Hawk to the Moon indeed.
Looked like a nice trip for some R & R. Interesting about the lighthouse that was moved – the geography as well as the times are changing.
What a very lovely spot to visit and your photos serve it well.
What a great trip, I love the beach shots and the lighthouse. It is a beautiful place to visit, thanks for sharing your trip! Wonderful photos.
What beautiful photos of a lovely place! My favorite shot is the golden water – so beautiful!
Your photos are wonderful, Mary! The Outer Banks has such a glorious shoreline, and I’m so glad the Hatteras Lighthouse was saved for the future.
Love your pictures. I go to the Outer Banks a couple times a year and recognized a lot of your photos. It brings back memories. I am glad you had a good time.
Beautiful memories.
I love visiting lighthouses…went to Duck last summer. You captured so many fabulous photos…i loved visiting the Wright Brothers Museum…Just love the “bird in flight” pic…So glad you had a great time.