Outer Banks, NC

When you were a kid, did you ever watch Pete's Dragon and wish that you could go to a lighthouse, climb to the top, and look out at the ocean?



A few months ago some friends of ours invited us to stay at a beach house with them in the Outer Banks. We love the beach, and we love our friends, so of course we were so excited to go. The Outer Banks is a strip of islands off the coast of NC. There is so much to see and do there, that even after 4 fun filled days, we still didn't get to everything we wanted to. We did, however get to see 3 of the NC lighthouses, which pretty much made the trip for me. My favorite, and the only one you could actually go in and climb to the top, was Cape Hatteras. It has been called "America's Lighthouse" because it is probably the most famous one in America. It was beautiful. Our wonderful friends watched our kids while Sam and I climbed the 268 steps to the top of the Nation's tallest lighthouse. The view was amazing!





We saw 2 other lighthouses on the same day, but the other 2 were not open for tours, so all you could do is take a picture. The Bodie Island light house was on the way to Cape Hatteras, so we stopped on the way home.


We found the Ocracoke Light house by surprise. You see we were duped into taking a 45 minute ferry ride out to the Ocracoke island because there was supposed to be a bunch of pirate things to do. Ocracoke is where the prirate Black Beard liked to hide his booty, and it's also where he was killed. Well, all we saw was a few pirate gift shops and a sign saying he was killed here, off shore. We did have a nice view of the lighthouse though, and we let the kids play on the boat dock for a few minutes before we had to ride the ferry back.




About 20 years before the English settled in Jamestown, VA, they tried to colonize an island off of NC called Ranoke. They left 115 men women and children, including the newborn baby Virginia Dare- the first english settler born in America, to settle a colony there. When they returned a few years later the whole colony had disappeared without a trace. Their disappearance remains a mystery today, although there are plenty of theories as to what happened to them. There is a museum there now with a lot of fun kid-friendly activities, and our boys had a blast playing there!







And of course, what is a Beach Vacation without a little beach time?






The last thing we went to see was the Wright Brothers museum in Kitty Hawk. It's located where the Wright Brothers made their first experimental flights. They have a big monument, a museum and big rocks marking the distance of each flight.