Last week we spent Monday through Wednesday at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Even though I grew up just a few hours south in Wilmington, I've never been there before. Unfortunately the area is still recovering from Hurricane Sandy and we weren't able to get south of Rodanthe. However, we still had plenty to fill our three days on the northern islands of the Outer Banks.
Since it's November, we knew that we probably wouldn't have very warm weather, but we had hoped for some sunshine. Even though it got into the 50s everyday, it was very cloudy and foggy with INSANE wind (the sun finally peeked out on Wednesday). The wind was at least 20 mph with much higher gusts. We lost power in our hotel room the first night several times (it always came back though within 10 to 15 seconds - though we stopped taking the elevator just in case!). We didn't let the weather deter us from anything and still managed to do everything we hoped to do.
This was the view over the first bridge to get to the islands at around 10:30 am. Isn't it dreary?
We had driven to Raleigh on Sunday and spent the night at Brian's parents' house. That allowed us to get a pretty early start and get to the Outer Banks by lunch (it's about a 3 hour drive).
Our first stop was in Manteo on Roanoke Island.
We headed to the waterfront and looked for a place to have lunch. On our walk we came across this very cool pirate, according to the boys at least.
We had lunch at this very good little sandwich shop that was filled with locals that all knew each other rather than tourists like us :)
Next we walked over to the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse.
The Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse is an exterior recreation from the original plans with some slight alteration of the screw-pile lighthouse that was originally built in 1877 and decommissioned in 1955.
It stood at the southern entrance to the Croatan Sound, midway between Wanchese and the mainland. The original was one of many screw-pile lighthouses scattered throughout the sounds. During an attempt to move the old Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse to private property, the building was destroyed.
This is what it looked like when it was in the sound ...
This was a neat little lighthouse and no one fell into the water (though I was a little nervous). We walked a little more around the waterfront, stopping at a playground and taking in the sites.
Our next stop was the new Coastal North Carolina National Wildlife Refuges Gateway Visitors Center on the north end of Roanoke Island.
They have a really nice and fun interactive exhibit area that the kids ran around in for awhile.
This visitors center is part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and one of the employees there showed us where to drive through Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge to see giant black bears. We actually did this on our way out on Wednesday - more to come on that.
Next we went over to Fort Raleigh, which is part of the National Park Service.
After the boys got their NPS Passports stamped in the visitors center, we walked down to the fort.
This is a reconstructed earthen fort (not terribly exciting, I know).
Fort Raleigh is also where the outdoor theater for The Lost Colony play is located.
I think the boys' favorite part of this park was getting to run around here :)
After battling the wind in this unprotected area, we got back into the trees and headed to the car.
Our next stop was the The Wright Brothers National Memorial, also part of the NPS. There is a small museum attached to the visitors center that we explored first.
Then we headed out into the insane wind. Notice that the boys have on their heavy jackets they'd where in the snow back home.
Outside there are stones that mark the distances of the first 4 flights on December 17, 1903.
The flights all started at the current location of this boulder.
Rylan was a bit moody on this trip (he was just too far off his normal schedule and getting even less sleep than normal). He always wanted to be held by Brian and he is so compact and heavy that it's hard to carry him for long (and we didn't bring a stroller or a hiking backpack on this trip). There were many times Brian had to wait him out to get him to finally give in and walk some.
Our next stop was to walk up the the Wright Brothers Monument. It's on a really big hill by Outer Banks standards (and ours when carrying kids).
Noticed who hitched a ride? The wind was crazy and Rylan tried to hide in his hood.
Carter walked to the hill and only asked for me to carry him up the hill :)
One side of the monument was protected from the wind but once you stepped out from that, I really thought the wind was going to knock the kids down! It was difficult even for me to walk!
We mainly hung out on the wind-free side :)
We spent a little more time in the park exploring and then headed to our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kitty Hawk. The hotel is on the beach and we had a side view of the ocean (not that we were going to spend anytime on the balcony with the weather).
We headed back out for a very quick dinner (we were all exhausted and the boys were moody) and then took the boys to the indoor pool.
All moodiness evaporated and they had a blast.
After a quick bath the boys snuggled up on the bed with snacks and a movie while Brian and I showered and also got ready for bed.
We usually do suites so we have a separate bedroom but all stayed in one room with two beds this time. Rylan slept in his playyard next to Carter's bed and we all went to bed at the same time (that didn't mean lots of extra sleep though because our kids don't sleep late and were up way before it got light out). However, we all survived and got enough sleep.
