Monday, February 09, 2015

OBX Lighthouses

After church last Sunday Mike and I met up with Ben and Sara and we took off to explore more of the Outer Banks. We weren't going to be there long enough to fully explore the area so we decided to head South and climb a lighthouse. There are four lighthouses along the OBX (remember, that is the cool way to write "Outer Banks") and two of them were advertised as open to the public for climbing. We all wanted to do that. It seemed interesting and we knew the view from the top would be fantastic!

Well, even on a fantastic day such as that one, disappointments could still occur.

As it turned out, the lighthouses were NOT open for public climbing because it was still the off season. Bummer. Still, we were able to walk around outside two of them.

This first lighthouse is the Bodie Island Lighthouse. There was a lot of water around it (well, duh?!) and a lot of birds. There were also a lot of birdwatchers hauling around giant cameras and tripods.  Close enough for the birdwatchers to hear him, Ben said to Sara something like this, "This is why I can't go anywhere! The Paparazzi are always there." Funny guy.


Bodie Island Lighthouse


Sara and Ben must have outrun the paparrazi.


We continued on down the skinny piece of land called the Outer Banks/OBX.  The road looked to have been plowed as sand was piled high on each sand. Some places the highway was this skinny...


No, we didn't get a helicopter ride. This photo is public domain, compliments of Wikipedia. The crazy thing about driving along that highway was that, although we knew that we had ocean on both sides of us, much of the time we couldn't see it because of those piles of sand on each side of the highway. Not to worry, we parked from time to time and filled our shoes up with sand as we climbed over the sand to play on the beach. It was worth filling our shoes! 

These beaches just go on and on and on.


Mike Skipping Stones - Hard to Do With Waves Coming In


Sara and Ben
(I love this photo)


We stopped at another bird reserve and followed an interesting path that had been 
tunneled through the scruffy brush. It was pretty cool.


Aaaah, Ben and His Ladies


I was going to tell you what was going on with me here but I actually can't remember.


From there, we moved on to Hattaras Lighthouse. It is known for its diagonal stripes. Actually, all 4 lighthouses along the OBX are painted differently. That way, ships at sea would know where they were by recognizing the designs on the lighthouses. Although the gift shop was open, the doors to climb up inside were locked until April 1.


But, Ben wanted to climb a lighthouse. We didn't let him. That kid has been climbing things since he was 8 months old!


There were deer all around the grounds there. We see deer all the time in 
Wyoming but these seemed different, more petite.


Speaking of wildlife...

I am not sure which little village we ate at as they kind of ran together. It was a little seafood place but after I sat down Mike pointed out this guy behind us.


I am not a big fan of animal heads hanging over my meal but this one was just weird. Here we were, out in the ocean, far from Wyoming. There hung a Pronghorn. Many people may not know this but 80% of the world's pronghorn live within a 200 mile radius of our town in Wyoming. Many live right in our town. Some of them hang out on the lawn of our church! I asked the waitress about it and she said her boss had gone hunting in Wisconsin or Wyoming or somewhere. I guess it was one of those "W" states, huh?  

Well, I'm going to stop for now but check back tomorrow because I have a photo of a special house to show to you.









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