OBX Part 3

Forewarning now since updating the formatting has gone screwy and I am tired of messing with it :)

Wednesday we decided to load up the car and head south and see what we could find. This of course was after some time in the pool! Our only destination was the Cape Hatteras lighthouse!

Ron, Tony, and I climbed the lighthouse. Riley wasn't big enough so Mom and Dad stayed down with her. She was so disappointed :( But she wouldn't of made the 12 story climb and it only had railings on one side so it was probably a good thing she didn't go. It was also the hottest day so far and let me tell you it was HOT in that lighthouse. Needless to say we all made it to the top and survived!

Tony at the bottom of the lighthouse looking up to see what we have gotten ourselves into!

Mom and Riley exploring, I love this picture!

My two boys at the top, love the view behind them!

After the exploring the lighthouse we went farther south and went to the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. It was neat but nothing I recommend. It was free and inside where it was cool so I couldn't complain too much!

After the museum we stopped by the grocery store on the way back to the house and picked up a few things for dinner and stayed in and went swimming and walking on the beach. Again another perfect night!

Thursday we got up and headed to the north end of the banks to Corolla. We stopped and got some souvenirs and then stopped at a little shopping area with go karts and ice cream! Tony drove the go karts, you would think the kid gets enough of them since he races them but he doesn't! Needless to say these were a lot slower than what he is use to and he had NO fun :) My Mom, Riley, and I wandered around looking at some local shops then got some ice cream. After wasting some time we went on a wild horse tour with Corolla Outback Adventure and they were great. We learned a lot about the area and our tour guide was a crazy driver which made it AWESOME!

Riley, Dad, and I sat in the truck, Riley had to be in a car seat while Mom, Ron, and Tony sat back here. Needless to say I have no idea how one of them didn't fly out with our tour guide driving like a madwoman! But in her defense I can only imagine how hard it is to drive in unpacked sand.

We saw lots of horses, Tony kept count but I think he needs to go back to school he counted 20 something and I think it was closer to 15. The thing that I noticed was how much smaller the horses were. They don't look small in the pictures but they did seem smaller than what I consider a "normal" horse. But there are probably more normal than what we see everyday.

The thing I thought was crazy about this tour was the "roads". This is a view of an actual highway with speed limits and cops patrolling it. It is SAND not a paved road! Craziness I tell you! When looking for a house we looked in the 4x4 area and REALLY wanted one out there but we didn't have the right vehicles to get us there. Which I understand now!

Yep the horses eating in someones front yard!

Poor Tony, Riley out numbers him in pictures on this trip :(

Love this view!

After our adventure we stopped at ate and headed back to the house. It was a two hour drive to Corolla and needless to say we were exhausted after a long day!

Friday we got up early and headed to breakfast then took the fairy to Ocracoke Island. It was a beautiful area, after exploring we found a beach access and went and played on the beach for awhile. At our house the waves were HUGE and broke right on the beach. Riley hated them. We couldn't get her to go anywhere near the water. At Ocracoke you could tell they had brought some sand in because the waves broke farther out and were small. After throwing a fit she finally got in the water and had fun! We search for seashells, which she still talks about, and played in the shallow area. I think Tony could of played in the sand all week and never complained once. He LOVED the sand. we made a tunnel one day and at Ocracoke he made a huge hole that the water would go into. He played for hours in the sand.

Saturday morning we decided to take the long way home and go over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. This was the whole reason we ended up in the Outer Banks and I wasn't going to be this close and not go there. It was worth it! I think I was the only one really impressed :)

We ended up driving the entire way home that night and with our little detour we got home around 2:00 am.

Does this look comfortable to you? Really Chase you have your own seat in the back, crazy dog!

Overall it was a great trip, would I go back? I really don't know that I can answer that question right now. I don't think I would go back to the Outer Banks with kids. If I went back I would stay in Nags Head or Kitty Hawk where you are closer to things. Overall it was a great vacation and I am glad we went! Riley got to experience the beach for the first time but more importantly we all got to spend some great time together and share in a lot of firsts for all of us.