Spring Break Vacation in OBX!!!

 The first two nights, we stayed at the Hampton Inn in Kitty Hawk.

On our first day there, we went to the beach in the morning, then to the Wright Brother's Memorial and to Roanoke Island to see the Lost Colony location.

 Those stones mark the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th flights.

This is where John White came back to, and only found "CRO" carved in a tree. The colony's houses were taken down, but there was a fence left standing. The kids are standing where the colonists created a shelter from the earth.

Every year, starting on May 30th, they have a Lost Colony play that is put on here in Roanoke. I really wish we could have seen it! The theater even overlooks the water.

The next day was one of my favorites. As a kid, one time my family and I had vacationed to the Outer Banks and we visited most of the light houses there. I wanted to go back to see these light houses. We saw 3 on this day and we started with Bodie Light House. We got there before it opened but still enjoyed taking breathtaking pictures of this gorgeous structure. We then headed 30 minutes farther south and went to the Hatteras Light House to get there right when it opened at 9am. We were lucky to be there on opening day for climbs, and got to climb it for free. Unfortunately, Embry was not allowed to go up it, so Danny went by himself, and then after he was back I went up with the boys while Danny stayed below to play with Bry. Eli was really nervous climbing the 248 steps, but I can't say I wasn't a tad nervous either. It was a good workout at least! After Hatteras, we then drove 30 more minutes and hopped on a 1 hour ferry ride to Ocracoke Island. Here we drove 16 miles to the village--first did I mention that the entire day of driving was SIMPLY GORGEOUS?--I would go visit OBX to just drive up and down the whole stretch of islands (technically a peninsula). Between the dunes, the ocean, and the beach houses, I was in awe of everything I saw. I loved that the farther south we got, the less populated it was there. Anyways, after arriving at Ocracoke Village, we rented a golf cart, went to lunch, and then went to our final light house for the day (Ocracoke). It is the oldest working light house. It was originally built to be a welcome light house rather than used for hazardous situations, so it is the smallest one we saw. The public is not allowed to climb this light house. After viewing the lighthouse, we went to the beach for an hour (while walking on the trail down to the beach, we did run into a Water Moccasin). We then got back on the ferry and drove the long, but beautiful, trek back to our new hotel. We had originally wanted to stay at Beachwoods Resort the whole time, but they only had these last 2 nights available. I had picked this resort, because it had a water park. I didn't tell the kids, so we surprised them by pulling up to the resort. We got to the hotel late, so we didn't go to the water park until the morning of day 3.

While waiting to load the ferry, Evan and I checked out a shop nearby. He bought himself this knife.

 That's not a stick!!!

Day 3 started off with having a couple of hours at the water park at our hotel. Around noon, we headed up to Corolla (north OBX--pronounced CaRalla with short 'a' sounds and not like the Corolla cars). We first stopped and had to check out the Currituck Light House. I'm not sure if I ever saw this light house as a kid. They allowed Embry to climb it and she was free. Because it cost everyone else $10, Danny just took Embry and Evan up. Eli was already dreading it, so he and I stayed behind to save a few bucks. I got some pictures of them out on the top of it. Danny said Embry had no fear at all. After visiting the light house, we then went to the gift shop and then to a book shop in the old village and had a late lunch. Later we hopped on a wild horse tour that I had booked. It was so neat! This tour is a part of the island that only 4x4s could go. You must have a special permit in most areas to drive on the beach even. It was an incredible experience to ride clear up north (only 5 miles from the Virginia fence). We drove through all of the beach houses, by canals, and down the beautiful coast. The tour started off with seeing tons of tree stumps sticking out of the sand near the water. These tree stumps used to be where a forest was hundreds of years ago. The water had come up over the years. Embry told the tour guide that she hoped to see 3 wild horses. We lucked out and saw a ton! I'm going to guess that we saw nearly 30 wild horses. It was crazy to see them in front yards, under porches and just roaming where they pleased. Corolla had created a fence so they stay up in this area, so they don't come down and get hit by cars. We were not allowed to go within 50 feet of them for it was against the law. The kids really loved seeing the horses and we were surprised at how small the Spanish stallions and mares were. We hope to go see the Shackleford horses closer to where we live soon as well. I'm going to apologize now for the amount of pictures I am putting in of the horses, but I brought out my nice camera with a long lens, and had a blast going to town on taking pictures. 

On the very last day, we woke up, went to the water park for a bit, ate lunch and headed home! The drive home was beautiful, of course, and we got to see hundreds of turtles sunbathing in the alligator river that flowed next to the road. We came home, did some laundry, made cookies, and watched Mary Poppins Returns. Eli said it best when he said his favorite thing about the trip was being together as a family. I couldn't agree more! These are times to be easily grateful for the blessings and beautiful scenery God has given us!