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| Josh and Ellie @ sunrise |
The night before, Rob mined through the video clips on his
ipad and found several hysterical videos Michael created, including a 3 minute
video on his thumb entitled, “Disco Thumb.” Of course, Wednesday could be
nothing other than Disco Thumb Day. Try
it, you won’t regret giving your thumb the chance to live it up.
Our day began at 5 am.
Josh had a dream to watch the sunrise over the ocean and we decided to
make that dream a reality. It was easier
to rise than we expected and we headed in the dark to the beach. We saw some of the night creature of the
beach including an enormous ghost crab who at first was a little wary of the
kids, but then decided he could take any of us fools and stood his ground. The sunrise over the ocean was
breathtaking. The soft and vibrant pinks
and oranges stretched through the sky as the sun came up, dolphins played in
the distance, and the pelicans and shore birds feed and soared over the surface
of the ocean. After the sun rose, we
headed back for breakfast and the beginning of the adventure of the day. We took off for Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke
Island. The Outer Banks is a stunning place and there
is no better time to drive its length and see the beauty than early
morning. We got to the beach at Cape
Hatteras and ran to find as many shells in the surf as we could. We all hoped for the illusive sand dollar or
sea glass, neither of which we were able to find. But we did find shells in droves including
Whelks (we always called them conch shells, but learned later during the Jr.
Ranger program that they were actually called whelks). When 9 am hit and the lighthouse opened, we
made our way over there, stopping in the Visitor’s Center and getting the Jr.
Ranger booklets. Of the Jr. Ranger
programs we did, Cape Hatteras was the first that had a patch for it. But you had to work harder to get the
patch. A badge and Jr. Ranger oath was
earned after completing the booklet, after two programs, you earned the patch.
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| Kids at Sunrise |
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| Cape Hatteras lighthouse |
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| Lighthouse from above! |
First order of business was to climb the largest brick
lighthouse in the nation. We went in our
group up, up, up 257 steps to the top of the light house and had our breath
taken away by the view and the intoxicating breezes after the hot climb
up. We were impressed by the
architectural detail of the railings and staircase, the late 1800’s were a
beautiful time for buildings. The
history of the lighthouse is interesting, with the most dramatic event arguably
happening recently, when in 1999 the whole lighthouse was moved 1,600 feet to
its current location. When it was built,
it was 1,600 feet from the ocean but by 1987 it was only 120 feet from the
crashing waves. The National Park
Service came to realize that it needed to “move it or lose it” and so, over the
course of several weeks from June to July in 1999 it was moved. The lighthouse beacon still powers every
seven and a half seconds and is visible 18 miles out at sea. We also learned that light houses all have their
own signature beacon and recognizable pattern for visibility during the
day. Cape Hatteras lighthouse pattern is
like a barber pole. From the lighthouse,
we went to the light
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| Ranger Program |
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| Ferry to Ocracoke |
keepers cottages and the museum housed there. We quickly realized that a ranger program was
about to start so scurried over to the pavilion where Audrey Connor, long time Cape
Hatteras volunteer was beginning her ranger program. She was an art teacher before she retired to
become a full time NPS volunteer and her program and way with the children
showed her years of experience. The
project was using fabric crayons which are still made of wax to create a
transfer that could be ironed onto a cotton shirt or bag. Since we didn’t bring a shirt, the kids just
created their transfers and brought them home to be finished there. There were neat lighthouse and marine
wildlife stencils and the kids had a great experience with it. After the program we had lunch in the pavilion
and the kids finished up their ranger booklets for their badges. As usual, Sean was lickity split with his
booklet, continuing his record of first Junior Ranger in our group. As the others were finishing their booklets,
the ranger who was so kind to us in the visitor’s center came out to give a
talk on the dunes. Since most of the
kids needed one more program for a badge we decided to learn more about the dunes
and finish our lunch all together. Like
all ranger programs, it didn’t disappoint.
We learned about how the shape of the dune is important for the survival
of the environment. Although a low, flat
dune can was away, it’s important for the general survival. These dunes are made to be underwater, unlike
the tall dunes which are meant to stay out of the salt water. At the top of the National Seashore, in the
1930’s the WPA worked to preserve the dunes and raised them and stabilized
them. Although well meaning, it was not
good for the ecosystem of the Outer Banks.
Now the NPS knows more about them and works to preserve them as is. Fully badged and partially patched we headed
toward the ferry and Ocracoke Island, home of the wild horse and where
Blackbeard met his demise.
The ferry to Ocracoke is free but is first come first
served. We were told the wait would be
about an hour to an hour and a half, but were pleasantly surprised when it was
barely a half hour. The 45 minute
crossing was beautiful and a big bonus to the trip. During the trip down, we separated into boy
cars and girl cars, which turned into Moms and Dads with assorted kids. As the Dads went full speed ahead, the Moms
saw the highly looked forward to wild pony coralle and discovered the lack of
cell service on Ocracoke Island!
Finally, the cars were united and we journeyed back to the ponies, the
youngest delighting in seeing them. The
majority of the horses had their backs turned to us. Nothing says vacation like a horses’ rear
end!
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| Michael and clams! |
Back on track, we headed to see the small town on Ocracoke. It’s about as quaint as you can get, the
streets are filled with walkers and bike riders and there are little local
shops everywhere. There is also next to
no parking. The ideal would be for Ocracoke to make the summer months a walk
only place with parking lots toward the end of the town with little bike
rentals like Holland. Not being Queen of
Ocracoke, I was unable to enact this rule.
However, it would be a perfect place to stay, which we filed away in our
heads. Cars have to drive carefully because
of the small amount of shared walk/roadway and it’s a stunning location. Our first stop, as usual, was the National
Seashore visitor’s center where we happily discovered that the stamp at
Ocracoke for our NPS Passport was different than the Cape Hatteras stamp. Ellie bought a little horse with her
scavenger hunt money and quickly christened it “Ocracoke” nick named
“Cokie.” Michael found a neat poster
about the marine wildlife and Owen got a map of the major shipwrecks of the
Outer Banks. We moved to the lighthouse
where, like the rest of the island, we discovered there were no parking
spots. Since we were starving and
excited to stare into the ocean, we headed to the Jolly Roger for an early
dinner. The adults mostly got a fresh
fried fish, which was delicious, but Michael was the most adventurous of the
crew ordering steam clams which he ate with relish. Sean finally got his popcorn shrimp (which
much to his chagrin was nothing like Red Lobster’s popcorn shrimp) and Andrew
got a fish fry. Ellie and Owen finally
had a meal avoiding seafood which thrilled them. After a delicious meal and fun watching
pelicans and seagulls go crazy over the scraps from a man clean fish on the
pier, we decided to try our luck at the lighthouse on our way out of town. Success!
The Ocracoke lighthouse is called a welcoming lighthouse. It was not put in place to warn ships but
rather to let them know that this port was safe. Honestly, after the thrill of the Cape
Hatteras lighthouse, the most exciting part of the Ocracoke lighthouse was
finding a parking spot, but we were glad to see it. Exhausted after our long day, we reluctantly
eschewed the beaches and headed back to Kill Devil Hills, enjoying the ferry
ride and eventually, the sun set over Bodie Island. Owen and Ellie fell asleep in the car and
when we got back they headed for bed, while the rest of the kids with the Dads
hit the beach. The beach goers battled
the ghost crabs. Although the results
are not official, the unofficial tally is that the ghost crabs won!
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| Ocracoke! |
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