Family Fun

The family took a week long trip to Ocracoke Island last week. We vacationed here in 2009 and the parents decided it was time to go back. We had plans to offshore fish but the weather did not agree with those plans. Although we missed out on recreating this memory, we still had a wonderful trip! The North Carolina coast is beautiful and unspoiled. All development is around the bay on Ocracoke because the beach and sand dunes are protected. It is truly wonderful to walk on the beach at night, among the ghost crabs, with zero lighting. Y'all, the ghost crabs were in the hundreds (maybe thousands)! It was the craziest thing we had ever seen. They swarmed the beach at night. This is not great news for sea turtles eggs but we did enjoy watching them overtake the sand as we walked.


Ocracoke Island is a two hour ferry boat ride from the main land at Cedar Island. The ferry ride to and from Ocracoke was a little rough. The waves rolled us and our vehicles for quite a while on both trips. Our vehicle was covered with salt spray after the trip home. I now understand why there were cars on the ferry with rusted back bumpers. We saw shrimp boats and passed many other ferry boats on the way. The Outer Banks ferry system is a well oiled machine! There are six ferry boats alone that travel between Ocracoke and Cape Hatteras as a free shuttle service. We also took this hour long trip to and from Cape Hatteras to see the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the Bodie Lighthouse. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in North America! We climbed that thing! It definitely felt like the tallest lighthouse in that humidity. I was drenched in sweat about half way up. The fiancé was even brave enough to come out on the lighthouse landing and walked all the way around! I was so proud of him. Mom loves a good lighthouse so this was her big exciting day. We love them as well but I think they were the highlight of her trip. She celebrated her 55th birthday on this trip with a big pan of brownies (complete with candles)! I hope brownies grant a birthday wish just as well as cake and cupcakes.

Ocracoke has a small village filled with bicycles and golf carts. They are actually a much more preferred way of transportation due to the narrow roads and many pedestrians. We decided to try out both on this trip. Our golf cart rental was really nice because we were able to see new parts of the island. Plus, it was pretty fun to zip around with everyone. We went to the Ocracoke Lighthouse and enjoyed some North Carolina classics; Cheerwine and Sun Drop. I have to admit, the Cheerwine was pretty phenomenal. We agreed that it tasted like cherry Dr. Pepper. The lighthouse is about half the height of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. It is closed to the public so we were unable to climb the little guy. We also took the path to Springer's Point. It is closed to all except foot traffic and leads to the highest point on the island.  It was another hot day but the view from the beach was beautiful. I wish we had known to wear our bathing suits. The Ocracoke Museum held a journal entry from an 1899 resident of the island. The entry spoke about a hurricane and the potential plan to go to Springer's Point as a high point and safe haven. Only six houses still stood on the island after the hurricane passed and hundreds of people left on the ferry the next morning. I can only imagine what it must have been like to live on an island during this time. 

We ate so much great food on this trip. Literally, we stuffed ourselves. My favorite meal came from Eduardo's Taco Stand! We spotted this truck on the first day and did not make it there until our last day. I ordered crab meat tacos without knowing there would be three. I underestimated myself and inhaled all of them! The taco truck was definitely a hit. The line out front should have been a dead give away.

Some other random things we liked about our trip:
*The colony of 40-50 ducks that congregated in the yards
*The Cheerwine float that my sister got from the ice cream shop
*The small little stores scattered throughout the village area
*Our BINGO game- We played for scratch off tickets and it got competitive! Mom knows how to get us involved!
*The Flying Melon Restaurant
*The ring toss game we played on the beach- It was pretty intense at the end.
*Watching Daddy roll around in the sand/surf for 10-15 minutes
*Our golf cart driving difficulties
*The military Osprey aircraft that flew over us while on the beach- It was pretty awesome to see!