While We Were Waiting: Outer Banks September 2008

Some Outer Banks history from the National Park Service brochure about Cape Hatteras Island:

A thin broken stand of islands curved out into the Atlantic Ocean and then back again in a sheltering embrace of North Carolina's mailand coast and its offshore sounds. These are the Outer Banks of North Carolina. For thousands of years these barrier islands have survivedthe onslaught of wind and sea. Today their long stretches of beach, sand dunes, marshes and woodlands are set aside as Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It can be a lonely place, you may walk along the beach unseen except by shore birds searching for a meal. It can be a place of discover; you may visit 1870 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, one of many monuments to our encounter by the sea.

In September six of us rented a condo in Frisco on Cape Hatteras island in the Outer Banks. The six of us included spouse's mom, sister, brother-in-law, 3 yo nephew, spouse and I. Frisco is cute and close to Okracoke... which is where I'd want to stay for our next trip to OBX. Overall impression is I think it is beautiful but peak season sounds really crowded/pricey and off season weather kinda iffy. I believe this area has been called "God's bowling alley". Oddly we weren't too worried about the weather too much and the forecasts didn't look bad. Even more odd since we had just experienced a huge windstorm on September 14, 2008 in Ohio... one day after our annual neighborhood block party. The Ohio valley got hit with 70 mph windstorm (remnants of Hurricane Ike) causing 85% power outages in Cincinnati, 1.9 millions people in the state. A month later the Ohio Insurance Institute is predicting $500 million loses, the "costliest natural disaster in Ohio history". To say we (spouse and I) were very lucky is such an understatement and another post.

So back to our beach trip it wasn't disaster level weather but the weather was still inneresting. The 50 mph winds we got at the beach shook the entire vacation condo on stilts. The mid week spouse and I had to ford a stream of water in Rodanthe to get home one night. The only road to get back to the beach house flooded. We had started out that day looking for rescue stations, the to climb in a lighthouse (denied both due to weather) and ended up browsing shops in another cute little town. Anyhow, the cops stopped us to in Rodanthe before we attempted to cross flooded road to ask us if we had 4 wheel drive. The cop also told us if we choose to cross to 1) use 4 wheel drive, 2) don't stop and 3) stay where our condo was for 2-3 days. The water was up to our doors and well we went for it. The cop at the other end told us to wash our car in the next couple of days to get the salt off the car. The bizarre thing was this happened literally right in front of the house used to film a movie (Nights in Rodanthe) with Diane Lane and Richard Gere. This movie was released while we were on vacation. The review of this movie I heard on Satellite Sisters did not make this movie sound very good....very cornball, cheesy. Anyhow pictures are below.

But the early part of the trip was fairly nice weather. I took a couple of walks on the beach with my ipod which was just great. The picture below is from a walk to the Pier. The surfers were loving the waves near the pier.

Never saw any signs of sea turtles nests on the beach just the barricaded area and signs.

The surfers by the pier.

Beach houses in Frisco.

All of us took the ferry over to Okracoke early in the week. We had lunch at Howard's Pub & Raw Bar and Restaurant which was destination worthy. Kids meals served on frisbees. Okracoke is just adorable.

After lunch at Howard's we drove on the beach. We didn't stay long as it was kinda windy.

Spouse on the beach. I like this picture because of the clouds, sky and the ocean, just wish spouse was a little closer.

So finally, on our 3rd try, spouse and I got to climb the Cape Hatteras lighthouse towards the end of our trip. The first two times we tried it was closed because of winds. This lighthouse has some interesting history. First it was built in 1870 and is the tallest brick lighthouse in the US. When it was built it was 1500 feet from the Atlantic Ocean. By 1990's it was 120 feet from the ocean. So in 1999 it was moved 2900 feet inland at a cost of $4.6 M. It had been predicted that if not moved this lighthouse would have been destroyed by the ocean by 2018. We bought a video and book about this move.

Cape Hatteras lighthouse was built in 1870 for $155,000. It has a 20 mile beacon to warn sailors about the Diamond Shoals off the shore. An interesting story is that it is believed the engineer's paint design plans for this lighthouse and the Cape Lookout lighthouse got switched. This is why Cape Hatterras got the barber shop design instead of diamond pattern.

Anyhow from April through October the National Park Service allows people to climb the 268 steps to the top. I didn't think it was too tough a climb but once I got to the top I didn't really care for being up that high. I stayed glued to the wall. That is why I took a picture of the crazy old people who were leaning on the rusty wrought iron gate yelling down to their friends on the ground.