Sunday, July 18, 2010

Lighthouses, Birds, and Deserts. A Week Long Family Vacation/Photo Shoot of the Outer Banks.

Our family just returned from a week long vacation at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. I decided to post a few of my favorite photos from the trip.
Before this year I knew very little about this area of the country. It's an incredible area that I highly recommend.
If you've never been to the Outer Banks the first thing you should do is look at a map.
You can easily see that the Outerbanks is a series of Islands off of North Carolina. One one side of the Island is the Sound, and the other side is the Ocean.

We stayed in Rodanthe. It was a short walk to the Ocean and the Sound. Each body of water offers two very unique attraction. On the Ocean side the waves are incredible. There are many surfers and fishers. We spent time there body surfing, swimming, looking at crabs at night, and combing the beach for shells. On the Sound side there are various types of sports like kite surfing, jet skiing, and bird watching.

Lighthouses
If you enjoy Lighthouses, the Outer Banks is for you. There are 5. Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, Currituck Beach, Ocracoke, and The Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse. We visited two while we were there Cape Hatteras, and Ocracoke. Cape Hatteras is probably the most famous of the Light Houses. For a small fee you can climb the stairs, and get an incredible view from the top. Be prepared to climb!



Interior of Cape Hatteras Light House







Two Ravens Hang Out on top of Ocracoke Lighthouse
Birds
Although I know very little about birds, I very much enjoyed seeing many types of birds that are not common where I live. Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge has several experts. While there we observed Gulls, Pelicans, Egrets, Mocking Birds, and Osprey.



















Desert

A quick visit to Jockey's Ridge State Park gives vistors an opportunity to climb 100 foot sand dunes.  We felt like we were in the desert.  In this first photo our group stands before descending the valley, and climbing to the next dune in the distance.

I'm now relaxed. I'm going to have to try and fit my feet back into shoes after a week of sandals and flip flops. I'll begin looking at a calendar again tomorrow to see what day it is.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are great pictures Steve! They work very nicely with the story. I really like all of the bird pictures. The gulls in flight is very well lit.

Reverend Awesome said...

STEVO! Oh my god! Your pictures are just so freaking amazing!!! You keep getting better and better! These are just soo great I can't take it!

toledonative said...

Aren't vacations wonderful? Mine starts in 12 days (but who's counting?).

Your sunset picture trumps mine today by 1000%. Simply gorgeous! The Outer Banks is an area I've always wanted to visit - and now even more so! My vacation this year, however, will take me in the opposite direction - we'll be driving Route 66 from Chicago to LA.

Mike Simmons said...

Really great images Steve! Thanks for all the info on that area. It really looks nice. Your bird photos are really wonderful.

Gary's third pottery blog said...

holy cats, what great pics Stevo, esp. the BIRDS, like post cards!

k.a. barnes said...

Soooo beautiful! Your photos make everything look like an epic adventure.
I've always wanted to visit the Outer Banks. My family did several years ago, but I couldn't get the time off from work to go. It was disgusting how much fun they had without me.

Carolyn Ford said...

All of these photos are so excellent! Your color and detail is right on! I would love to visit this part of our great nation!

Barbara Martin said...

Awesome photos, Steve, especially of the dunes.