Trip North - Outer Banks, NC

 

 

 We head to Corolla in the Outerbanks hoping to maybe see some wild horses. 

 

 There are some modern day Wright Brothers flying above.

Gary wasn't too impressed with the Outerbanks yesterday.  Too much development and tourist traps.  It is too far to drive south to Hatteras so we head north to Corolla and Currituck.  Gary want's to take a walk, so we take the back roads through Duck to check out a boardwalk that they have

 It is a cute and charming little town

We get to the boardwalk

There is an Osprey Nest just off shore.

 

 The Boardwalk runs for a mile along the water behind many Town business

 

There is even a crabbing area.  Found this family having a good time

The boys take a break

On to Corolla to show Gary that "undeveloped" part of OBX and maybe spot a wild horse.

Well, they say you can't go back.  Has been 20 years sine I was here and I can't believe the number of  "homes" that have popped up.  This is just the ones along the road, they are at least 3 deep that I could see.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of these houses it you want to buy one - starting in the low $600,000.00's

 We get to Currituck and visit the Lighthouse.  I of course need to walk to the top, Gary waits below. 

A look up

and down.

220 steps in all.   Quite the view from the top - 162'

 

You can just make out some of those$600K+ homes from here.

 

 

 

 

 There's Gary waiting on the bench below

 

 

Time to head back down

 

 

 The lighthouse was put into service in 1875. The last brick and mortar lighthouse built in North Carolina.   Built with 1 million Bricks and weighs 6,000,000.00 pounds.  Ir was added to the National Register of Historic Places 

on October 15, 1973.

 

  It is a first order lighthouse, having the largest of seven Fresnel lens sizes.  the light can be seen from 18 nautical miles away (20.714 miles)

 

Might as well check out the Beach while we are here.

a view back to the lighthouse

 

.

We get to see some horses

a beautiful Sunset bodes well for departure tomorrow

Convenient that the restaurant serves breakfast on the weekends.  Had a delicious Crab Omelette.

 

 Tucson talks BBQ with the resident pig before we hit the road

 

 

The journey up to New York begins tomorrow! 

Trip North - Outer Banks - Wright Brothers Museum

 

We head to the Outer Banks

We arrive at our Boondockers Welcome spot in Jarvisburg, NC

A nice place to park for a couple of days.  

About 15-20 minute drive to the Outer Banks

 

  After setting up and lunch at BJ's Carolina Cafe. 

 We head to the Wright Brothers National Memorial

 We check out the sculpture recreation of the 1903 historic flight

Gary oversees the takeoff

 

We head over to the Wright Brothers  The 60' tall Monument sits on a 

90' Sand Dune stabilized by grass.  It marks the the site of the hundreds of glider flights that preceded the first powered flight.

 

 

From here you get a good view of the flight sculpture

and the Ocean

We head to the Vistor Center, but it just closed

I did get a picture through the window

View back to the Monument

The reconstructed Hangar and Living Quarters/Workshop

 I was under the impression that the flight took off from the top of the Memorial Dune, but the first plane left the ground here, you can see remnants of the launching rail

The 1st flight went 120'

the 2nd 175'

the 3rd 200'

It's a long walk to the 4th flight

 

852' !

Time to head out

A stop at the beach on the way home.

We have a whole day tomorrow to explore