After an exciting, hour long ferry ride, we arrived on the shores of Ocracoke Island. The first thing I noticed was the lack of ...anything. It is wonderfully undeveloped. The only town is the village of Ocracoke at the far southern end, the rest of the island is mostly National Seashore and completely wild. Love it!
It was afternoon when we got there, so we went into the town to check it out before everything closed for the day. We visited the Silver Lake Harbor, the National Park Visitor Center, and took a slow drive through the town. After getting a map, we set off to find the lighthouse...
The Ocracoke light is way different looking from the other two (Bodie and Hatteras). It is shorter and thicker (the walls at the base are 5' thick!) and solid white. Btw...we learned that the coloring of lighthouses is called their daymark. I never thought of it, but in the daytime, ships can tell where they are by the color/pattern on the lighthouse...at night they know because of the light's pattern (each one is unique). Pretty cool :)!
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| remember this picture? i took it right in front of the lighthouse :) |
Next, we headed over to Teach's Hole off of Springers Point. This area was the favorite hang-out of the pirate Blackbeard in the early 1700's. There wasn't really anything to see, it's one of those places that your imagination paints the picture for you :).
Our next destination was the heart of the island. This took us down the oldest street in the village, Howard Street.
A sandy path, no pavement here, cloaked in old live oak trees (my most favorite tree, so beautiful). The homes along this street are 200 and some odd years old. I could happily call any one of them home... *sigh*
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| love those stairs! |
After all our wanderings, it was past time to find some food. I had looked up a few of the restaurants and the prices were all a bit more than we wanted to spend that day. We were just about to pull into the little market (grocery store) to buy some picnic fixings when I spotted a food truck right next door. Serendipity! Eduardo's Taco Stand was such a find! Affordable and delicious...if you go, try the shrimp and crab burrito...mmm, so good...
Just across the street was a building with the name Teach's Hole, it was a pirate shop and also housed a Blackbeard museum. The little kids and I sat outside and ate our burritos while the two biggest kids went through the museum (admission was only a few $ each). Afterwards, we all browsed the gift shop...if you see a silver sword in the hands of my boys in some of my pictures, that's where it came from ;).
The sun was starting to get low in the sky, so we started making our way back towards the northern end of the island (and the ferry docks). Along the way, we made a stop at the pony pens...
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| ...the pirate sword at the pony pens... |
From the NPS website..."Legend has it that the “Banker” horses of Ocracoke were left here by shipwrecked explorers in the 16th or 17th century. European ships commonly carried livestock to the New World. If a ship ran aground near the coast, animals were thrown overboard to lighten the load so that the ship could be re-floated. The livestock were often left behind when the ship again set sail. Sir Richard Grenville’s ship Tiger ran aground at Ocracoke in 1585. There is speculation that he may have unloaded Spanish mustangs on the island."
Then it was time to walk on the beach. Finally...
I enjoyed seeing the town (very much!), but nothing can compare to a beautiful, natural shoreline like Ocracoke Island has...
We stopped and talked to a fisherman and his wife just as he was reeling in his line. What was on the end of it? A stingray! A very angry looking stingray! He kept swishing his tail with the barb on the end all around, trying to repay the poke in the mouth he had just endured ;). The man was able to get the ray off the hook and back into the water, but man...if that creature could talk, we would have all gotten an earful, hehehe...
Those two people were the only other ones on the beach, as far as the eye could see...
We walked, talked, and searched for treasures as the sun set...
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| anybody know what makes these bubbles in the sand as the waves recede? |
My favorite find was a smooth piece of shell or stone that has been tumbled by the waves...
The girls found some shells that they liked :)...
When it became too dark to see well, we walked back to our car and continued on to the ferry docks... which meant we would be riding the ferry (and I would be driving my car onto the ferry) in the dark! Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous at all this time. I guess Ocracoke Island worked some of its magic on me...
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| this picture makes it look WAY lighter out than it was...those are stars in the sky, it was completely dark |
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| the moon was really bright...so pretty on the water |
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| I finally turned the flash on and somehow this is the best picture I got of the kids on the ferry ride back |
When we got back to Hatteras, we stopped at a little General Store for some drinks and ended up chatting with the nice lady running the store for a quite a while. This was the norm everywhere we went...the people were all super friendly!
What a great day :)...
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