A Few More Days at the Beach

Just Another Day at the Beach (Nags Head)

These pictures make me really want to go back!  This was such a fun (albeit windy) day at the beach.  Everyone was a little braver.  I made a sand "bucket" seat for Drew by basically digging out a hole in the sand and sticking him in it.  Drew was more comfortable putting his tootsies in the water (he cried the first day when we took him to the water).  He was also more adventurous with the sand, wanting to grab it with his hands as well as his toes.  Tessie did more shell collecting, castle building and played with Dad in the water.

Cape Hatteras

We reserved a whole day to explore pretty much the entire Outer Banks.  We took a drive down scenic Highway 12 to Hatteras and then hopped a ferry to the last, remote barrier island, Ocacroke.  The whole drive took a good 1 1/2 hours and the ferry ride was 40 mins. long.

At the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, we were treated to a presentation on sea turtles by one of the park rangers.  Tess was pretty engrossed by this, and she kept repeating back to me everything the ranger said as if I were not sitting there listening to it too.  (Though the whole trip Tess repeated everything I said to Ryan, as if he were not sitting there listening.)  I let her pick out one surprise in the gift shop, and she picked a tiny rubber sea turtle.  She imaginatively named it "Sea-Tur," and we spent the rest of the trip searching for it in the car every time she dropped it.

Ferry to Ocacroke Island

The ferry ride was an event in and of itself.  Tess was excited because, "You know I like ferry boats?  Like Tinkerbell?"  She spent most of the trip inside the passenger's lounge, where they had a table with pictures of OBX lighthouses on it.  She made up a game that involved identifying the lighthouses we saw.

Ocacroke Island

I had been a long day and we were pretty tired once we finally reached Ocacroke, but Tess got it in her head that the point of this whole outing was to go to the beach.  We first made a quick stop to see the wild ponies of Ocacroke (similar to those of Chincoteague and Assateague).  She named these 3 ponies "Brownie," "White Chocolate" and "Dark Chocolate."

Then we headed over to the most beautiful beach I think I've ever seen.  The sand was very fine and the water was a clear, blue-green.  The way the surf crashed created a long stretch of wading area, perfect for Tess to splash in.  There were different shells than we'd seen before and the shoreline was covered with tiny clams that were washed up with each wave and would burrow into the sand.  Tess could have stayed for hours playing in the surf, making "sand angels," and collecting shells.

We stayed too long and drove home in the dark, because we didn't want it to end.  That pretty much sums up how we felt about our time the beach!