NC Outerbanks, Lighthouses, and Horseback riding! Part 1

All the bags are packed and we're ready to go!! 

 This weekend the family sets out on our journey to see the Outerbanks for M.L.'s birthday adventure! 

M.L.

YUM!

Our Plan:  to drive up through Roanoke Island, stopping at the North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island, through the northern outerbanks area to see the Corolla Wild Horses and the Currituck Lighthouse, back down to Bodie and Hatteras Lighthouses, hop on the ferry to Ocracoke, spend the night at a quaint island Inn, wake up and tool around the island seeing the Ocracoke lighthouse and Ocracoke Island Horses before jumping on the Ocracoke/Cedar Island ferry and then to the Outer Banks Riding Stables for some horseback riding fun, lastly--home, Jeeves, home!   All this while seeing nothing but blue skies and wonderfully sunny weather and two well behaved children in the back of the van who never once utter "Are we there yet?" or "How much longer?"  Oh!! To!!! Dream!!!!

Here is the reality of what happened!

We started our trip off heading out through the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge area, where my keen eyesight brought us a glimpse of a "Monster Gator." We stopped (don't tell the park rangers) and took a picture.  Then continued on the road hearing M.L. shout "Choot 'em Choot 'em". (Can you tell what her favorite show is?)



Monster Gator

We stopped off at North Carolina Aquarium at Roanoke Island and walked through 6 inches of water to get to the gate to get in!  So much for blue skies-luckily this is an indoor point of interest for us along the way.  The kids enjoyed the otter exhibit and loved watching the divers in the big tank and the shark feeding right after.   

 

We left there and headed over to the Nags Head area with plans to head up north to Corolla and the Currituck Lighthouse.

We followed Hwy 12 all the way to the end (just before it turns to beach sand) and parked in the visitor area for the Corolla Wild Horses boardwalk.  Off we trotted down the boardwalk whispering quitely, well almost, and listening for sounds of wildlife.  We rounded a corner to find a young white-tailed deer just off the path. 

We Stopped....she jumped on the boardwalk

then off as we inched our way forward to get a better look.



We were able to get quite close to her and snap a couple of pictures.



After "Bambi" scampered off into the woods we forged ahead to the end of the boardwalk and caught glimpses of the beautiful Corolla Horses.  M.L.'s favorite is this one...



becaue they "had a connection." she said.  "He just looked at me and I knew he liked me." 



Yum's favorite...all of them.  His big question was "Is it time to go get on the boat now?" (We heard that a lot during the day)

We set out back down Hwy 12 toward the Currituck Lighthouse.  I just love the lighthouse keepers house.  Absolutely beautiful!



ONWARD!! To Bodie!  or is it Body?  It's spelled Bodie but they say Body--Oh Well!!

 

By the time we got through with that and got down to Hatteras it was dark.  The kids did get to see the Hatteras Light even though we didn't get to see the Lighthouse.  They enjoyed hunting for the light on the horizon as we got closer.

We stopped for dinner at this cute little restaurant, Cafe 12.  We knew this was one of the last places to get anything to eat before we hopped on the ferry and so we pulled in not knowing what to expect.

Our waitress came over and explained some of the menu items and then headed off to get our drinks while we poured over the menus trying to decide what we wanted.

Snookums order the shrimp scampi wrap with garlic parm green beans





I ordered a signature dish of Cafe 12, a huge bacon spinach Flat.  They take a tortilla and throw it on the flatop and load it down with cheese and then sprinkle a ton more around the outside of the tortilla to create a ring of melted crusted yummy cheese!!  They served it with a side of raspberry vinegrette and a side of honey.  The bacon was super crispy and the spinach was delightful.  I used the honey on most of my pieces and as you can see it was huge!!



M.L. ordered the cheese quessadilla which got the same cheesey goodness treatment-by the time we took the picture of her food she had eaten half of it!





and of course because everyone else had pictures taken of their food, Yum had to have a picture taken of his

It WAS a hotdog!

Now to the Ferry and a short 40 minute ride to Ocracoke and SLEEP!!