Outer Banks Pics - Part 1

Here are a few pics of vacation so far.
I've taken more since these but haven't loaded them into the computer yet.
So here goes.

This is our cottage "Sea Beyond" - we rented from Outer Beaches Realty (who we usually use and like very much)... it sits one lot back from the Atlantic Ocean and has really good views.

When we got here it had been raining on us for ten hours straight (definately the worst trip down we've ever had) but when we got to Hatteras Island, miraculously it stopped raining.
Which was super, considering we had all our crap to unload.

After unpacking we walked down to the beach (a very short walk from our cottage) and checked out the views. The ocean was a noisy, scary sumbitch on sunday afternoon.

The Avon Pier (above)







Mom and I on the beach the first day.
Yes, it was that windy & chilly.


Todd checking out the beach.



Currituck Lighthouse in Corolla, NC. (1875)

Corolla is way up at the northern end of the Outer Banks. It is about 77 miles north of where we stay in Avon. Takes about an hour & 50 minutes to get there. We generally only go up that far once during the week, as you can imagine.



Currituck Light is all red-brick, not painted.
Quite striking, it stands 158 feet high.


Todd climbed the light (214 steps) and took this picture halfway up.
I've went up before, so I stayed down on the ground with Mom.

Some aerial views from the top of the lighthouse:








There is a really nice nature path that leads to the sound on the lighthouse grounds, and these flowers grow wild all over the path.




Here's the beautiful Bodie Island Lighthouse (1872) just south of Nags Head.
It stands 156 feet high and is the exact same design as the Currituck Light, except for its wide black and white stripes, of course.

You cannot climb Bodie right now, but there are plans in motion to restore it to make it stable enough for climbing. It would have really unbelieveable views, and I hope someday we're able to see them.

Ok, that's all for right now.
We've also been to Ocracoke since, and are hitting the Cape Hatteras Light (only a few miles down the road from here) tommorrow.
More pics to come....

Arrivederci...

Off to the beach.



We'll leave the light on for 'ya.

Anticipation...

Well, I've done it.

I've talked the hubby into yet another trip 600 miles south to the Outer Banks!
Yes, I'm crazy, and yes, I'm psyched!!



'Cause this year will be an even more eventful trip, as we've convinced my mom to come along.
She's never been there, and to my knowledge hasn't been to the beach (only Baltimore Harbor and the likes) since I was like, 2.
If I'm wrong, she'll tell me. But I don't think so.

And if you haven't been to the Outer Banks, you haven't seen one of the most unspoiled, naturally beautiful places on earth. Granted, I'm talking about Hatteras Island... cause those of you who've been up north to Nags Head (about 45 miles up north from Avon, where we usually stay) have seen the more commercial side of the Outer Banks. Nice, but we prefer the less crowded southern beaches.

Anyway... I booked a cottage tonight and so we're off, come May 17th. Off season is the BEST time to go (provided you don't have kids in school) because again - less crowded (there have been times we've been down on the beach and there is literally no one else there. Unreal). The best part about going in May (or in the autumn, which we have done - but have also had plans cancelled due to a hurricane, so that can work against you) is you get fantastic off-season prices.

So I can say, with all certaintly, that May is such a fab month. The Kentucky Derby (2 days and counting...), the Preakness Stakes, and VACATION.
I really didn't think we'd be going again this year, but really we can't pass up the major deals. The cottages are marked down (due to the economy I suppose) even lower than usual, the gas prices are half of what they were last year at this time when we went, and we get to show my mom all the sites.
I hope she's as excited as we are. Not about the eleven hour car ride, of course...but everything else!

I know she'll get a kick out of crossing the Bonner Bridge (below) at Oregon Inlet. It connects the lower Outer Banks (Hatteras Island) to the upper part (Bodie Island).... first time I crossed it I nearly held my breath.
It's one of the most dangerous bridges in America. With good reason.






I love the way you just kind of go down the path and hello! Here's the ocean!

So much prettier than the boardwalks that are generally seen at the beach, with sand dragged in to meet the sidewalks and people towel to towel... ugh.
Natural beauty. That's the way to go.





Avon is the star on the map. It's the town the farthest out to sea. You really feel like you are in the ocean, here, folks. No doubt about it. You can feel pretty helpless when you're traveling on a two lane highway and you can see ocean to both your left and your right.

The Outer Banks is the little "tampon string" you see on the map when the weatherman is telling you about all the hurricanes coming out at sea :)

Above is the Avon Fishing Pier.

Fishing is one of the biggest draws of the entire area. The Outer Banks has some of the best fishing on the east coast.

Tuna, mackerel, bluefish, red drum, trout, and flounder are just a few types here.

It's a thrill to watch someone catch something right out of the raging surf. Way cool.

The always lovely - and most recognized - Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

No matter what, we always go see it several times while there.

At night at the cottage, you can always see the light from the decks.

Helluva nightlight, you know?

Everybody has to have a sticker or license plate or something with the trademark OBX on it.

It's tradition.

Only three weeks to wait.

Hope I can handle it.

Wistful thinking...

I've been on vacation (from work, didn't go anywhere) this past week, and it's been great, of course.

One of the things I did was go to the movies with my mom.

Now, she said she would go see 'Quarantine' with me, but after thinking about it, I didn't want to be responsible for the bad dreams I know she would still be having if we'd seen that horror movie. Horror movies are not something my mother relishes as much as her daughter does.

Hence, we went to see (at a $4.75 early bird price - I was stoked!) Nights in Rodanthe.

It was Richard Gere and Diane Lane's third movie together (after The Cotton Club and Unfaithful) and you can tell - they always seem like old friends.

More on the movie synopsis in a minute.

I had read the book when it came out some years ago (2002) - Nicholas Sparks is one of the most prolific contemporary (romantic drama in my opinion) novelists of these times.
He has written something like 14 novels - all best sellers.

His very first book would be on the top of my most loved books (The Notebook). Read that one if you haven't. It's great.

Anyway, another engaging aspect of this movie is that it was literally filmed in Rodanthe (pronounced row-dan-thee), which is a small oceanside village on Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks (N.C.).
I was so excited when I learned early last year that they were making this movie - I hoped they truly did use the location specific to the story and not some place in Canada, filling in for the Outer Banks.

When Todd and I went to Hatteras Island last May, they had just wrapped the movie shoot. There were signs and pictures here and there on the island of the stars, sets, and what-not.
I was actually glad they were not filming anymore once we got there, or travel around the undersized island might have been wretched.
After all, there is only one road (and it's a two lane) in and out of Hatteras. Good old Route 12.

The beach house used in N.I.R. is, indeed, in Rodanthe. It is the very first house you come to in a bevy of beach houses in a new-ish development called Mirlo Beach. Most of these houses are quite large, and almost all are for rent. They typically sleep 8 - 10 people, but there are many that sleep 14-16!!
In the movie, the house is called "The Inn At Rodanthe". In real life, it is called "Serendipity"...

You can read a bit about it being used for the movie here.

This is what it currently looks like. And yes, it sits directly on the sand at the edge of the ocean.

It is one of several homes that the hubby and I always gaze at in wonder.
As in, 'wonder what it would be like there in a hurricane?'

For the movie, it got dressed up a bit. Here's a few photos from the set.

Daytime.. with bright blue shutters.

And at night.

And yes, it is always that beautiful there.

What can I say about the plot?

OK...

I have heard alot of negative reviews - saying it is too sappy and predictable. Well it isn't anything the book isn't. It is a romantic story, just deal with it and get out your tissues.

Adrienne (Diane Lane) is going through a separation with her unfaithful husband when she agrees to take care of her friend's coastal inn.
Before she leaves, her husband (played by Law & Order SVU's Christopher Meloni - whom I kept expecting to yell at me or get out the handcuffs...) asks to come back, saying he made a mistake. Adrienne isn't sure that is what she truly wants, despite the children's urgings. She leaves for the inn and says she will think about it.

At the inn, there is already bad weather forecasted when the first and only guest for the extended weekend arrives. Dr. Paul Flanner's life is in turmoil as well (of course)... he is there to meet with a man (Scott Glenn) whose wife died on Paul's operating table during a routine surgery. There is a pending lawsuit and the blame has been placed directly on Paul. He is there thinking he may be able to talk his way out of getting sued.

Paul and Adrienne bond over chicken and wine and the beautiful scenery.

They tell their life stories and feel sorry for each other.
A hurricane strikes and they bond some more over their fear of.... well, DYING I suppose!
They fall in love - (albeit rather quickly!).

There is nothing really new going on here, plotwise. We've all seen this kind of movie before. You know where it is going. Right down to the corner of Sentimental Street and Emotional Alley.
But for me, even though I knew the ending (and I won't spoil it here) I was caught up in their quick love story and the coastal vistas that I have walked myself.
There are some inconsistencies that I could point out, but if you've never been there, you'd never know.
And just as I figured, I was teary by the end. Damn that Nicholas Sparks!

On a side note: The song from Nights in Rodanthe - the one they've been playing on all the commercials - is a great one. 'Love Remains the Same' by Gavin Rossdale (from the band 'Bush', and also Mr. Gwen Stefani) .

So it was a decent movie and it also brought back good vacation memories for me, because no matter which village you stay in on Hatteras Island - they all look just the same when you're down by the water...

I'm sure there are lots of lovely beaches on this continent.
But I don't think I'd stay anywhere else that has such undisturbed, stunning natural beauty.
Matter of fact, I just don't think I'd stay anywhere else, period.

Yes, it always looks like this.

The Joys of Traveling?

Taking a vacation from the daily grind is something everyone looks forward to, right?

Even if it's to porchville, it's nice to be off work.
(For those of you who don't work, you'll just have to imagine what it is like going to a job everyday, putting in time doing your thing so you can bring food home to eat and have a roof over your head. But we all can't sit around eating bon bons and watching Jerry Springer, ok?)

Anyway, I recently got to take a vacation with the hubby to our favorite location, the Outer Banks.

The 'where' is not the topic. The 'how' and the 'whys' are.

How we managed to get there in one piece and Why there aren't more road rage incidents is amazing.
Traveling can be like a nightmare.

**Top ten annoyances on recent 600 mile trip (each way) to and from the eastern-most part of North Carolina.**

1) Rest areas that are closed. I mean, WTF? We pass a sign for a rest area and there is a big yellow sticker on it: "CLOSED!" Soon after that, a sign that says "next rest area 46 miles". They are giving us fair warning that we might have to pee in an empty Mountain Dew bottle if we don't stop, then make it impossible to do so. When we get to the rest area exit it is of course all blocked off with cones and barrels, and it says 'closed until fall 2009". Say what? Not only is it closed all of the summer, when most people are actually traveling but it is closed for a year and a half! What are they doing? Installing space stations? New-age toilets?Whatever. Get out the Mountain Dew bottle.

2) Big rigs driving amazingly fast. No matter what the weather. No matter if there is road construction ahead. No matter if there is a cop lying in wait. No matter if there is a broken down car along the side of the road with a bloodied individual standing there waving a white walmart bag for help. They just don't....freakin'....slow....down. I know they are on some kind of mission or whatever - get to the locale and dump the load, make more money! It's like they are secret agents or something. Can't stop or slow down for anything!

Well let me get out my secret decoder ring and try to make some sense of it. I firmly believe they don't care if they kill someone. Nothing I hate more than seeing one of those monsters in the rear-view mirror and/or right in front of me.

Sidenote: Bad also because when they are in front of you, you can't see the confounded exit signs. Damn!

3) Fruit stands. Don't get me wrong, I like fruit. I really do. Matter of fact we have been known to stop at these said markets many times. However, must they put little signs in succession along the highway two miles prior to the driveways? Apples.............peaches...........watermelons............peanuts............jams..............! This makes people, in particular the elderly, slow down to like, 25 mph to read all the signs and look for the stand. So then everyone is slowing down to 25 mph. How about one damn sign a few hundred yards before the market. Just something plain and simple. FRUIT STAND AHEAD. They'll get your drift, ok?

4) Rubberneckers. People who slow down to a crawl when there is something to see, be it a automobile accident, a police car, a hitchhiker, a dead deer - whatever!

Then there is this massive interruption in the flow of traffic and we have to wait an hour to get past the Busch Gardens exit instead of 5 minutes. Wake up people.

5) People who cross the yellow line inside a tunnel. I don't even know why you aren't allowed to do it, but it annoys me to no end that there has always got to be some jackass in a sporty little red Mitsubishi with the top down who speeds through the tunnel, changing lanes at will. And with his sunglasses on - something else they tell you not to do. If I have to take off my sunglasses, so do you - you middle-aged balding butthead.

6) Kids who stare. Didn't your parents tell you it's not polite to stare? Then why are there so many kids making faces and picking their nose while gawking at us as the folks drive by on the way to Disneyworld or where ever else they are un-deserving enough to go to? I can't tell you how many children passed us and made faces or just plain stared at us like they were in a trance. Maybe they are. Maybe some parents get out the cough syrup before a car trip. Not a bad idea.

7) People who throw things out the window. I didn't really think people still had the nerve to litter anymore, but they do. Mostly it was cigarettes, but there were also candy wrappers, cups, and other (mostly) paper items. It's still against the law as far as I know, and in any state. And it looks like shit along the road. Immediately I dislike someone when I see them doing this. How about you?

8) Roadkill. Now I know for a fact these animals are not lining up to be slaughtered, but I thought there was someone in charge of picking the poor corpses up... like the game warden or something? I am a huge animal-lover, and I get upset even when I see a slain squirrel, let alone a deer or (heaven forbid) a dog or cat.

And on that note, who knew there were so many damn possums on the Outer Banks? (well, maybe there technically aren't that many, as most of them are deader than a doornail on Route 12 in Dare County, NC)

9) Driving in the rain. We drove from Hagerstown, MD to our house (approximately 170 miles) in the pouring rain, alot of which was on the crappy PA Turnpike where not only does the rain lie on the road in hydroplane-inducing puddles, but the fog rolls in like a John Carpenter movie. With the aforementioned big semi-trucks plowing down the road on each side of us I thought for sure I was a goner. Thankfully, I am here to tell the tale.

10) Finally getting home. On one hand, I am kissing the ground that my cat's paws pitter-patter on just to have reached my destination unscathed. But then there is the realization that I am home. Which generally means we have a mound of clothes to wash, phone calls to return, suitcases & beach chairs to return to the attic, bikes to put in the garage, and the worst thing of all - work to return to.
It was nice while it lasted.

Back from the beach

Well we've made it back to reality.
After a week of 75 degree temperatures, great seafood, relaxing on the beach, and visiting our favorite Outer Banks haunts, we are stuck back in our lovely small town America with low 40 degree temps, rain, and allergies that won't quit...
Oh well.

Above is Cape Hatteras lighthouse on the beautiful, natural beach in Buxton, NC.
It is the tallest lighthouse in America at 193 feet. Built in 1870, it stands watch over the dangerous Diamond Shoals off Cape Point where the warm Gulf Stream and the cold Atlantic current converge and make the waters there some of the most dangerous in the world. Hence the area has the dubious reputation as the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

The Light was moved from its precarious location at water's edge in 1999 to a safer location inland a bit (moved over 2900 feet, a bit at a time as you can well imagine) - it was in certian danger of being lost forever to the ocean's wrath. Thank goodness it has been preserved - it is a national treasure, as all of our many lighthouses are here in the US.

Cape Hatteras is a National Seashore on the eastern most point of the Outer Banks - a series of barrier islands that jut out off the coast of North Carolina like a comma. Here's a picture of what it looks like from space.




Looks kinda like a tampon string, eh?

We love it there. We mostly stay in the small towns of Avon or Buxton, so I'd say we are just about in the middle of the "string", and are probably the furthest out to sea.

Here's the bridge we cross to get there:



Herbert Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet, Outer Banks, NC


The first time we crossed it we were thunderstruck at how long it is, and how rather scary it was. But now we're old hands at it, and try to pretend it isn't one of the most-desperately-in-need-of-being-replaced- bridges in America.
The year we towed the Harley down with us, we rode across it - it's pretty windy on a bike, but the views are outstanding.

Speaking of scary, below is a photo from the edge of the top of Cape Hatteras Light. Obviously if you have a heart condition, climbing it is out of the question.
My hubby took this picture, as although I have traversed to the top of the lighthouse, I am not brave enough to go near the edge, touch the railing, or do anything but shimmy along the side of the massive brick structure. Way too high!
Way too windy! Way too 'have-an-accident-in-my-shorts'!
That is Buxton village that you can see.




And finally, here's Sammy the seagull.
Seagulls just like this Laughing Gull (seriously) abound all over the islands.
Of course.

But I, for one, kinda think they are cool. A messy, scavaging, noisy, prolific, cool seabird. He is pretty though, right?
They love to eat bread & crackers (duh) and so we always feed them from the cottage decks and listen to them squawk and annoy the hell out of the neighbors. See, even on vacation we are nasty.



I'll have some more pictures later - don't want to bombard. Also more on the general annoyances of taking a 12 hour road trip in America these days. Wait for it....

Till then... check out this new website.
We first saw these shirts down at the beach and thought they were hysterical.

I'm a big fan of the "life is good" merchandise - so when we saw these we were howling with laughter.
Thought this one was appropriate for today's post:





http://www.lifeiscrap.com/


check them out!

And they're off!

We're off to the Outer Banks for a week.
So the blog will be on a brief hiatus.
Catch ya when we get back!
Cheerio!

Thinking of nice weather.....

With nice weather comes our usual trip to Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. If you know me at all, you'll know I yearn for the ocean - seafood, sand between my toes, walks on the shoreline, and of course, lighthouses.


(Lighthouses of the Outer Banks)

I even miss the seagulls...




Wish I were there.......