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There are other changes as well.
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We go on to the joy and through the tears
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
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Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Looks like a lovely spot. We just got a puppy ....I never thought of trying to find a pet friendly hotel... wonder if she needs a passport ...looking forward to more
Well... the hotel needs work, but the location and the pet policy were great!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Glad you made it Kenny! Looks like a nice place!
It was a long drive, Marnie, but somehow, I stayed awake! lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Looks like a nice place! The beach looks beautiful!
The bad thing is: we never went back to the beach at the hotel! We just ran out of time. All my pictures of the hotel are from their website, so... it does look nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MyRapunzal
Yay! Looks fabulous!! Can't wait to here about the beach and WILD HORSES!!! Sounds relaxing already!
Hmmm... relaxing... I don't know, but it was fun!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Glad you arrived safely. Looks like a nice place.
With the traffic of today, there is a lot to be said about arriving safely! lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by MGW
You drove right through my hometown on I 64!
Can't wait to hear about your trip!
Yep! We sure did, if you live in VA on I 64, we drove the length of it... twice! Did you hear me "BEEP"?
Quote:
Originally Posted by rlb38
So glad I found your report Kenny,
Looks like a lovely spot. We just got a puppy ....I never thought of trying to find a pet friendly hotel... wonder if she needs a passport ...looking forward to more
Roberta! I'm glad you're here! Don't know about a passport... depends on how big your carry-on bag is! But if you need a "pet friendly" hotel, just google it, it will help, expect to pay a fee of $10-$100 not necessarily refundable. I'd say $25-$50 non-refundable is the norm. That could be per night, though in this case it was $25 for all pets in the room for the length of the stay, non-refundable.
I did say this would be a short story, so let me go on...
We tried to plan things to do, but there were so many things, we ended up just mostly driving. The hotel is located in Kill Devil Hills, which is just South of Kitty Hawk and about 60 miles North of Hatteras, NC.
First Things First
First things first... breakfast! We got out of the room somewhere around 9am. We thought about going to the restaurant in the hotel, but we wanted to get out and see the sights, so we decided to find something else. When we arrived last night, we grabbed all the literature we could get from the rack in the hotel lobby. This included a dining guide. It should be noted here that we cannot make a decision between the 3 of us. We struggled over whether to get donuts and sandwiches at Dunkin' Donuts or find a nice “sit-down” restaurant where we could relax and make some sort of “plan of action” for the day. Again, I need to clarify something. We live about 80 miles from the nearest Dunkin' Donuts. Brenda is from New England where there is a DD... or 2, on every corner! So, this was a difficult decision! For this breakfast, however, we found a place just a few blocks from the hotel that was “named” breakfast: Stack 'em High Pancakes! We decided to give them a try. When you look through the windows here, you think it is a buffet and since that was not what we were looking for, we almost left, but finally went through the door and got in line. They make sure you know it is “...not a buffet!” as you enter the restaurant with several of the staff telling you that. You do go through the line and choose drinks and fruit cups and whatnot, but then you order and pay at the cash register and your food is brought to you by the efficient wait staff. Mom ordered pecan pancakes, Brenda ordered strawberry pancakes, and I got biscuits & gravy with hashbrowns. The gravy and hashbrowns were some of the best I've ever had. The rest of our breakfast was good. I'm sorry I didn't think to take pictures, but I was not really expecting to write this.
Hitchhikers, Wild Horses, and Sandtraps
We decided to go North as far as we could and try to see the famous wild horses that roam the beach. As we headed North, we entered the town of Duck, NC. Driving through Duck, we were reading the names of the streets, some of which had “duck” names(imagine that). As we went along, Brenda noticed a street named “Charles Jenkins Lane”... that was my father's name! We HAD to turn back and take this picture of the sign.
*Charles Jenkins Lane*
Perhaps Dad was hitching a ride from Heaven on this Father's Day excursion! Ooooooo......
Back on the road, It was a very scenic drive, at one point we could see the ocean on both sides of the road. We drove to Corolla, the end of the road, unless you have 4 wheel drive, but you need to have or rent a 4WD vehicle, or take a tour because the sandy beach is just that... sandy! *(The "sandtrap" in the title for this section)* Time being limited, we decided to save the horses for the next trip. (Website with pics)
I had noticed a lighthouse nearby, so we went in search of it, and found it just a mile or two back down the road.
The Currituck Beach Lighthouse
(Lighthouse #1)
It was a beautiful brick lighthouse.
*The Girls on the porch of the gift shop.*
It was built with about 1 million bricks and stands about 162ft. high. It is the Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Corolla, NC. You could take the stairs to the top, but none of us felt healthy enough to try it this time. I imagine the view is breathtaking.
Just next to the lighthouse was “Historic Corolla Village” which we drove through, but did not find it as historic as we had hoped. It was a reproduction of an old time village(I think, probably early 20th century) that housed several little shops and the Wild Mustang Museum. Although we would have liked to look into the museum, by then it was too hot to leave the dogs in the car(another place to stop next time.)
We thought we might like to see the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, so we headed back South.
Kitty Hawk
On the way to the aquarium, we passed through Kitty Hawk, made famous by the Wright Brother's first flight. There is a memorial to them there, so we stopped to check it out. There was a fee to get in, and they were only open for a little while longer, so we decided not to stay, but we did get the guard to let us take pictures of the monument while we turned around.
Another “must see” for the next time as it looked very interesting.
Roanoke Island
On to the Aquarium, which Brenda wanted to see. When we got there, again, there was only a little while left till closing, and an $8 per person admission, so we decided that would have to wait, too. Nearby is the Elizabethan Gardens, which sounded interesting, but $8 admission again and temps in the area of 90 humid degrees, so we opted out of that for now, too. There was one more attraction on Roanoke Island we thought might be fun. The Elizabeth II, a reproduction of one of the ships the settlers would have sailed to come here.
I thought I was following the signs to the ship, but when we got to the dock, the ship was on the other side of the bay.
There was a Pirate ship wreaking havoc in the bay while we were there.
The view across the Roanoke Sound was beautiful.
The good thing about being in the wrong place to tour the Elizabeth II was, there is a lighthouse at the end of the dock where we were.
(Lighthouse #2)
It is the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse and is located where the wastewater treatment plant used to be for the town of Manteo. There was going to be a wedding held here after the lighthouse closed for the day, which would be soon.
We spent a while here enjoying the water and the lighthouse as the parking area filled up with the wedding party. As, I think you can see from the pictures, the lighthouse was built at the end of a dock. We had to laugh at the dogs. Princess, took one look at the water on both sides of the dock and refused to go any further, so Mom had to carry her. Our little Tia couldn't get down the dock fast enough. She is so small, her little legs kept sliding between the boards on the dock! She would pull her leg back out of the cracks and just keep on going, determined to get out to that lighthouse! She was just fearless... but hilarious! The lighthouse closed and we drove on around the bay to see about walking out to the Elizabeth II. When we got around there, it looked like it was closing, so we decided not to go in.
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Bodie Island Lighthouse
(Lighthouse #3)
Back over to Nags Head, State Route 12 heads south towards Cape Hatteras. Our map said a lighthouse called the Bodie Island Lighthouse should be on the right just after we turn South on NC 12. That was when we found out our map was not to scale. I did not have lighthouses programmed into the Garmin, so we had a very hard time finding it. Finally, we decided to just keep going South till we found it. So instead of a half mile after turning onto NC 12, it was about 5 miles, but we did find it. I thought, surely we would be able to see it as we crossed the Sound back over to Nags Head... and, though we didn't know it at the time, we could see it. What we thought was a water tower, was the lighthouse being refurbished.
The light was being reconditioned and did not look like a lighthouse!
Tia goes to the Beach
40-50 miles South, was the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. We decided to head down that way and find the lighthouse, plus Brenda had seen the Richard Gere movie, “Nights In Rodanthe” and wanted to go through Rodanthe, which was on the way. . As we drove South, we looked for a place where we could gain access to the beach easily. Up to now, most of the access areas had parking lots a long way from the beach. We found a parking lot that looked like it had easy access to the beach, and it did. We parked the car and had to climb a small dune to get to the beach, but soon, Tia and Princess were frolicking in the sand of an Atlantic Ocean beach! They weren't too sure what to think about the ocean, but us humans were lovin' it!
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
We continued on South and after a bit, came around a bend in the road, and... there, right in front of us and about 5 miles away, a huge lighthouse stood out above the other buildings and trees.
(Lighthouse #4)
While I was taking pictures, this freeloading gull decided to get in on the action.
I was really impressed with the base of this lighthouse.
Well it was time to head back and look for something to eat. We were about 50 miles from Kill Devil Hills and the sun was going down. As we crossed a bridge we got some sunset pictures:
The End of the Day
We had a menu for a place called Captain George's Seafood restaurant. It is a popular buffet not very far from our hotel. We decided to give them a try because they seemed to have the best variety of seafood we could find on such short notice. It was $28 plus drinks(not FABs) and all. The bill for the 3 of us came to $120 including tip. Although they did have crab legs and prime rib, we did not feel the buffet was worth the money. It was OK, but way too expensive. We liked some things, but most of the food was just OK. We went back to the hotel after dinner. It had been a pretty long day, after all, we had seen four lighthouses!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
...looking forward to more
But if you need a "pet friendly" hotel, just google it, it will help, expect to pay a fee of $10-$100 not necessarily refundable. I'd say $25-$50 non-refundable is the norm. That could be per night, though in this case it was $25 for all pets in the room for the length of the stay, non-refundable. 
We got out of the room somewhere around 9am. We thought about going to the restaurant in the hotel, but we wanted to get out and see the sights, so we decided to find something else. When we arrived last night, we grabbed all the literature we could get from the rack in the hotel lobby. This included a dining guide. It should be noted here that we cannot make a decision between the 3 of us. 
We struggled over whether to get donuts and sandwiches at Dunkin' Donuts or find a nice “sit-down” restaurant where we could relax and make some sort of “plan of action” for the day. Again, I need to clarify something. We live about 80 miles from the nearest Dunkin' Donuts. Brenda is from New England where there is a DD... or 2, on every corner! 
So, this was a difficult decision! For this breakfast, however, we found a place just a few blocks from the hotel that was “named” breakfast: 
as you enter the restaurant with several of the staff telling you that. You do go through the line and choose drinks and fruit cups and whatnot, but then you order and pay at the cash register and your food is brought to you by the efficient wait staff. Mom ordered pecan pancakes, Brenda ordered strawberry pancakes, and I got biscuits & gravy with hashbrowns. The gravy and hashbrowns were some of the best I've ever had. 
The rest of our breakfast was good. I'm sorry I didn't think to take pictures, but I was not really expecting to write this.
We drove to Corolla, the end of the road, unless you have 4 wheel drive, but you need to have or rent a 4WD vehicle, or take a tour because the sandy beach is just that... sandy! *(The "sandtrap" in the title for this section)* Time being limited, we decided to save the horses for the next trip. 
The lighthouse closed and we drove on around the bay to see about walking out to the Elizabeth II. When we got around there, it looked like it was closing, so we decided not to go in. 
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