A College Visit and a Trip to the NC Outer Banks - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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We just returned yesterday from a great family trip that included a college visit and a trip to explore the Outer Banks. I want to go ahead and get this trip report done because SCHOOL STARTS NEXT WEEK!!! End of my vacation!
First, the family introductions…
This trip included myself, DH and DD17. Our other DD19 is working at a summer camp and would not be able to join us.
This trip started out first as a college visit for DD17. She wanted to visit the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. This school is about 4 ½ hours from our home. We have been wanting to visit the Outer Banks, so we decided to combine the two. We ended up making a huge circle within the State since we live near the foothills. Here is our route (courtesy of AAA),
We left early on Thursday, August 8 to drive to Wilmington, NC. As I said, this is about 4 ½ hours from home. We arrived a little early, so we ate at a local Mexican Restaurant. After eating, we headed over to the campus to meet for our tour.
After our tour, we decided to go ahead and check into our hotel. I found a TownePlace Suites by Marriott that was close to the campus. The main reason I liked this hotel was that each room had a full kitchen with a full refrigerator. We had planned on camping one night at the Outer Banks and I knew that I would need a place to refrigerate our food.
We set out to get some dinner. We found a good local seafood restaurant called The Boathouse Restaurant that had some great Calabash seafood. (Calabash style is lightly breaded then fried…always with hushpuppies served on the side)
After dinner, we went to get a few groceries for our camping trip tomorrow evening. I purchased some steaks and we also stocked up on some mosquito repellant.
After we got back to the room, I placed the steaks into some marinade and then put them into the freezer. That way they would be frozen when I put them into the cooler and would thaw out by tomorrow evening.
We had to get up and leave by 6:00 the next morning so we were in bed pretty quickly.
Up next…tomorrow will feature two ferry rides, exploring Ocracoke Island and setting up camp at Cape Hatteras.
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We were up insanely early today because we were on a tight schedule. Our plan was to drive the 3 hour drive to the Cedar Island Ferry. Then take the ferry to Ocracoke Isand. Tour Ocracoke and then take another ferry to Cape Hatteras where we would camp for the night.
We made our goal of pulling out from the parking lot at 6:00. We had made reservations to ride the ferry at 10:00. We had to be there by 9:30 at the latest or we could lose our spot on the ferry. It is recommended that you make reservations for this ferry and the cost depends on the size of the vehicle. We knew that it would take about 3 hours to get there, and we thought we might stop and get some breakfast on the way there.
To drive from Wilmington, NC to Cedar Island you go through a lot of small towns and some pretty undeveloped parts of the coast. It was a real pretty drive and we were able to see the sunrise over the water. We had planned to get some breakfast and eat while we were waiting to board the ferry, but there were no restaurants close to the Cedar Island Ferry. (we passed several towns where we could have gone through a drive thru, but we thought there might be one closer-we will know next time) We arrived at the ferry at 9:00. They have a small visitor center and some picnic tables. We had some food in the car, so we made some sandwiches and sat at the picnic table while we waited to board the ferry. We ended up boarding a little after 10:00. This ferry takes you to Ocracoke Island.
Ocracoke Island is ONLY accessible by ferry, private boat or airplane. There are NO bridges to the island. The island is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The entire island is owned by the US National Park Service, except for the small village.
The Cedar Island Ferry to Ocracoke takes about 2 ½ hours. After boarding the ferry, we got out of the car and walked up to the upper level of the boat. They have an air conditioned area with seats, bathrooms and vending machines. They also have a few booths available, but we did not get upstairs fast enough to snag one. We read and played Scrabble on my Ipad during the trip. I noticed that a few families brought board games for their family to play during the trip. We also walked out onto the deck and took pictures.
We finally arrived in Ocracoke a little after 12:30. After disembarking, we stopped first at this historical marker. For you Pirates of the Caribbean fans (and I am one of them) this is what really happened to Blackbeard. (Blackbeard actually had a home in Bath, NC which is open for tours)
We then made a quick stop at the British Cemetery. In 1942, a British submarine was torpedoed and sunk with all hands lost. Four bodies of the crew were found and buried on Ocracoke. Two of the gravesites are marked as unknown, and the other two are named. This small piece of land is leased to the British government as long as the graves are there.
Next….We finish touring Ocracoke, ride another ferry and set up camp.
Great start and fascinating to see the British cemetery and learn about the history behind that.
The citizens of Ocracoke used to care for the graves, but they are now cared for by the US Coastguard. There is actually another British cemetery located near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Every year a memorial service is held in May to honor the men buried there.
After driving around some, we decided to get a quick bite for lunch. We grabbed a burger and some ice cream at a small shop in the village. We then went to take some pictures of the Ocracoke Island Lighthouse.
After getting some pictures, we started driving to the other end of the island to get on another ferry. We stopped and got some pictures of the “Banker” ponies. Legend has it that they are descendants of horses left here by shipwrecked explorers in the 16th or 17th century. They are permanently penned to prevent over-grazing and to safeguard them from traffic. The heard is cared for by the National Park Service.
We arrived at the Hatteras Ferry around 3:00. This ferry to Cape Hatteras is shorter (only 40 minutes), smaller (no seating available), runs continually, is free and does not require reservations. We actually arrived right before they started boarding, so we did not have to wait long.
By the time we arrived in Hatteras, we were all hot, tired and ready to set up our camp for the evening. We drove to the Cape Lookout campground. We were surprised to see that there wasn’t anyone on duty at the guard station. You had to pick out your campsite and then fill out an envelope and place your fee ($20.00) in the envelope. (This campground has sites for both campers and tents. It has bathrooms and showers ---but no hot water). We picked out our campsite and began to set up camp. It was SO WINDY!!! We had a hard time getting everything set up. The wind was a blessing, because we did not need our mosquito repellant (which is recommended for a trip to the Outer Banks in the summer). View from our camp site.
We prepared our dinner….steaks (marinated from last night), potatoes (from our garden) and onions, sliced tomatoes (also from our garden) and smores.
After dinner, we drove to the beach access so we could walk on the beach for a while. We saw lots of these signs and blocked off areas….
After walking on the beach for a while, we went to take cold showers and get ready for bed. It was so windy during the night, it kind of kept me awake, so I did not sleep well.
Quite an adventure. Not usre I would tackle it with tents. Very lucky about the wind keeping the bugs away. From your map it looks like you are from an area near Hickory. That is some drive. I hope the college visits went well.
Quite an adventure. Not usre I would tackle it with tents. Very lucky about the wind keeping the bugs away. From your map it looks like you are from an area near Hickory. That is some drive. I hope the college visits went well.
Actually we live in Granite Falls!!! Right next door to you!
Both ferry rides look neat! Sorry the wind made sleeping difficult but the campsite area looks very pretty.
gusts were about 20 mph during the night, but our tent held up. (Thanks to my husband). It was a nice site, The lighthouse is still used, so we could see the light rotating at night.
But the wind was a blessing in the end, because we did not need to use any bug spray!!
We were up early to get ready for our day. Our plan was to tour some of the area in the Outer Banks area. We ate breakfast and packed up the camp. We were going to stay in a hotel tonight in Manteo.
We drove over to see the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This is the world’s tallest brick lighthouse. We actually have not visited the lighthouse since it was moved in 1999. The lighthouse was in danger of falling into the ocean because of erosion. Despite efforts to stop the erosion, it was apparent that the only way to save the lighthouse was to move it. The lighthouse was moved inland. It may be hard to see in this picture (this was in a display) but you can see how close the ocean was getting to the lighthouse.
We took some pictures of the outside of the lighthouse. We decided not to climb to the top since temperatures were already in the 80’s at 9:00 in the morning. The more than 250 step climb to the top can be very hot.
We did go in the light keepers house (also moved in 1999) where we watched a movie about how the lighthouse was moved. There are also many artifacts on display. The area around the Outer Banks was called The Graveyard of the Atlantic because of all the shipwrecks off of the coast.
We then drove up the coast through some of the small beach towns of Avon, Salvo, Waves and Rodanthe (this should sound familiar to those of you who are Nicholas Sparks fans-He lives in NC and sets many of his novels here).
We also stopped at the Bodie Island Lighthouse. It is different from the Hatteras lighthouse which has diagonal stripes. I also purchased a National Parks Passport and started collecting the cancellation stamps.
We then headed up to Nags Head, NC. We stopped for lunch at the Yellow Submarine. DH and I had pizza and DD had a sub. We headed over to see if we could check into our hotel. Our room was ready. We really did not start planning this trip until a little over a month ago, so it was really hard to find a hotel room. This was definitely not the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in.
We rested a little before heading out. When we walked out of our hotel room we noticed that the sky was really dark! This did not look well for our plans for the evening. When we planned this trip, we wanted to see “The Lost Colony”, an outdoor drama about the first English Colony that settled in this area in 1597 and celebrated the first English child born in this country, Virginia Dare. It is called the Lost Colony because they disappeared and were never heard from again. The drama is performed on the site where the actual events took place. The Waterside Theatre is located on the grounds of the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in Manteo, NC. (If you plan to see it, bring your mosquito spray!!!) The drama is only performed between May and August.
I have seen the drama before, when I was about 5 years old. My DH and DD have never seen it and so we were all looking forward to the show. I had purchased tickets online and we had some great seats reserved. This year, they were offering tickets half price on Saturday nights! But the weather did not look promising.
We went to eat dinner at a local restaurant, The Fisherman’s Warf, which has been featured in the North Carolina magazine, Our State. The food was really good and featured freshly caught seafood.
We decided to drive over to the theatre to see if the drama was still going to be performed. It had started raining and storming at this point. They told me at the box office that they may hold the start of the show until 9:00 to see if the weather would improve. They offered me rain cancellation insurance for my tickets at $3.00 per ticket, so I went ahead and purchased that. If the show was cancelled, I would receive the cost of the tickets back.
We waited for about an hour, and then it was announced that the show was definitely cancelled for this evening because of the storms in the area. This is the major disappointment of our trip.
We decided to head back to the hotel and just rest for the evening, since none of us had slept well the night before. When I called my mom and told her about the cancelled show, she told me “Well that’s just a good excuse to come back!”.
By the way, if any of you are planning a visit to North Carolina, there is another outdoor drama on the other side of the state called Unto These Hills, about the Cherokee Indians. It is excellent and I would highly recommend.
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