Current Location: Camp Hatteras, Waves, North Carolina

We left Lumberton yesterday and drove up I-95 to Rocky Mount, North Carolina. From there, we took US 64 east to the coast, then NC 12 down the outer banks islands to our current location in Waves. As we drove down NC 12, we noticed a lot of spots where standing water was slowing traffic as everyone slowly trudged through the water.

This area had a whole lot of rain on Thursday (we arrived on Saturday) that had a lot of places flooded out. The campground, itself, had several flooded sites. We had a fair amount of standing water next to our site in the grass. It has since finally subsided.

All set up

After we got set up, we ended up going out to eat at a local pizza place since dinner was still frozen. We also walked out to the beach for a few minutes and checked out the sand and water (cold).

Val at the beach

Artsy beach photo

Today was a sightseeing day. First, we drove south to Buxton and visited the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. We mainly wandered about at ground level. You could buy a ticket and hike to the top of the lighthouse, but we decided not to do that. We did pick up some items for our National Parks passport book at the gift shop.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Malcolm realized while we were here that he first visited Buxton with his family on a vacation in 1966, so it was a sort of 50 year reunion for him. He started to try to find the hotel where they stayed back then, but after visiting the lighthouse, he was pretty sure that the hotel probably no longer exists.

The reason being that the Outer Banks “move” inland a few feet every year, with the wind and waves pushing the eastern shore inwards. That is why they moved the Cape Hatteras lighthouse in 1999 about 1500 feet in from the shore, because it was in danger of being surrounded by ocean very soon. For the same reason, the location of the beachfront motel where Malcolm stayed in 1966 is probably a couple hundred feet out in the ocean by now.

After visiting the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, we headed back north. We stopped at the Top Dog restaurant, near our campground, for lunch. We both had the fish taco plate. We could have split one plate. The tacos were huge. We did take some home with us, dropping it at the trailer on the way by the campground.

We then stopped to visit the Bodie Island lighthouse. We did some light shopping in the gift shop, stamped our passport book, went outside to take some pictures, then headed on up the road.

Bodie Island Lighthouse

We were originally going to just drive around and sightsee for a bit the rest of the afternoon, but instead ended up visiting Fort Raleigh and The Lost Colony. We again got our passport book stamped there. We also picked up our own Buddy the Bison. This is a stuffed animal that they ask that you put in pictures when you visit various National Parks and Monuments. We took our first Buddy the Bison picture at the mounds where the Lost Colony used to stand.

Buddy the Bison at the Lost Colony

We also went next door to tour the Elizabethan Gardens. They had lots of beautiful plants and a couple big gardens.

Elizabethan Gardens

Since it was a hot and muggy day, we didn’t tour the gardens for a very long time, though a lot of the walkways were in the shade. From there, we packed up and jumped in the truck for the long-ish ride back to the campground and had leftovers for dinner.

It’s been very windy most of the day. Even more so this evening. Looks like we’re also expecting some storms overnight, but possibly clearing up enough tomorrow to do some more sightseeing.