Saturday we took a 40 minute ferry ride to Ocracoke Island. The island is about 14 miles long and averages a half mile wide. Pretty cool to see water on each side of you, the sound on one side and the ocean on the other.

This was one of our main missions for going to this island, to see the Ocracoke lighthouse. It was built in 1823, 65 ft tall and is the oldest working lighthouse in NC. Many of the lighthouses were used as look out towers by the Navy during WWII.

On our way back we stopped to see Cape Hatteras. It was built in 1870 and is the tallest brick lighthouse in the US at 208 ft. It was moved a few years ago to save it from the surf and storms, and restored. It was a major undertaking, taking 23 days to move it 2900 ft to it's original 1600 ft from the oceans edge. I got a couple little books, one that tells about the lighthouses and one that tells about Hatteras's move. It was getting to be dusk by the time we got here, but gave us the great opportunity to see the light come on. What a beautiful sight.

Sunday we went north on the "banks" to see this lighthouse, the Currituck. This on was a neat experience because we got to climb this one. (Only 2 can be climbed, Hatteras and Currituck). I admit, I chickened out after starting up those tight open spiraling stairs, but the girls(kids) and guys climbed all 214 steps. The lighthouse is 162 ft to the top. I can't wait to get the pictures back that they took from up there. There are over a million bricks in the tower, and the walls taper from over 5 ft thick at the bottom to 3 ft at the top.

It took a lot for Shanna to make herself keep climbing after I quit, and once she got up there she clung to the lighthouse, away from the railing. Rich climbed the stairs, but couldn't make himself go out on the deck.

I'll throw this pic in here because it was near the Hatteras ferry. Even though most of the "banks" is not too commercialized, we did see some quite amazing places. I can't imagine what they cost, and hope they have some good hurricane insurance which I'm sure is quite expensive itself!

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