Over the past week I embarked on the great Carolinas Tour. I had been contemplating a trip to Cape Hatteras National Seashore for a while, and when it happened that there was going to be a memorial there for my friend Jenn, I decided that I really wanted to go. The Outer Banks was one of the last things I talked to Jenn about, so it seemed fitting to take this trip for her. While I was in the area, I decided to also take in a bit of Raleigh to visit the school I attend but had never physically seen, and South Carolina to visit some friends and see Congaree National Park, in my never-ending question to visit all the National Parks.
First stop: Raleigh, where I learned why I can't live in the South. Only May and it was already 90ºF and fairly humid! Miserable! I am told that is considered "spring weather". No thanks! I walked a couple miles around the NCSU campus, bought some t-shirts, and called it a day.
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| Every big institution needs a monolith so you know how important they are. |
While they might not be my favorite place for weather, Raleigh sure does make it easy for a vegetarian to eat! For the first time in my life, I tried Chicken & Waffles, a combination which has long mystified me. But now I get what's so great about it: EVERYTHING.
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| That's right. VEGETARIAN 'chicken' and waffles! It's every kind of confusing. |
Woke up bright and early the next morning for the long drive ahead! It was about 3.5 hours to Roanoke Island and on to Cape Hatteras! Which, of course, means lighthouses! I stopped in Manteo, which is a little town on Roanoke Island to see the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse. I also bought a sundress that turned my skin blue.
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| Isn't it cute? |
Onward across a scary bridge! Actually the bridge to Roanoke was scary in its own right. I'm not a terribly big fan of long bridges, and the Outer Banks appears to quite like them. Good thing the OBX, as they call themselves, is so pretty. In any case, I made it across a 3-minute bridge to Nags Head, from where I traveled north to Currituck Beach Lighthouse. I thought it wasn't too far north, but it turns out this is the kind of place where you measure distances in minutes, not miles. It turned out to be well worth the drive, though.
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| Beautiful natural brick! |
A quick climb later, and I was at the top of the lighthouse where it was ever so slightly windy...
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| Just a bit! |
I made it to Kitty Hawk and to the Wright Brothers Memorial just 37 minutes before it closed for the day. The gate attendant was very skeptical about my still wanting to pay and go in. She said "you know this means that all vehicles have to be off the grounds by that time?" She didn't understand what an efficient national park visitor I am! 37 minutes to see the markers from the first three flights, tour the visitor center and look at the models of their plane and glider, speed-walk to the top of the monument, take some photos and run down, snap a quick photo of the entrance sign on my way out? Well. I only needed 33 minutes.
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| This is at the top of a very tall hill. My calves can tell you all about it. |
I booked a place for the weekend called the Lighthouse View Motel. They did not lie. I figured I would walk over to the lighthouse in the morning.
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| A bed, clean linens, and a view of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. What more can one need? |
Ha! Never mind. It was intermittently pouring rain in the morning. I didn't see the point in paying $8 to look at a view of...rain and clouds and possibly nothing further away than my hand in front of my face. So instead, I did what any reasonable person does when it's pouring rain and incredibly windy and just generally miserable. I took my car on a boat!
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| 1.5 hours of staring at rain falling while be jostled by the waves. What could possibly be better? |
It was not a particularly fun boat ride as far as boat rides go, but it was free! And as soon as we arrived at Ocracoke Island, the sky cleared up in time for great pictures of the Ocracoke Lighthouse! This lighthouse isn't available for climbing, at least not legitimately.
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| And me without my rappelling gear. |
Walked over to the beach on Ocracoke and introduced my brand new Freaky Fuschia (which takes 4 attempts to spell every time) Five Fingers to the water!
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| They thought it was pretty super. They hadn't seen the crabs yet. |
Had time for lunch and then decided I'd better head back if I was going to make it to Jenn's memorial service on time! The boat ride back was much nicer. The rain had stopped, so I was able to enjoy some fresh air.
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| Apparently there are no little cars on Ocracoke |
I made it to the beach location with a couple minutes to spare, and found...nobody there. Bizarre...did I have the wrong place? Wrong time? I didn't know. That was disappointing, but I made the best of it. I had my own little memorial for her, and then I took some photos.
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| I'm being followed! |
As I was heading back to my car, I saw two figures in tie-dye on the beach. Though I'd never seen them in person, I knew immediately that it was Jenn's mom and husband. I ran over as cool as one can run on the beach and then stopped short when I saw her husband kneeling on the sand. He was clearly spreading her ashes on the beach. Not a moment I wanted to interrupt. I waited what I thought was a reasonable amount of time. I'm sure by now they'd noticed the person standing awkwardly kinda close to them pretending not to stare. I introduced myself as a friend of Jenn's. There were hugs, and tear, and stories, and they insisted that I should come to dinner with the group of them that was going out after the memorial, which, as it turns out, had been moved to an indoor location. Oops. But really, I wouldn't have had this happen any other way. It was amazing to get a chance to talk to them and to hear all of their stories.
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| So, this is when I lost it and started bawling. |
Morning came, and it was time to say goodbye to Cape Hatteras. The sun was shining and the sky was clear; I hated having to leave amid such perfect weather! On my way off the island, I stopped to climb the remaining two lighthouses that I hadn't made it to earlier.
First was Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which was in the middle of being painted. You can see the seam in the photo below between the finished and unfinished halves.
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| Artistic framing in order to not get any industrial equipment in the shot. |
This was a gorgeous lighthouse. Black and white marble floors, red trim and stairs.
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| Entrance to the tallest lighthouse in North America! |
The view from the top was predictably stunning. Visibility was so good that I could see the Diamond Shoals Light structure, which is 12-miles off shore (and non-operational these days). Fun fact: Diamond Shoals Light was bought by a private owner at auction a couple of years ago. No doubt he is going to make it into an off-shore secret lair.
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| At the top of the tallest lighthouse in North America! They really want you to know this fact! |
Onward to the 5th lighthouse of my stay in the Outer Banks: Bodie Island Lighthouse. It's pronounced like 'body', which was news to me, but it helps to think of it as spelled incorrectly instead of pronounced incorrectly.
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| Just like in the picture! |
This one was a fully guided tour, which was a little unusual and tedious for a lighthouse climb, but, as always, the view from the top was worth it!
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| Marshy! |
The interior of the lighthouse was very similar to Cape Hatteras with black instead of red, and the Five Fingers were perfect for climbing the lighthouse!
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| Don't go getting vertigo now! |
Now for the fun part: not pictured is the 7.5 hour drive to Columbia, SC. That was rather pushing the amount of driving that I wanted to do in a day, but I really wanted to visit Tammy and Robert while I was out that way! Plus, Tammy promised me waffles! And boy did she ever deliver. There were mac & cheese waffles, pizza waffles (made with puff pastry), goat cheese & sundried tomato waffles, brownie waffles, and the rhymiest of waffles: falafel waffles! Robert suggested additions in order to make awful falafel waffles, but Tammy fortunately declined his ideas.
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| Can you put it in a waffle iron? The answer is always yes! |
The morning brought more waffles and a science lesson! Because all breakfasts need more science. One of the kids was wondering about buoyancy/displacement, so Tammy demonstrated with an inverted wine glass in a glass of water. There was blue food coloring involved, as with all the best science lessons.
Afterward, I took in a nice hike at Congaree National Park, which I had never heard of until Tammy told me about it. It was only about an hour drive from Columbia, which makes it awfully accessible for a national park! There was fortunately a nice boardwalk through the park, because the park's main feature is swampland.
A peaceful walk through a forest is exactly what this vacation needed, and slightly drizzly weather was great for it. Not too crowded, not very buggy. Just me and some trees. :^)
One last little jaunt up to Charlotte, NC marked the end of a much-needed, action-packed vacation. 1,000 miles of driving, two never-before-visited states, and a national park! Whew!
