Day 4: Lighthouses, Dunes, and Uncle Paulie...OBX Style

Good Evening,

So here I am, 10pm, sitting at the picnic table under the stars and blogging at the campsite. You can check out our digs below. Tomorrow we fold up the tent and head out to Clemson, SC to visit the Zajacks, friends of Steve from Colgate. It's a cool 500 miles from here, but the drive promises to be lovely and we do get to go through Roanoke (lost colony, anyone?), so I am looking forward to seeing all of that route 12 national seashore in the light of day. I've made the Zajacks promise some sort of home-cooking as eating out 2-3 meals a day is starting to get to me.

We began our day early, just kicking around the campsite, writing postcards (in my case) and lyrics (in Steve's case) until it started to get hot. We (well, really "I") decided that going to see the Cape Hatteras lighthouse (also below)--the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States--would be a cool thing to do since we were within 20 miles, so we went. It was a really lovely National Park site. I tried to use the $80 National Parks Pass I bought from the US government, but to no avail. The rangers told me it will work "out west;" that remains to be seen--this thing better get me into the Canyons. We paid our $7 fee/each to climb to the top of the lighthouse, all 269 steps to the top, the equivalent to a 12 story building. I heard the ranger tell a visitor that the lighthouse itself was made of 9,000,000 pounds of bricks--a pretty amazing feat of engineering for the mid-nineteenth century. The lighthouse was added on to on a few occasions because the beacon is a particularly important one. It warns sailors of a few very tricky currents, and the waters off of the coast are referred to as the "graveyard of the Atlantic," site of more than 600 shipwrecks. Oh yeah, and the Outerbanks is all about pirate stories--no shortage of skull and crossbones flags. The view from the top was really lovely and it was a completely clear day so you could see both the Atlantic and the Pamlico sound sides for miles and miles. We then travelled to the end of Hatteras Island (any further and we would have had to get on a ferry to Okracoke) and turned around, hungry for lunch and eager for the beach.

Two subway sandwiches later (Steve being a former sandwich artist at the Jersey shore), we headed back to Camp and to the beach. The beach exceeded both of our expectations. You can see the image below, but it was an enormous expanse of shoreline, with big breaking off-shore waves, soft sands, a good breeze, and very warm water. We spent the afternoon there, frolicking in the waves, reading, and trying to remain shaded from the sun (thank you neutrogena sunblock)! The early evening saw some studying from Steve, some laundry from me, and dinner at "Uncle Pauly's East Coast Surf Grill." Here's one of the many things I don't understand about North Carolina: you can still smoke in a restaurant, while eating dinner, or drive through a liquor store, but state law prohibits restaurants from cooking hamburgers anything less than well done. So strange. Nevertheless, a pleasant dinner, followed by a parking lot run-in with Uncle Pauly himself, quite the character. Uncle Pauly (maybe about 50) grew up in Kitty Hawk (of "first flight" fame) right down the road, dropped out of school at 15 and ran away to New York city and became a Union guy, a welder for boilers specifically. He's now back home, running his very strange restaurant. I could go on, but I'll spare you, just picture lots of gold jewelry, a New York accent, a dark tan, a harley hat, and wildly gesticulating hands--that's Uncle Paulie. An ice-cream cone and a shake from the Conery later, we were back at Camp Hatteras. Steve wanted to try out the pool, so we went night swimming, just getting back a few minutes ago. After seeing the beaches, I truly understand the appeal of the Outerbanks, and would definitely come back. Life in the South is a bit slow for me, but it's a fine pace for vacation. Time to get back in the tent, enjoy the ocean breeze and crashing waves, and get ready for tomorrow's long day in the car. Life is good.



Pic 1: Home Sweet Tent, Camp Hatteras
Pic 2: Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Pic 3: After the 259 step climb to the top of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
Pic 4: The beach at our Campground (seriously)