East Trip: Cape Hatteras

 

:North Carolina:

 

We drove for a loooong time before we finally arrived in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina where we stayed for the night in a hotel right by the ocean.  When we arrived at the hotel, it was dark, so we couldn’t see the ocean, but we sure could hear it!   It was so neat!

 

 

After breakfast the next morning, we walked down to the beach.  We’ve all decided that we like the beach, but we especially love the beach along the ocean…the waves are bigger!

 

 

We’ve gone camping at a local state park, and used to get excited about the ‘waves’ the boats made on the lake…then we stand beside the ocean and realize what waves really are 😀

 

We stayed by the beach for a little while longer…

 

 

…then it was time to head for Cape Hatteras!   This picture was taken while we were driving along the Outer Banks…it’s just a little strip of land that juts out into the ocean.  If there weren’t hills of sand along the road, we would have been able to see water on both sides.

 

We loved seeing all the houses that were up on ‘stilts’ 😀

 

The lighthouse! We’re almost there!

 

This is kind of a blurry picture, but this is all of us by the Cape Hatteras lighthouse sign (:

 

{Looking up the lighthouse}

 

 

There were 257 steps to the top, and the lighthouse was the equivalent of being 12 stories high.  You had to be at least 42 inches tall to climb it, and sadly, Susannah was too short!  Lol!  No, we’re kidding 😀  Isaiah *just* made the height requirement though, and he did extremely well at climbing it!

 

When we climbed “Little Sable” last month, we were joking that if they gave us any trouble about Isaiah climbing it, we’d tell them, “Hey!  This boy climbed the tallest lighthouse in America!  He can do this one no problem!”  😀  However, we didn’t have any trouble at all, since he was tall enough to climb that one, too 😉

 

The light keeper used to have to carry two five gallon buckets of kerosene to the top, every day!

 

We made it to the top!

 

 

 

 

The view was breathtaking!

 

{Seven Sisters -and two brothers- at the top of the tallest lighthouse in America} 😀

 

It made you a little dizzy to look down…

 

 

The lighthouse used to sit closer to the ocean…you can see the path that they cut to move it.  It used to sit where the arrow is pointing, but the erosion made it necessary to move the lighthouse back.  It is amazing to read about how they did it…they lifted it up, ‘scooted’ it over on rails, and then set it back down.

 

 

 

{watching people surf in the water}

 

 

“Let me see!”

 

 

“Look over there…”

 

 

The bestest parents on planet earth 😀

(no, really, they’re amazing)  😀

 

 

More amazing views…

 

 

After spending quite awhile at the top, we finally decided we’d better go down…

 

 

 

…then we took more pictures from the ground.  Isn’t it cute seeing Noah stand beside Daddy, and their both taking pictures?!

 

Cape Hatteras

 

 

After climbing the lighthouse, we went into the museum, which used to be the lightkeepers house…

 

 

There was all kinds of history there…here are some recovered items from the ships that were sunk by German U-boats during WW2.  The U-boats did terrible damage along the Outer Banks for awhile, sinking almost a ship a day without any casualties on their side before we were able to stop them.  There have been about 2,000 shipwrecks along the coast from the 1500’s, to WW2!

 

 

 

 

 

We love this lighthouse!

 

 

 

 

After visiting the museum (and the gift shop!), we went down by the ocean again…

 

It’s so relaxing!

 

We collected some shells, too, of course!

 

 

 

Aren’t they adorable?!

 

Noah, collecting his shells

 

 

 

 

We got our dresses pretty wet 😀

 

 

…writing in the sand…

 

 

We took our time at the ocean…

 

…but finally it was time to go.

 

Our next stop was some friends that we’d met through blogging, but never in real life 😀  They were so nice to let us come and stay with them for a night!  And it was exciting to get to meet for real 😀  Something we especially remember (and appreciated!) was the apple cider they served us!  We hadn’t had any yet that year, since we left right about apple cider time, so we were thrilled to get to have some here!

 

 

After a while, the boys warmed up to each other and started playing 😀

 

 

 

We girls had a blast as well!  We and Rachel stayed up quite late the night before, talking (what girls do best!), and then got to visit even more the next day 😀  We asked Rachel to write in our visual journals (we’d been keeping a journal the whole time of our trip, and we are SO glad we did!  We have post cards and stamps (and straw wrappers) and stories from each place packed into them!), and we wrote in Rachel’s autograph book.

 

It was such a short stop, but we were glad to have met our blogging friend in real life 😀  Oh yes, and you can see a video here, of an update we did while were there 😀

 

Next, we stopped by to visit some friends of Daddy’s who lived in South Carolina 😀  None of us girls remember having met them before (Daddy has known them since before he and Mommy married 😀 ) and it was so much fun to get to meet them here!  They were so nice!

 

 

Linda gave us a snack, which we enjoyed very much 😀

 

We loved her clock!

 

 

We went down to the lake while ‘the adults’ visited 😀  It was a nice relaxing time.

 

{the cutest boys in the world}

 

 

 

We had a lot of fun putting our feet in the water

 

*some* of us got a little more than just our feet wet!

 

{Jessica, Anna, and Leah}

 

 

{Cassia}

 

 

At some point, we started kicking and splashing…and Susannah got some good pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

Can you tell we’re having a very relaxing time?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next stop is Florida…but our next post is…well, you’ll see!

 

 

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