Beach Bums

This past weekend we were beach bums. Forget the hotel and hot water and even electricity--we tent camped at the Cape Hatteras National Park camp sites in the Outer Banks. The pristine beauty that is offered at these beaches is unparallelled on the east coast. There are very few areas that allow development, so between the modest towns and beach houses you find miles of untainted beach with rolling sand dunes. And the lack of development keeps the massive crowds away, making it a wonderful family environment.

Our first two days we spent on Cape Hatteras: camping, swimming and making smores on the beach.



The third day, we took the ferry to Ocracoke Island (only accessible by boat)

and rented a 4X4 so we could drive on the beach and find a secluded spot.
Notice the seculsion.

We also bought a few boogie boards and had great waves thanks to a stiff wind. The two oldest loved the boogie boards (so did Gem and Shakespeare). Popcorn played in the surf, but nothing over his ankles. Sinatra was just happy to scoop sand and chase "dirds".

Here is Shakespeare making his sand castle with moat. As the tide came in he even dug a canal to stave off destruction for a few minutes.


Gem is in her favorite spot--the water.

The only picture of me. Gem took this one of Jon and me with the Ocracoke Lighthouse in the background (far left).

This was our only family shot during the entire trip. The sand dune held the camera for us and wouldn't stop putting its "fingers" over the lens.

Popcorn loves his Diego shirt and his new "hunter" hat.

We ran up the dunes while waiting for the ferry.

Jon with older kids at the Ocracoke lighthouse. I was with a napping Sinatra in the car.

Happy Sinatra with a sandy face.

When we got back to Hatteras the wind was still stiff. We decided to go out to eat instead of trying to grill at the camp site. We went to a wonderful barbecue place and they had the weather channel playing: severe thunderstorms expected by midnight and continuing through noon then next day. Ugg.

When we arrived at the camp site (9pm) we were still debating whether it would be worse to tear down in the dark and drive home or tear down in a storm. I ran down to the site to grab something, but found that our little supply tent had blown away. Also, our big tent had collapsed on the windward side. We had our answer. For the next 45 min. we broke camp in the dark. We rolled out of there at 10 pm (recovered our little tent from the ranger) and arrived at a hotel at 1am. The Holiday Inn Express never looked so go.

Except for the last little episode and the mosquitoes, the vacation was great (not for those who can't stand to rough it) but wonderful for us.