Wendy's trip log: Outerbanks girls trip 2022

Road trip to Outerbanks

July 25-29th 2022

This was so much fun!!!!! Girls trip. Tammy, Nikki and I took a road trip to South Carolina's outer banks.

DAY 1: Most of the day was spent on the road. We drove from central NY to Elizabethtown SC.

Stopping at the Virginia welcome center and getting our LOVE on.

Soon we saw water....we were getting closer. We decided to stay off the banks for the 1st night to save a little money. (Its more expensive on the banks.)

We still got some beaches and it was beautiful.

We had dinner at this Mexican restaurant. I wish I took a picture of my food. It was possibly the best Mexican food I have ever eaten, it was super yummy. The name of the restaurant was La Tiendita. Highly recommended.

After dinner we walked around the town and along the bay. The name of the town was Elizabeth City. It was quite quaint and there was a ton of information about the Wright brothers. They have an Aviation trail that guides along the city.

I found a painted rock.

DAY 2:

We stayed in a local hotel and the next morning we made our way out to the banks. 1st stop along the way was this weird but iconic area that had Grave Digger hanging out. The place wasn't open as it was to early, but we stopped and got a few pictures of this beast.

Up next we made our way to the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

Orville and Wilber Wright are best known for the first in flight. The brothers grew up in Dayton, OH and went into business together owning a printing press and later a bicycle repair shop.

They both had always had a dream of flying, and although there were gliders at the time, they were interested in taking flight to a new step. In 1899 they started to explore experiments in the area of making objects that could take flight.

Their exploration took them to the town of Kitty Hawk. In 1903, the brothers built Wright flyer 1. This was made of wood and canvas with agas engine. There were several failed attempts, but on December 17, 1903, the structure made a 12 second flight that took them 120 feet. This was the first poilet engine powered airplane.

Below is a replica of the Wright Flyer.

Pictured is a replica of the barn and home the brothers resided in.

The monument erected for the brothers.

View of the distance of the flight.

Metal statues also are housed on the property.

After the Wright Brothers we headed to the National Seashore.

There are three lighthouses along this seashore. We stopped at Bodie and Cape Hatteras. We didn't go to Cape Lookout. Apparently you would need to take a ferry to get to the Lighthouse. (perhaps someday I will go). Bodie is actually pretty small in comparison and has less popularity. All of the area parks offer access to the ocean and beach activities abound.

a view from the top, although we did not take the trip ourselves. It was closed while we were there.

After enjoying the lighthouses, we headed to the Roanoke area. Fort Raleigh is the area that protects the artifacts and holds the history of the British's first settlement known as the Roanoke settlement. (1584-1590)

There is a lot of mystery over what happened to the colony. As the story goes 115 English settlers set up camp on Roanoke Island, Governor John White had later returned to England to gain supplies. however his plans to return back to Roanoke were delayed as the Queen of England had commanded all ships to partake in the Spanish Armada. White finally returned to an uninhabited camp. The colonist had simply disappeared.

White did find two clues however. the word Croatoan and Cro were scratched upon a sign post and a tree. The colonists were never located; but there are some theories.

One, is possibly disease, but there were no remains or bodies. Another is possibly cannibalism, but again no remains. Yet another possibility is that the colonist moved to Croatoan Island, (now Hatteras Island) which would reflect the clue left. However, there had been an ongoing feud between the colonist and the known Hatteras Natives that inhabited that area. More theories include witchcraft. Many of the areas natives believed in black magic, could these colonist have been taken by the devil or perhaps taken by the natives and deemed evil and killed. Another native theory was that the colonists became evil reptiles or took on the form of trees. There are tons of other theories all of which have an unproven or counter thought as to why this may not be, at any rate, to this day there is no proof of what had happened to this lost colony. Perhaps the most positive and hopeful is the theory that the colonist simply absorbed into the natives and took on a life with these people. Again, there is no proof and unlikely.

The area surrounding the fort had more history then just the lost colony, many years later during the Civil War, the Union had won the battle of Roanoke creating the Freemens Colony; a safe haven for former slaves seeking protection by the Union Army. The area also features a stage and theater that provides a better lesson to these histories, but we missed the show that day.

We went into town and enjoyed a nice meal while I searched for anything that had something to do with Roanoke on it. I could only find a hat.

and this stone.

We had dinner in the area and man was this salad yummy. I also had a dish called chicken wing soup, and surprise, it was really good.

Our hotel is located right on the beach so we spent some time there before it got to dark. Nikki and I spent the rest of the evening in the pool and hot tub.

DAY 3:

We had reservations for the 8am Corolla outback tour. So up early and we were off ready for a day of dunes, beaches and wild horses.

Tammy and I had done a simular tour in 2020, but it was so fun, we had to do it again. We were soon on our buggy. ( a wagon on steroids) and we were soon zooming down the road and onto the beach. There are a few area where you can drive on the beach and this area is one. The Corolla horses are famous and many come to get a glimpse of these animals living wild along the ocean shore. It wasn't long before we were spotting some. (We saw a ton so picture overload here)

This was the bumpiest ride ever. We bumbed up and down and up and down... I laughed and laughed and laughed. Loved the bumpy ride.

Ocean pictures here to break up the horses.

Spotted a baby!!!!

The belief is that these horses ancestors were those from the Spanish who had needed to drop weight during a sandbar ship. these horses just made their way to land and have been populated here since. Our last years tour guide had much more facts about these guys then this one, so I had to do some research on my own to get some real facts.

Our tour guide was good at finding these guys and he knew them by name. Or maybe he was just playing with us. He was a little silly.

Ok, so I did find some more facts on these guys. They have gotten DNA which has indicated that yes, these horses are part of the Colonial Spanish mustang breed, making them some of the oldest and rarest breeds of horses alive today. They are a tough breed small, but hardy managing to survive the harsh cold of winter and the heat of the summer.

The Corolla horses are well regulated in these area and are maintained at about 100 in total. The restriction in number has been monitored as they are considered an invasive species thus impacting the environment around them. The research I sought did not tell me how they keep these guys to around that number, but I did find that should a horse become ill or hurt they will rescue them and rehabilitate, but they do not return them to the area. These rehabilitated horses are then adopted.

From the years of 1985-1996 20 of theses horses were killed as they wandered on paved roads in the area, they were relocated to an area just north for their protection. The current area spans over 7,544 acres.

These guys eat sea oats, grasses and acorns.

There is additional wild life...look I spotted a deer too.

Some of the beautiful homes along these dunes,

On our way back to the office we stopped to view the turtle pins, set up for their safety. (I was finally able to see the baby turtles run this past Jan. entry to come someday)

thought i was done with horse pics didnt you, nope these guys were just waiting to say goodbye as we drove along the ocean shore line.

After the horses, we did a little shopping and went to the beach. We spent a good chunk of the rest of the day enjoying the ocean.

It had been so beautiful, the suddenly it began to sprinkle then it became a full downpour. WHAT? We rushed to the pool area which was packed. We then made our way to the outdoor pool. How weird it is to swim in a rainstorm. We played in the waters of both the pool and the rain until we heard a clap of thunder and that ended that real quick.

The clouds parted and the rain stopped while we were showering and dressing for the evening and dinner, we were on a hunt for some shopping. We went to the town of Duck, which had a lovely shopping area and long docks that stretched out into the sea. We walked along and enjoyed the shopping.

It was a beautiful day.

DAY 4: Our last day on the Banks, we were heading North today, but we had tickets to the Aquarium on Roanoke Island before we could start, so we made our way to the South Carolina Aquarium.

We saw a ton of fish.

i got eaten by an alligator.

Some creepy reptiles

Nikki hopes for a prince.

sea otters.....

Albino alligator

Some

Some more fish

and some fish that belong in the jungle. (lion fish)

We got to touch the sting rays.

and the horse shoe crabs

I choose not to touch these guys.

LOVE the jellyfish.....

Best part of the place, the big tank full of sharks....

JAWS

Fun times then we walked around the grounds.

Next we started north. BUT we found a DUCK doughnuts, we had to stop.

Mine melted on the road, but it still tasted good.

We drove and drove and drove, I was hoping to get to the wild ponies, but some how we got lost. Took a break at this NASA inspired visitors center.

We didnt spend much time here, we just walked through used the rest room and got back on the road.

We decided that we were going to try and get to Ocean City MD and spend the night. I welcomed that after driving nowhere on accident to a place I could not get to without a boat. So we were in Ocean City.

and we were ready for dinner.....We decided on a place called Hammerhead.

We had some fun cocktails before dinner.

After dinner we walked the boardwalk.

The beach was so pretty.

So pretty

Look way out there, is that a dolphin?

DAY 5: tammy and I got up early to catch the sunrise. Dunkin in hand, we sat for about an hour and just enjoyed the peace and beauty.

Soon we were back on the road and heading North again. We decided to make a stop in DE and we found a spot at Bethany Beach.

The water was absolutely beautiful, and I had laughed when Nikki brought up beaching in DE. I never thought a New England state was beach friendly, but this place was amazing. The waves were perfect and the sand so soft.

To make things even more amazing, we got the opportunity to see pods and pods and pods of DOLPHIN. I had never seen anything like this before and may never again. There were tons of dolphins dancing out there in the sea, we watched and watched. Just when we thought they were all gone another pod would swim by. There were what seemed like hundreds of dolphins out there. It was so incredible.

We stayed for a while, when we had arrived the beach was not so busy, but this was what I looked at as we were leaving....WOW pretty popular place. oh yeah and I got a parking ticket....well worth the dolphin spotting however.