we knew that for one of derek’s days off while we were in the outer banks, we wanted to make the long cruise down to ocracoke, to check things out. it’s about an hour or so to the hatteras-ocracoke ferry from our campground, so we obviously stopped for duck donuts along the way. (the girls were actually the only participants, due to gluten free and keto diets for the rest of us).
the ferry is long and boring. we were packed in like sardines. and the person next to me kept getting in and out of their car and dinging my car, so that was lovely. maybe he saw all the existing dings and assumed i wouldn’t care. but still. only i can ding my car or hit the side of my garage when i’m pulling out. not you. the scenery was mostly just water in all directions so the kids opted to wait in the car and drain their ipad batteries so they could fight over chargers for the rest of the ride.
once we were back on land, we stopped at a spot on the northern part of the island to do a bit of shelling. it was completely desolate and we wandered around a bit, examining sea life, both dead and alive. in the parking lot, on the way out, we found some shells that someone else must have forgotten, and no one was anywhere to be seen, so we definitely snagged those to make up for our lack of findings at the beach.
ok. so basically. ocracoke is restaurants and shops. and last year was decimated by a hurricane, so there’s a lot of damage still lingering. and it’s covid. so there were more closures because of that. we struggled to find a place to eat that could accomodate our diets, wallets, and dog, that didn’t have a huge wait time. we finally discovered/settled on smacnally’s, which still had a bit of a wait, but was totally worth it.
after lunch, we planned to visit the ocracoke lighthouse and gift shop and possibly museum, only to find that all that extra stuff was closed. so, we strolled up to the lighthouse, took some pics, and were on our merry way. the entire visit was like 15 minutes, the allotted time allowed in the parking lot.
after we exhausted all there was to do in ocracoke (not much for kids/dogs/families in covid in the fall after a hurrican), we started back. we stopped a few more beach spots for some more shell searching and wave crashing and frolicking.
we also stopped to see some horses. ponies maybe. i don’t remember. these….
we got to the line for the ferry just in time to be the very last car to squeeze on the boat. we hoped for a pretty sunset but it was cloudy. and ruby was really over it. and the kids batteries were dead. and everyone was tired.
but, a stop for ice cream on the way home perked everyone up, i think.
and that concludes our ocracoke adventures. check that one off the list.
It is a cute lighthouse, mostly. But not as cute as the Hazel ice cream pic!