While at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, I purchased a Passport to the National Parks. Have you seen these books? Do you have one? Do you think I nerded out? Come on, do you even have to ask?! This book is amazing! I noted that I had actually visited 32 of the places listed in the book BUT since I don't have stamps for those visits so of course I just added them back to my 'to-see' list. It is so much fun! In four days, I got 9 stamps...let the fun begin!
Friday morning we headed out to visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. This is such a great site!
We went back into Manteo to visit the Elizabethan Gardens (they were closed Thanksgiving Day but are connected to Fort Raleigh). Beautiful gardens! The gardens include 10 acres and are operated by the North Carolina's Garden Club.
Within the gardens are greenhouses to tour and purchase flowers. I fought the urge to purchased every single plant (leaving the Spotted Leopard plant was difficult). Oh, I almost forgot to introduce you to our tour guide, I mean really does this get any better?!
After touring the gardens, we walked around Historic Manteo which is an adorable area filled with local shops, beautiful views of the river, a book store that sells Jane Austen action figures, and local breweries. It was wonderful!
As nice as Manteo was (& as much as I wanted to stay another day), we ventured down to a few places located in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. First stop was Bodie (prononouced like the human 'body') Lighthouse. The still functioning lighthouse is 156 feet tall and was built in the 1870s (2 previous lighthouse attempts prior to the one pictured). And in case you were already clicking the 'order now' button to purchase your passport book, there are also lighthouse stamps that you can add to your book (and of course I got my site stamp & my lighthouse stamp).
Rodanthe was our next stop. Have you seen the Nicholas Sparks film Nights in Rodanthe? I knew that being this close, I had to stop & see this house. I knew that the house had been purchased, restored, and moved about mile BUT it just wasn't how it appeared in the movie. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful house just not how I had pictured it while reading about it or watching Richard Gere and Diane Lane in Nights in Rodanthe.
After spending some time walking the beach and picking up shells, we loaded back in the car and headed to Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
We left the Outer Banks on Sunday morning. As a person who loves to travel, it saddens me a little that I was actually ready to get back home. While I loved the Manteo/Roanoke Island area of the Outer Banks, the other areas I visited in the Outer Banks just felt a little disappointing. While I am not a beach person (give me the mountains everyday), I appreciate the beauty that is the seashore just not the Wings stores (& other stores like them) taking away from the simplicity of the area.
On our drive back home, we saw a sign for a visitor center. This visitor center was located in what felt like the middle of nowhere. As soon as we got out of the car, I notice a sign for a museum. Of course, we visited. The Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge museum is small but very informative (and I got another stamp in my book! Yippee!!) We met and had a nice conversation with a couple of great volunteers! After what felt like 103 days on the road, we finally made it home (safely) and are ready to go again.
Have you visited the Outer Banks? Thoughts on what happened to the Lost Colony? Did you order a passport book?
Happy Travels,
Amber
No Comments Yet, Leave Yours!