•  In mid August we went back down to the Outer Banks for vacation with a bunch of friends, family and godparents in Duck, NC.

•  Talk about lucky – we picked the week right before Irene hit the coast.  While it wasn’t very publicized Irene did a decent amount of damage to the Outer Banks, especially with flooding.  Much of Hatteras Island is still rebuilding and you still cannot access the island by bridge.

•  The week of our trip coincided with our 4th anniversary of our wedding – which took place in Corolla and Duck!  The night of our anniversary we all went to dinner where our rehearsal dinner was and then had champagne with the gang on the beach where we were married!  Awwww right?  Such a fun night!

•  We took a day and went down to Ocracoke Island – one of my favorite places in the world (we were there in 2009).  Many of those with us had never been down there and we had rented a huge SUV so we crammed everyone in and went down with my brother in law Dale behind us (he ended up coming down mid week and stayed just south of us in Kill Devil Hills).  We had a great time and had so many laughs.

•  I’ve been going to the Outer Banks almost every year since I was 6 so it’s rare to find things I haven’t done before but I finally did get to do one thing – a dolphin cruise!  It was a great time!

•  My favorite day of the week was our last day on the beach.  Spent the morning/afternoon by the pool reading.  Took a nap in our hammock under the deck and spent the late afternoon on the beach with a book watching dolphins jump just off shore.  Stressful day huh???

Our first day in Duck was the only day we had bad weather, a few storms went through but we were left with this wonderful rainbow!

 

We also had a pretty spectacular sunset, this is from our rooftop deck.

 

The Kitty Hawk Fishing Pier is now owned by the Hilton Garden Inn in Kitty Hawk.  We visited my brother in law who was staying there for the week, really nice place!

 

 

This is the “Bridge to Nowhere” on Hatteras Island in North Carolina.  It was built when a hurricane opened two small inlets here in 1933 but it was rendered useless after another hurricane closed it a few years later.  Ironically the inlet that Irene opened isn’t far from here.

 

View from the old location of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse to the new location.

 

Such a gorgeous lighthouse, I’m glad they saved it.  I’ve yet to climb this sucker, someday I will!

 

Ocracoke Lighthouse

 

These sand dunes were destroyed just over a week later by Hurricane Irene.

 

My brother in law Dale and his girlfriend Kelly walking the beach.

 

One of the best places to see the sunset is atop Jockey’s Ridge in Nags Head.  This image was shot as we drove by at about 65 MPH.

 

Dolphins!

 

Sunset from our cruise, not the best but better than nothing!

 

All of the crew I was vacationing with!

 

I finally get in a picture!