I have this weird obsession with travel blogs.
Seriously. I can spend hours perusing Pinterest and reading about other people’s adventures. I don’t just do quick destination searches either. I want the whole story and all the pictures. This way I know what to expect and how to plan for these trips we will hopefully one day take!
Our girls are getting older now (soon to be 3 and 6), and travel isn’t as difficult as it used to be. We are looking forward to many adventures in the years to come, and so I decided each trip deserved it’s on story. This is the story of our Outer Banks adventure. It provides travel tips, and ideas for amazing experiences, all in one!
If you’re looking for a more condensed version of the amazing sites and attractions the Outer Banks has to offer, you’ll find that here. This blog is our travel diary and it recounts the little details of our trip and includes some insider advice along the way!
Disclosure: We were fortunate to be hosted by several of these attractions. However, all opinions are my own, and experiences completely as described. Special thanks to: Wild Horse Adventure Tours, Outer Banks Adventures, Island Smoothie, Roanoke Festival Park and the Island Farm.
This entire trip started with ponies.
Really and truly. The ponies
For my daughter’s 5th birthday, we’d planned to take her to a magical place I refer to as Pony Mountain, aka Grayson Highland State Park. Here wild ponies freely roam the mountain and visitors can experience them up close and personal. We knew our little horse lover would be over the moon excited to see the horses.
But it rained the whole weekend of her birthday. And then the cold winter hit, and then the holidays, and gymnastics and t-ball, and well, just life. The trip got forgotten and we felt horrible. So we looked at rescheduling for the spring.
But then we thought…
What if we could go somewhere even better?
A place with both wild horses and amazing beaches? With a ton of fun adventures we could experience. Where else, but the Outer Banks!
I started planning the trip in February, researching things to do and places to eat. We weren’t planning on going until Spring Break, but a girl needs something to dream about, right?
So when April finally got here we were rip, roaring and ready to go! What followed was an amazing adventure that will go down in the books as one of our best vacations to date!
Day 1
It’s a 5 hour drive to the OBX from our hometown. Despite having 2 small children, we decided to try and power through, only stopping twice for lunch and a fuel fill up /potty break. Traveling with two small kids in a car is no joke, and I’ve got a whole post dedicated to traveling tips for just that, but until that I have one major tip for you:
Technology
Currently, our car has no entertainment system, which is something I hope to fix when we upgrade in a few months. Until then, our tablets are our BFFs.
I downloaded a bunch of movies and shows off of Netflix for times when our internet wouldn’t work. Thankfully, Spirit: Riding Free had new episodes, so our drive down was fairly eventful.
We stopped for breakfast at one of my favorite breakfast spots, Cracker Barrell. It’s my stand-by for traveling and I try to convince my hubby to stop every trip. However, truth be told, I think I like the shop more than the food!
After a brief pit stop (sale on horse stuff – score!), we hit the road and only one potty break later, arrived at the Outer Banks
It was a beautiful day, and after 5 hours in a car, we wanted nothing more than to be outside, so we made our first stop at Roanoke Island Festival Park.
The park is a real world representation of what life was like for the original English settlers and Natives. Across the sprawling 25 acre site, we found tons of hands on exhibits and incredible replicas of buildings.
Perhaps one of the most unique of the exhibits was The Elizabeth II, which is an actual boat that replicates one of the original English voyage ships. Visitors can actually board the ship and explore it from top to bottom. The girls had a grand old time climbing up and down, pretending to be pirates. The history of this boat may have been a little lost on them.
Among our other favorite activities was watching a costumed settler hand forge an iron nail. We even got to keep one as a souvenir which thrilled my oldest child. My youngest was easily entertained by a cute bunny who visited staying just out of touch.
The part of the visit my girls enjoyed most was the museum. There were tons of things to touch and climb on, so it was right up their alley. Of all the museums we visited, this was the one they most enjoyed. They climbed on boats, dressed up in settler clothes, went duck hunting and much more!
Afterwards we headed outside, and walked the vast array of boardwalks around the sound. The day was super breezy and we thoroughly enjoyed our time outdoors and the views of the water ways.
We spent about two hours at the park, and it wasn’t quite time to check in to our hotel, so we headed to Kill Devil Hills to the Wright Brothers National Memorial. It is the home of the first successful air plane flight. In 1903 the Wright Brothers paved the ground for the future flights of today!
Walking across the grounds was truly inspiring, particularly the impressive Wright Brothers monument. Built at the top of a giant sand dune, the monument is a bit of a hike, but well worth it for the lofty views.
We also enjoyed the sculpture of the first flight including a iron original plane and bystanders. We took some silly photos with the statues and enjoyed a snack at a bench nearby. There were dozens of people flying kites in the park, and it was fun to watch them while we ate.
The museum in the park was a short stop for us. There were a few interactive exhibits but at this point our girls were winding down, so we made a quick pass through. We did get to see the full scale replica of the original plane that was really cool. However, the girls favorite part was stepping outside and playing pretend airplane with their Daddy!
There were a few other areas of the park we didn’t get to. But when small kids are starting to lose it, it’s often not worth the battle. So we decided to check in to the hotel and relax for the evening.
We unpacked, ordered dinner and hit the hotel (indoor) pool. The girls were only 30 minutes late getting to bed. Not bad for the first vacation day!
Day 2
Almost every vacation, it seems like there’s just ONE day that doesn’t go to plan. These days can test even the strongest of families. Day 2 was that day for us.
Our plan the next day was to hit the ground running. We were out of the hotel by 8:30 and had grabbed some breakfast to eat at our first stop, the Bodie Island Lighthouse.
It was a chilly and windy morning, and I’d somehow managed to forget the girls jacket, so we didn’t stay here long. We sat on the back porch of the keeper’s house and ate our breakfast while enjoying the views. Our oldest had a meltdown because there was cheese on top of her biscuit instead of inside it. It was the best of mornings.
There was a boardwalk that I assume goes out to the sound. It looked like a fun and beautiful walk, but I wouldn’t know. We decided it wasn’t worth another meltdown to explore in the cold, and headed out.
Our next stop was Hatteras, which was about an hour south of Bodie Island. We didn’t pass a ton of places, but did enjoy sprawling views of the Oregon Inlet, Pea Island Refuge and the Cape Hatteras seashore.
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was a more pleasant experience for us, and the kids who caught a brief nap on the way there.
It was truly an impressive lighthouse! It towered over us at 193 ft tall.
They also had a museum on the grounds, though it was not of much interest to our girls. There was a cute little gift shop I wanted to check out, but decided against, out of fear my kids would break something expensive.
This is where our day took a turn for the not so great.
We thought we had our day planned out. We had planned to get to the ferry at 10 and leave around 5. Little did we know, there was roadwork on Ocracoke, involved a swarm of dump trucks. All day long they were crossing over, carrying asphalt and returning to re-load. Local traffic gets preference, so these massive dump trucks, that took up like a quarter of the ferry, were bumping everyone in line. What we had predicted to be a 30 min-an hour long wait took 2 ½ hours, both ways. By the time you add in the 2 hour round trip, we’d spent 7 hours of our day tied up with the ferry!
Overall Ocracoke Island was able to redeem itself (until the ferry ride home). Our youngest fell asleep again, right off the ferry, so we drove into town and grabbed a bite to eat at an amazing little restaurant called Dajio (their grilled cheese with bacon and sweet pepper relish is where its at y’all!).
Next we headed up the road to Teach’s Hole, a little pirate museum we’d seen on the way in. Like most men, my husband is excited by pirates, and he soon had our girls eager to experience the pirate life.
Outside Teach’s Hole was a fun pirate photo opp of Blackbeard. Inside was a pirate themed gift shop and a small museum full of pirate history. If you spent $15 in the gift shop you got a free admission, and my two girls were free, so we got some pirate souvenirs for the girls and their cousins and only paid one tiny admission of $4. Granted, it would’ve only been $8 for both my husband and I, but who can’t resist some cool pirate swag.
The museum had a lot of pirate artwork and a good bit of history. Again, it wasn’t a favorite spot of my girls, but it was a fun short, stop in our day.
Afterwards we headed up to the Ocracoke Pony Pens. This was what my daughter had been looking forward to all day. When we got there we found about four ponies grazing in the front pasture. There was a raised deck from which you could view them. There were about 4 horses in the front pasture and we could see an additional 3 in the pastures behind.
The definitely didn’t seem like wild horses. While we were there, a man came out with hay to feed them and they walked right up to him as if they were used to being around humans. They even followed him out to the hay trough, as he filled it up.
I later learned that while these horses are descendent of the wild ponies that once roamed Ocracoke Island, they haven’t truly been wild in almost 70 years. Back in the 1950s, the horses kept getting hit by cars, so they were contained within fences. Originally the local Boy Scouts cared for them, but the Pony Pens were taken over by the Park Service in the 60s and remained in their care since then.
We spent quite a bit of time just pony watching. There is something so relaxing about just sitting and watching horses gently graze. They seem so at peace, and seem to lend some of that peace to on-lookers.
Eventually, the littlest and the husband grew bored and decided to walk across the street to check out the beach access.
Unlike the beaches in Nags Head where we were staying, the beach on Ocracoke was much less traveled. It was practically deserted too. For the hour to hour and a half we were out there, we only saw 4 other people total! It was amazingly peaceful.
My girls loved splashing in the waves. It was in the mid 60’s that day, and we were not expecting to swim, but our youngest fell in the ocean soon after our arrival. Since no one was around, we let her run around in her pull up for the rest of the time we were there.
The girls also found a surprising amount of intact seashells. It’s been our experience that the later in the day it gets, the less luck you’ll have hunting seashells. Most often they get picked through by others early in the morning, or the changing tides carry them back out to sea. This wasn’t the case on this beach though. I’d love to see it first thing in the morning, as I imagine you’d be able to find some pretty amazing shells.
The day was getting late and the girls were growing tired, so we decided to make one last stop at the Ocracoke Lighthouse before giving the ferry another shot.
One of the most charming, and also most annoying things about Ocracoke is the village. It’s narrow streets weren’t meant to accommodate the tour buses and rush of cars that come through in peak tourist season. In fact, it seems to be highly encouraged that visitors walk or ride bikes in the area.
Between the heavy traffic that day and the bikes, it took a little while to get around back in the actual village. By the time we got to Ocracoke, the 5-6 parking spots there were already full. Luckily, we only had to drive around for a few minutes before one opened up.
The Ocracoke Lighthouse is much smaller in stature than the other 3 lighthouses on the Outer Banks. This means, it is also absolutely adorable. There is short wooden walkway leading up the path, making it a quick stop.
Our youngest made the trek down the deck leading to the lighthouse wrapped in a towel and wearing only a fresh pull-up. By the time we’d left the beach, she’d wet her shirt too. Of all the things I remembered to pack, I’d somehow forgotten one of the most essential of items, a change of clothes1
My girls are animal magnets, and so along the way, we encountered a very large, very friendly cat. I do believe that was the highlight of this attraction for them. It took a lot of convincing to persuade them that 1. this cat clearly belonged to somebody and 2. this cat wasn’t coming back to the hotel with us, but eventually they let us bid it adieu and start back towards the ferry.
We had heard that the worst wait times for the ferry were between 5-7, so we’d purposely stayed late on the island, and arrived at the ferry at 7 o’clock sharp.
This helped absolutely nothing.
We still had to wait 2..5 hours with 2 small, whiny children who wanted nothing more than to be out of the car. It was not a pleasant experience. We didn’t board the ferry until 9:30! By the time it was said and done, we didn’t get back to the hotel until midnight! Luckily both girls fell asleep on the ferry ride and slept the whole way back..
Side note: If you are visiting Ocracoke, you do not want that to happen to you. Especially if you have two small, very impatient, children and a grumpy Daddy. Knowing what do now, I’d get there first thing! Literally between 7-8 a.m. If I wasn’t staying on the island, and needed to catch a ferry back, I’d leave between 3-4 at the latest. On our next trip, I might even call the local tourist center to make sure there is no construction currently happening!
Day 3
Day 3 began with tired parents and children who were still up at the crack of dawn despite going to bed much later than usual. We tried to have a laid back, lie in bed kind of morning, for a change. Duck Donuts was just a minute or two down the road so my hubby ran and grabbed some breakfast while I got the girls ready for the day. If you’ve never had Duck Donuts…you are seriously missing out! Ours were fresh and a-ma-zing!! My favorite was the maple bacon doughnut. I could’ve eaten a dozen of them!
After a delicious breakfast we finally left the hotel at about 10 and headed for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Corolla.
We’d heard about an “Outdoors Day” event going on there. Corolla was a good 45 minute drive from our hotel, so this also provided the perfect opportunity for the girls to catch a quick nap from our late night the day before.
We arrived at the Center and the first thing we saw was a horse! My daughters were over the moon excited, and could’ve just stayed there and petted the sweet mare all day. One of the vendors set up at the event were the Corolla Wild Horse Fund. They had brought one of their domesticated, rescued mares there to interact with the public.
While the horse was the highlight of the event for my kids, that certainly wasn’t all there was to experience. We spent the morning learning about shipwrecks, sea turtles, dolphins, crabs, birds and many more of the wildlife native to the Outer Banks. There were tons of hands-on activities and the girls had a blast just learning and playing.
When it started to get hot out, we headed in to the museum. The first thing my girls spotted was of course, more animals. OBX Lizard Land had brought a monitor lizard and a gila monster for guest to interact with. My girls loved petting them, and I even worked up the courage for a tiny touch. (If you know me, I’m terrified of snakes, and lizards make me squeamish too – but these guys were actually kind of cute!)
We headed through the museum and briefly checked out the exhibits. There wasn’t as much hands on stuff for my girls to explore as there had been at the Adventure Museum, but still they enjoyed looking at the mounted wildlife scattered throughout the museum. Their Dad and I tried to read the exhibits, but soon gave in and headed back to the lizards, again having to convince them yet again that we didn’t need another pet!
After spending a couple of hours at Outdoors Day, we grabbed lunch at a local restaurant close to the center. After a quick refill, we were ready to go again, and headed off to visit the Currituck Lighthouse.
The grounds of the Currituck Lighthouse are amazing. I’ve been a couple of times now, and each time the beauty of them never ceases to amaze me.
Unlike the other lighthouses, Currituck is tucked back in a grove of trees. The grounds are green and lush, and on our visit the signs of new spring were everywhere. There were flowers blooming, birds and squirrels flitting across the lawn, and freshly mowed green grass.
There is a pretty brick walkway going around the park, and lots of benches and shade trees. My husband decided to take the oldest on the trek to the top, so the baby and I explored the grounds on our own. We got a couple of great shots, thanks to the amazing light that was literally everywhere. We found a few rocking chairs and waited for them to make it to the top.
I’m not going to lie, I was practically having heart palpitations when I saw my big kid all the way at the top! It’s reeeaallly up there! But she was thrilled and super proud of her accomplishment, so I had to share in her joy.
Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and the baby took a long nap, while the oldest and I enjoyed a swim in the hotel pool.
That evening was soon to be one of our greatest adventures of the trip! We were headed to Outer Banks Adventures for an airboat tour with Jamie.
Years ago, before kids even, we’d visited New Orleans and been super excited about an airboat ride we were supposed to go on. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but for some reason, we couldn’t make it and were really bummed. I’d never seen an airboat ride offered anywhere else we’d visited. Never, until we learned about Outer Banks Adventures.
We met Jamie at the Hwy 64 bridge towards Manteo in the Roanoke Island Marsh. We put life jackets on the girls and headsets on everyone. We were a little concerned about the baby keeping on the heavy headset, but we gave her a “pop-pop” (a Dum-Dum sucker) and we were good to go!
We zipped off through the marshes skimming atop the water. Amazingly, we didn’t even get wet!
We saw a ton of wildlife. There were different birds perched all throughout the marshes. Jamie even pointed out a bald eagle’s nest and two eagles in the distance. He was prepared with binoculars and we got a much closer look.
He showed us a crab trap, and inside were a couple of small blue crabs, some fish, and a turtle who was dangerously close to drowning!
Did you know even sea turtles need to come to the surface to breathe air? This girl didn’t!
The poor turtle Jamie pulled out the ocean was a big sluggish, but should be okay now, thanks to his savior. We also got to see his buddy, the blue crab up close, which was a really cool experience.
The girls favorite part was getting to stop on a sandbar in the middle of the marsh and get out and play!
The whole ride took a little over an hour, which was the perfect amount of time for the attention span (and growling bellies) of our little kids. This trip was truly one of the highlights of our trip. If you are visiting the Outer Banks soon, this is one adventure I can’t recommend highly enough. It’s an experience like no other!
We topped off for dinner at a little restaurant highly recommended by Jamie. It was a small little tiki bar and grill called Mama Kwansl. I had some amazing crab cakes with these unexpectedly delicious green bean fries! They had the best mixed drinks too, and even offered a fun kids selection with toys on the cups!
After that, no more excitement. After Tuesday’s late night, we were in bed early to prepare for our last full day of vacation.
Day 4
Luckily for us, we had some Duck Doughnuts left over to start our morning off right! We hung out the in hotel for a bit, relaxing and watching tv, and left around 10 to get a start on our day!
Located in Manteo, the Island Farm is a working farm that represents daily life on Roanoke Island in the mid-1800s. This site is actually the original site of the homestead of Manteo native Adam Etheridge who built his home there on family farm.
At the Farm you’ll find the original, restored home, a blacksmith shop, chicken coop, cookhouse, smokehouse, outhouse, slaves cabins and more. Each of these buildings models life during the 19th century. There are costumed guides around the property who are full of interesting history.
One of my daughter’s favorite experiences was visiting the cookhouse and watching the guide cook over an open fire. She kept looking for the microwave but never found it!
The girls also enjoyed the small playground that was tucked away in a corner field near the family cemetery. A huge, massive Oak offered two swings, which were a hit. There was also a wooden teeter totter that they had a ton of fun on.
In the front yard were lots of yard games too. We spent a bit of time out there learning about the games they used to play and trying them for ourselves. We even plan to re-create some of them in our front yard!
We spent a few hours here and the time passed quickly. This was one of my favorite historical stops though because the girls learned so much and had so much fun doing it! As a teacher, this place is the perfect field trip stop!
We grabbed a quick lunch at a great little sandwich shop called Poor Richards. I had an amazing pimento cheese burger that was huge! We arrived at the perfect time too. Just after a swarm of people came and there was a huge line! It seems this place is a local favorite.
This next stop is one our tour guide Jamie had also recommended. We knew about Jockey’s Ridge and the huge sand dunes. We had been there on our honeymoon. Since we were traveling with a 2 year old though, that was something we were considering skipping. Neither one of us was really up to carrying her to the top of a massive sand dune.
But then, Jamie told us about a little known spot in the park that might work better for us.
It turns out there is a sound side beach access in the park. However, you cannot access it by turning directly in to the park. You have to take a right out of the park and then turn on the first road on the right, W. Soundsdale Rd. The access is located down the road a bit, where the beach meets the water.
This place was a-maz-ing! It wasn’t crowded at all, there were only a few other families there. The beaches were clean and the waters much tamer than the wild ocean surf. The most incredible part? It was super shallow. My husband was able to walk out probably 500 feet or more and the water never got above his knees!
We spent several hours there, just playing the sand and water and hanging out. It was a super windy day, and we got to watch several kite boarders go out and catch some air with their kites!
The hubby and I enjoyed a little time to relax on the beach. The girls of course enjoyed everything about just being on the beach. They left with sand in every crevice of their body, but a smile on their face!
After our beach trip we returned to the hotel for some downtime. We had promised the girls some time at the pool so we talked them into taking a tiny nap and then getting up for some pool time.
We had a nice dinner at Millers Seafood and Steak house. The had the most amazing hush puppies ever! They were a little sweeter than your usual hush puppy, but they were insanely delicious. Slightly reinforcement of funnel cake from the fair.
After dinner, we popped across the street for a sweet treat at the American Pie Drive-in. We got some awesome ice cream and enjoyed sitting on their porch enjoying the warm ocean breeze.
Even though it was getting late, we had one more thing to do. My husband has started a beach trip tradition with my daughter. We dedicate one night of our trip to going to the beach and catching crabs after dark. We grabbed a sand bucket, and flashlight and headed out to the beach for some night time fun.
We walked around for 30 minutes, chasing and catching tiny crabs. My girls found it hilarious and had the best time ever chasing them and then squealing when they got too close.
My husband caught about ten, and before we headed back to the room we let them all scamper back to the sand to be caught another day.
Bedtime was easy for a change. Turns out 4 days on the go is a bit exhausting for everyone!
Day 5
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and so we met the last day of our vacation with a little bit of sadness. We had been having such a good time that we’d even toyed with the idea of extending our trip. However, the Easter holiday was coming and we had guests coming in from out of town. So, we made the adult decision to go ahead and check out when we planned.
My husband ran out to grab some biscuits and I stayed behind with the girls. We reluctantly packed up, and then got ready for our last day.
We checked out about 10 and immediately headed over to the North Carolina aquarium on Roanoke Island. This was an adventure we had been looking forward to the whole trip. We have spent a lot of time vacationing at Oak Island through the years and the Fort Fisher Aquarium has been a favorite day trip while visiting. We were excited to see how it stacked up.
The Roanoke Island aquarium certainly didn’t disappoint! The facilities seemed a little more updated than Fort Fisher, and there were more high tech exhibits available. We loved the freshwater exhibit and getting to see the animals that lived in the area. We met some turtles perching on a log and got an up close view.
There were also some very frisky, and friendly otters, who put on a show swimming around in their tank.
And then there was the creepy smiling albino alligator. That was something you don’t see every day!
One of the coolest parts of this aquarium was the sea turtle rehabilitation center. We got to see several of the turtles that were currently receiving care, and hear from the staff all about them.
There was also a really cool exhibit right outside the center, where kids could preform their own diagnostics on a replica turtle and pretend to care for it as well.
Of course my girls favorite part of the whole aquarium was the touch bay. They got to touch some sting rays and a hermit crab and were over the moon excited.
The final exhibit we visited was a giant tank full of sharks and other big game fish. Apparently, this aquarium has the largest collection of sharks in North Carolina!
After the aquarium we headed up towards Corolla. We stopped a little pizza place on the way up and ordered the lunch buffet.
We had a little time to kill before our horse tour started, so we stopped in at the Corolla Wild Hour Fund shop. While they have had a museum set up in the past, currently they only have small exhibit. (side note: They plan to open the museum in the coming months.)
This didn’t phase my horse crazy girl though! It was the first time she’d seen a store completely devoted to horses. She was in heaven. She would’ve spent every last dime to our name if we’d let her! She also enjoyed checking out the small exhibit and seeing some pictures of the beautiful Corolla mustangs we were going in search of later that afternoon.
We had learned of a smoothie shop close to the tour headquarters, and decided to check it out before our trip. It turned out to be the perfect mid-day snack.
Island Smoothie is located in the shopping center across the street from Wild Horse Adventure Tours. In addition to serving a huge selection of delicious smoothies, they also offer acia bowls, sandwiches and salads.
One of my favorite things about their smoothies is that they are made from fresh fruits and vegetables, so our tasty treat is also a healthy snack! My girls didn’t seem to notice though! My oldest downed her Orange Dreamsicle in a flash!
In addition to fresh (often locally sourced) ingredients, Island Smoothie delivers an amazingly upbeat vibe. The dining area is bright and colorful. They have these amazing tables that look to be made out of reclaimed wood. Their bar is done with the same material.
After a energy boosting snack, we headed over to Wild Horse Adventure Tours to check in. We had been waiting for this tour since they day we arrived in the Outer Banks, so we were practically giddy with excitement. We checked in upstairs and discovered another huge horse themed gift shop. In the lobby there were lots of cool ride on horse toys that my girls enjoyed playing with. We arrived 30 minutes early (per instructions) so they had plenty of time to play.
When the Hummer was ready to load, the called over a speaker and everyone made the trip downstairs to start loading. Our carseats were very easy to install in the Hummer. We put the girls between as as we were advised that the outside seats sometimes get hit by over hanging brush.
The ride to the beach was brief but fun. It was a unique experience for my girls to be riding in an open vehicle on the road, and they seemed to enjoy it. When we hit the actual beach, my youngest almost instantly fell asleep. It seems the combination of the bumpy beach roads, loud purr of the engine, and her own cushy carseat were just too comforting.
We hadn’t been on the beach long when we spotted our first group of horses. There were about 5 horses grazing off in the distance. We weren’t able to get close, but it was still a beautiful sight.
That was just the start of it! We found groups of horses all around the homes that are scattered around the beach. It was so cool to watch them hanging out around the houses.
We saw them lazily grazing, lying down napping and we even saw two stallions fighting from a distance!
The beauty of these amazing animals is hard to put into words. They are visions of peace and freedom. We met one little mare who seemed in search of attention. Her harem stayed close throughout the tour. My favorite shots from the trip are of her.
Our guide, Mike J., was super knowledgeable, and we learned so much about not only the horse, but also the history of the area. He was even able to point out some other wildlife, including a snake slithering across the road way!
It started to rain towards the end of the trip, but that didn’t change how amazing a time we had. In fact, I think we wouldn’t have minded if the whole tour was in the rain, just as long as we could see the horses. This tour definitely helped us end our vacation on a high note, and we can’t wait to come back and do it again!
After the tour it was time to head home. We were a little nervous about the drive, as a band of severe storms that had spawned several tornados was headed right towards us. Amazingly, we missed most of it. Our girls were so exhausted, they slept almost the whole way home. We only made ONE stop. A quick dinner and bathroom break at Wendy’s. When we got home, we carried them upstairs and tucked them in, fully dressed, not wanting to disturb their much needed rest.
We woke up the next day, all wishing we were at the beach again. We truly had an amazing vacation. We’re already planning our next Outer Banks trip. We had discussed waiting a few years so the girls would be older and able to participate in more of the activities on the islands. Truth be told though, I’m not sure we can stay away that long.
Only time will tell, but until then, we’ll be missing those amazing beaches and wild ponies, and longing for the day we get to visit them again.
