Golfing Chaos, a drive, a long queue, a ferry and almost a sunset....

As Jake, Ken and I sat down this evening to contemplate our day the now familiar phrase of 'was that only this morning' was like a chorus to our song. We woke at a reasonable time and showered before making the most of the hotel breakfast buffet and setting off down Highway 12 from Kitty Hawk.

Our first stop was a treat for the mini-golf mad Jake, Mr Samuel Hacker's crazy golf - where we discovered that any attempt to play with a toddler around was futile and the game soon descended into hilarious chaos with Dad being made to buy the post-round drinks as a 'reward' for getting a hole in 1!

We then followed Highway 12 down the narrow strip of land that is the Outer Banks of North Carolina...at some points only a few hundred feet of land on either side of the road between the sea....to Hatteras, the site of the famously moved lighthouse (literally picked up and moved down the road) where we joined the queue for the free ferry over to Ocracoke Island. The staff were particularly non-commital but seemed to be telling us that it was at least a 2 hour wait for the ferry!! It is barely in-season here, I would hate to think what the queues are like in the height of summer (but have a feeling that one day I might just find out...)

So, leaving a sleeping toddler in the car with Daddy, Jakey and I got to go and trawl the gift shops and pick our favourite boats in the harbour and buy tacos for lunch. Note to anyone who ever thinks tacos are suitable car-picnic food...they are not!!! Although Benjamin was mighty impressed with his spicy pork taco.


Eventually (about 20 minutes after we remembered we had an in-car DVD player to entertain the kids in moments such as this - doh!) we boarded the ferry and we set sail for the small yet perfectly formed island of Ocracoke, where the pirate Blackbeard met his bloody end.

Our home for the night - Blackbeard's Lodge, just in the village of Ocracoke, with 2 connecting rooms which meant that the tired toddler was fast asleep by 8pm without his big brother to distract him from the tough task of closing his eyes!

Which only leaves me to explain the almost sunset...we arrived on Ocracoke to blazing sun and promptly changed into shorts and t-shirts to have a wander around the village. We stopped at the 'Jolly Roger' restaurant on the harbour front to grab a bite to eat and as the sun started to duck low we had harbour side views of the sunset...and we waited, and we ordered, and we ate...and the sun stayed low in the sky but showed no signs of wanting to dip...so finally our goose bumps got the better of us and we payed the check and left...

One day I hope to return to Ocracoke and finish off the sunset we started, it really is a beautiful little island and next time I will remember that the April evenings are nippy as the sun begins to fade and I will make sure we bring our jackets!!