I waited all week for this shot ...

We were down by Silver Lake Harbor almost every night last week, waiting for the sky to turning beautiful ... and it never happened. We came to Buxton ... and found a road that led us out to the edge of Pamlico Sound. We were busy taking great pictures ... check this one out ...

The sun had just slipped into Pamlico Sound when a Dare County Deputy Sheriff arrived and told us that we were trespassing! Neither of us had seen the NO TRESPASSING SIGN at the road! YIKES! We apologized profusely for being there, and told him we would not go there again! The sign is there because of persistent vandalism at an old restaurant out on the point. It's too bad the restaurant isn't in business any more, they have a fabulous view of the sound!

Another photo from Sunday night, edited on Monday and posted ...

We are on Hatteras Island ... at Buxton

We caught the 9:00 a.m. ferry from Ocracoke to Hatteras Landing ... by inches! We were the last car in line, to be allowed onto the ferry, and the attendant had to direct us into a TIGHT SPOT with inches (or less!) to spare. We arrived at Hatteras Landing about 9:45 a.m. When we left the ferry, we went straight to Buxton to Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. poki was there with a PURPOSE - to climb the tallest light in the Americas, and the tallest BRICK lighthouse in the world! The wind and weather was cooperating today - the observation tower was OPEN! It was not open on Friday and Saturday due to high winds, so we were lucky! We climbed it - to the top, and poki walked the complete circumference of the observation deck taking pictures all the while! I will add pictures to this post laster when I have had a chance to load and edit some of them! I was thrilled to be able to do it. I counted steps going up, taking short breaks at each platform (about 30 steps each time!) The total is 248 by my count going up. I counted in descending order coming down to keep my mind off the climb, but it was much harder to concentrate on the descending numbers while not looking at the steps! Pix to come!

This is the first picture that I edited ... more to come tomorrow!

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Goodbye, sun ... goodbye Ocracoke!

The sun slipped silently into Pamlico Sound bringing the close of day! The moon rose brilliant, and ORANGE (almost full - it was actually full on Friday night) as poki and Mike walked themselves home. The sky was full of stars! (the first night it was clear enough to see the stars! since we arrived a week ago!) poki and Mike said their "goodbyes" to Ocracoke for another time - both wondering when they would return to this "island of surprises!"

Mike had fun on the beach ... Sat, May 9

Goodbye, Mac - the "scoop"

We miss you already!

Our Friday morning walk

Mike and poki took a walk from 11:00 - 3:00 on Friday. We had a couple of destinations in mind, but stayed out much longer than poki expected (of course, we also stopped for lunch which was an unexpected treat!- more about that later)

The first destination poki had in mind was the Village Craftsman, a store on Howard Lane, an unpaved one lane road through the center of the village. The sign at the end where cars are allowed to enter (it's ONE WAY, thank goodness) says DRIVE REAL, REAL SLOW! I drove it once earlier in the week, and Friday was poki's second time to walk it! We were able to located the William Howard Live Oak at 58 Howard. It is the largest tree in the US registry of live oaks that are still growing on Ocracoke. It has a girth of 17' measured just under the branches, and a limb spread of 57' - an amazing living thing! The store was amazing too - lots of beautifully handcrafted items! (of course,their price tag showed how amazing they were as well!)

We continued on down Howard until it arrived at Irvin Garrish (Hwy 12 - the main street in town) We stopped at the Jolly Roger for lunch on the deck overlooking Silver Lake Harbor. It was a beautiful day! The pelicans thought it was lunch time took, and flocked to the deck where the fisherman clean their fish when they come in at noon from the half day trip.

After lunch, Mike perused and BOUGHT a kite at Kitty Hawk Kites in the Community Square shops. He flew it from the roof top deck after we got back home.

We walked on down Irvin Garrish to British Cemetary Road and to the British Cemetary. It is the final resting place for 4 British seaman whose bodies were recovered off Ocracoke in November 1942 after the armed trawler was torpedoed by a German submarine. Two of the bodies remain unidentified. There were about 50 men on board, and all but these 4 were never recovered.

We walked back to our house on the other end of town, Mike had a kite flying adventure, and poki took a NAP! (I'm also trying to finish a novel that I found here at the house, before we leave tomorrow)

About 6:00 p.m. we headed down to the harbor again to listen to some live music at the Jolly Roger. The singer was Chris Beach from Roanoke VA - he did a few originals but mostly cover stuff - back in the 70's we called it PROGRESSIVE country. Willie, Waylon, etc. He was good, and we enjoyed the evening on the dock.

While waiting for our dinner to arrive, the Windfall sailed in from her Sunset Cruise.

Secret Gardens ...

Ocracoke has lots of little "secret" spots of color - not many full blown gardens, it's hard to garden in SAND! But I did find little spots of color everywhere. Here's some evidence from Thursday morning's walk: some beautiful azaleas on Howard Street

A gorgeous iris I had walked past on Middle Rd a few times before I saw it.

Irises on Back Road:

A beautiful vine of clematis on Back Road

A pink double clematis at the Sunflower Gallery - we missed this one when we found the blue one on Monday!