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Hey gang! Well, I returned, on Sunday, from quite a grand vacation, and I'd like to tell you a bit about it (it's taken me this many days to gather up the info and pics in order to make a good posting).

I'll break this up into a few short posts...

Since the late 1970s, my family, which is from southern NJ, has tired of the Jersey shore. It's schlocky, it's glitzy, it's overcrowded, and there are annoying things like beach tags, biting flies (at certain times of the year), and just throngs of people. It's no fun...at least, it stopped being fun for us.

So we set out for greener pastures...as many Jerseyans and Pennsylvanians (who also were accustomed to going to the Jersey shore) did. WE next chose Virginia Beach, Virginia (the largest resort community in the U.S. I believe). But that, too, became too much like going to the Jersey shore (just without the nasty seasonal insects). We never wanted to try the Delaware or Maryland beaches, as we didn't find anything there we liked.

Then, in 1987 (when I was in my first year of college, incidentally), my father found the Outer Banks, NC. At the time, it was very sparsely populated, and there were almost no services to speak of. It was largely a local beach community, known very little to outsiders. In the intervening years, however, more and more Jerseyans, Pennsylvanians, Marylanders, Delawarians, and Virginians would flock to the area to get away from their own beach scenes (which were becoming increasingly crowded and disappointing).

Unlike so many other popular eastern shore beaches (including Miami Beach and Myrtle Beach), the Outer Banks has a unique quality. There are many things which can attract those looking to get away from the crowds, the costs, the glitz and schlock, etc.:

1. loads of history

2. GREAT beaches (some of them are more than 100 yards from the dunes to the surf), which are CLEAN and painstakingly maintained

3. wide open spaces (on Hatteras Island, for example, there are only so many beach communities, which can only be developed so far, because they are flanked by protected national seashore and wildlife refuges, which cannot be developed...EVER)

4. almost perpetual trade winds, which make for great surf and, thus, great water sports!

5. amazing fishing

6. the "Diamond Shoals" (and the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" in it), which features more submerged shipwrecks than anywhere else in the U.S.

(to be continued...please bear with me while I post...there's more to come!)

...the first year we went (when my brother, sister and I were teenagers), we thought, as my father drove us along the two-lane highway that leads onto the barrier islands which form the Outer Banks, that we were going to HATE it! When we arrived (after an 8-hour drive, mind you), it was dark...and I mean DARK! The communites are so sparse, that it can get pitch black out there. We were expecting lots of things. How wrong we'd be! It became THE place!

The National Park Service, which polices Hatteras Island (where we stay, in the town of Avon), allows bon fires on the beach (so long as they are built and maintained, and then extinguished and covered, properly)...and there is all the stuff I mentioned in the last post...and great stargazing at night (and sunbathing during the day).

We never went anywhere else after first discovering the Outer Banks. Even despite the 8-hour drive we must make every year (we take Rt. 1 through Delaware, onto Rt. 13 into Maryland and the eastern shore of Virginia, onto the amazing, two-span, 17.6 mile-long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, into Virginia Beach/Norfolk, and then down along the coast to the Outer Banks.

I will post pics, and some great links for info, after this...and one more brief story to tell!

Before I go on about the Outer Banks, I should mention that another popular place we used to go to (and that I returned to this year), that I haven't been to since high school (I'm talking 1986 at best!), is Busch Gardens Europe (http://www.buschgardens.com/bgw/default.aspx). Easily considered one of the best theme parks in the U.S., this place is fantastic!

They were doing their annual Halloween festivities ("Howl-O-Scream"...lol), which were a lot of fun: http://www.howl-o-scream.com/williamsburg/index2.html.

And while the park has changed a LOT since I was last there, I had great fun as always riding the coasters and newer "4-D" rides. And then, I found Jack Hanna's features: http://www.buschgardens.com/bgw/aaa_jack_hanna_reserve.aspx. Besides a great bald eagle paddock, in which they keep gravely-injured bald eagles, nursing them back to health (though they will never fly again, due to their injuries), they had an amazing gray wolf display! (http://www.buschgardens.com/bgw/wolf_valley.aspx) People, I've NEVER seen an actual wolf until that point. I'd seen plenty of nature shows, but NEVER had I ever seen real live wolves. And I was floored.

They are such amazing animals...it's so much different seeing the real deal, and hearing their howls! They were so well-maintained and cared-for too. The keepers had a great show they did with the animals, talking about how they care for them, and do not interfere with their pack structure. Of course, these wolves were raised in captivity, so they have also been trained to do some routines that demonstrate their great intelligence!

When I saw their alpha male, I was totally floored by his grace and power. He was simply amazing. Though they ALL were! I admit to being choked up when I saw them, and I spent a LOT of time there!

Sadly, like an idiot, I didn't take photos. But I am returning there late this month, and I hope to then! If I do, I will post them in this thread!

All-in-all, it was a great return to a loved place from my youth. And ol' Seppala can still ride the coasters as well as he did (well, ALMOST as well) as when he was a crazy, strapping teenager!

They look really great,are there any more pics of your grand vacation?

Here are some links which can introduce you to the amazing diversity of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and show you why we love it so much!

I will post pics I took after this:

Well, first, here's a link for the amazing Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel...17.6 miles long and spanning the Chesapeake Bay, from the tip of the Virginia peninsula (eastern shore) to Virginia Beach, and comprising two spans, it is a marvel: http://www.cbbt.com, and a place we love to return to every time we go down to the Outer Banks.

Now, Outer Banks stuff, broken down into sections:

General Outer Banks Stuff

http://www.outer-banks.nc.us

http://www.visitob.com

http://www.outerbanks.org

http://www.nc-outerbanks.com

Outer Banks History
http://www.outerbanks.com/manteo/history/civilwar.htm

http://www.chicamacomico.net

http://www.roanokeisland.com

http://www.nps.gov/fora

http://www.nps.gov/wrbr (yep, the famous Wright Brothers made their first successful flights on the Outer Banks!)

The Pirate Blackbeard (Edward Teach)
Yes, he once plied the waters of the Outer Banks, and his last famous battle was fought there! He also maintained a lair on Ocracoke Island!

http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/lennon/897/teach.html

http://ageofpirates.com/article.php?Edward_Blackbeard_Teach

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard

Hatteras Island
One of the most popular islands of the Outer Banks, where my family stays (in the town of Avon)

http://www.nps.gov/caha

http://www.hatteras-nc.com

http://members.tripod.com/outerbanks/index.htm

http://www.fws.gov/peaisland

Ocracoke Island
http://www.ocracokeisland.com

Roanoke Island
Where the first English settlement in the new world was laid...

http://www.roanoke-island.com

Other Outer Banks Attractions
http://www.thelostcolony.org

http://www.nps.gov/fora

http://www.elizabethangardens.org

http://www.ncaquariums.com/ri/riindex.htm

http://www.jockeysridgestatepark.com

http://www.jockeysridgestatepark.com

http://www.graveyardoftheatlantic.com

http://www.outerbanks.com/lighthouses

K...pics. This is a lot, and it may take a few posts to do!

Here's the first batch:

First, a couple of shots of the amazing Hatteras Island dunes, and the beach in the distance, from the upper deck of my family's beach house in Avon:




Me returning from walking my Australian Shepherd, Milo (11 months old at present) on the beach (BAD photo!):



Here's a montage of shots I took of Milo playing on the beach...his first exposure to a beach and to the ocean!








(more coming!)

to continue...

A couple of shots of the dunes, and almost undisturbed beaches, of Ocracoke Island (unlike most beaches elsewhere in the U.S., on the Outer Banks it is very easy to find stretches of beach with almost NO ONE on them...even in the midst of the tourist season! You can ALWAYS stretch out and relax! Of course, there are almost no places that have lifeguards...so you swim at your own risk)




A shot of "pampas grass", a form of local plant life that is seen, actually, in many beach communities on the east coast, especially in the south (this stuff gets TALL...and, with sea oats, which you can see on the dunes in my other pics, grow in abundance. Pampas grass is a popular plant for landscaping in beach communities)



The famous Avon fishing pier





(still more coming!)

Now I get a little funny...

This unusual item apparently USED to be a restaurant of some kind (I don't know the factual history of it...I only know rumor), and is made up to look like a UFO. It is quite small, really, but big enough to get into






And now, a sunset montage (since the Outer Banks are on a chain of "barrier islands" off the mainland of North Carolina, each less than 1/2 mile wide in most places, to the west is a huge "sound" which is, at the most, only 9 feet deep...and is a great fishing locale...and also features great sunsets):






(STILL more coming!)

And at last, here is a montage of 22 sunrise photos (in two posts), facing the Atlantic Ocean from our beachfront beach house, we took (most beach houses on the Outer Banks are built up on tall stilts...there is sometimes seasonal storms which can result in flooding or worse...nor'easters and even hurricanes batter the area from time to time). What can I say? I love sunrises! LOL:













(one last photo post coming)

(last sunrise montage post)

Do you live on the coast of North Carolina?

those sunrise and sunset photos, by the by, were taken WITHOUT any kind of color filters, and with a digital camera! You're seeing true color there!

Nope. Like I said in the opening post, I live in southern New Jersey.

However, my family and I have kept a beach house there (actually, we've had two in the course of years since 1987) since at least 1989.

wow! xD every single vacation Ive been on was boring, your lucky! and the sunset pictures are beautiful! next time I go on vacation I am going to have to take some pictures with my digital camera, it's really slow tho, xD...and lmao that 'UFO' resturant is hilarious! I would love to go there! xD well when I get older then maybe I can actually go somewhere..but for now I'm stuck in my house..xD

Wow completely beautful^^ you have the photogropher telent in you^^, please show more^^