Graveyard of the Atlantic

Look at this map of the Outer Banks; we're so vulnerable out here! Perfectly imagining a hurricane, and being on a Spanish Galleon when it crashes to shore, we truly understand why this area is called the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Most of the ships are buried in the sand, but after a storm their skeletons are perfectly visible lying along the beach.

(According to Misty of Chincoteague, it's bad luck to even pick up a rib of a ship.) Creepy, huh?

There's a chain of barrier islands and most of them are protected seashore -- never ending sand dunes. We're toward the southern end of this chain on Hatteras Island; it hosts 7 little villages with lots of Mom & Pop type things to do.

The entire coastline is dotted with beautiful lighthouses and we simply had to visit one of the most famous, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. She's the tallest in the U.S. and the tallest brick lighthouse in the world. Naturally we wanted to climb its 249 steps to the top -- the equivalent of a 12 story building.

Remember back at Seaworld Doodle and Grandma had to sit out the fun ride and Doodle said, "I'm too short and you're too old!" Well, Doodle has apparently had a growth spurt! When the Park Ranger measured her at 42" she started chanting, "I'm tall enough to climb! I'm tall enough to climb!" And climb we did.

There were 8 landings along the way and Grandma used every one of them. At the end we gave Grandma the "best Grandma climber prize". The climb was breathtakingly worth it!