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This is the second of a three-part series. You can also read about the first part of our trip to OBX here.

Day 3 Continued:
It wasn’t that long of a drive from the Great Dismal Swamp to Kitty Hawk, so we drive straight to the first tourist attraction on our list rather than going to the hotel. Plus it was mid afternoon and the Wright Brothers Memorial closed at 5pm so the best plan seemed to be to see the WBM first and then just relax for the evening at the hotel.

One thing I learned at the memorial is that Wilbur Wright died as a result of eating bad oysters, which helped further my resolve to not eat non-fish seafood. The memorial thingy is on top of a hill. But the official flight stuff is in the meadow next to the hill so the hill is some sort of misdirection.

Here’s the view from the airplane launch point toward the landing markers.

And here’s the view from the launch point but in the other direction.

Here’s a view part way up the hill, walking to the monument.

The monument is just a thing to look at, I didn’t see a way to go in it or up it. So the main reason to go see it is the view of the area. You can see the strip of development on the right, which is the main drag through Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head.

The visitor’s center with displays and gift shop and bathrooms was setup nicely. A lot of interesting things to see, here is the main rotunda with a replica of the Wright flyer.

Our hotel was not too far from there. My main criteria for a place to stay was that it was on the beach. No sense driving all that way to OBX and not take advantage of it. Bonus is that this place had an outdoor pool (worked well, conveniently located on the side of our building) and an indoor pool (did not realize when booking that the indoor pool was in the other building so you have to walk across a parking lot to get to it).

Here’s the view from our room:

And here’s the view of the hotel from the ocean:

Then it was evening, then morning, the next day.

Day 4:
I wanted a non-chain hotel, and this seemed to be the best one around, at least for our budget. The pool was nice enough, we used it a little bit. I used the pool deck more than the pool, sitting and reading. The boys used the beach more than the pool, which is what I expected with the beach-front location. About the only thing I remember wishing were better is the breakfast. It was cafeteria-style, where you go through the line and the lunch lady (or breakfast lady in this case) serves you what the day’s offering is. The food was okay, but certainly left me looking forward to lunch.

After breakfast, we headed out to the wild horse tour. There are a variety of options if you want to see the wild horses. I wanted not to have to think about too much for this, and to be able to relax rather than have to drive, so I opted for the guided driven tour. It was worth it – I really liked this part of the vacation. Something about being in an open-top vehicle driving down the beach. I was glad I had my sunglasses, so that my eyes didn’t get sandblasted. It looked like this.

Anyone can drive to the beach and park on it, as long as you have four-wheel-drive, I think. There were many dozens of vehicles parked on the beach, people just hanging out for the day. They had grills and umbrellas and coolers and blankets and all sorts of things. Many of the same setups were there on our way in versus on our way out. I like visiting the beach, but for a little bit. An all-day thing like these people were doing would be too much. A beach-side hotel is much better – I can go enjoy the beach and then go enjoy not being sandy.

The tour drove from a normal town, through the truck party area, and then we came to the wild horse area which is really a kind of rural town. The roads in this town were just ruts through the sand dunes.

It seems to take a special type of person to live there. Or maybe they’re all just summer and rental homes. But that is one of the areas where the wild horses like to congregate.

If you haven’t been on a wild horse tour, you might have an idea of what the wild horses should look like.

That’s what you’ll see on websites and postcards and such. But do not expect to see that in person. What you’ll see are more like suburban horses. These are what we saw.

A horse standing in the road.

Or a horse standing in a driveway.

For part of the tour, the guide stopped the truck in front of some black plastic on the beach and explain what it was.

They track where sea turtle nests are and mark them and when it approaches the time for the eggs to hatch they set it up so that the baby turtles have an easier time finding the sea.

We ordered takeout pizza for lunch after the tour and ate it at the Corolla lighthouse park. The park was a nice place. We took advantage of the free museum there, but did not pay the fee to go up the lighthouse.

The museum had a display that shows the three main lighthouses in the OBX area. We were at the plain brick one that never makes it into postcards.

And then we headed back to the hotel for a relaxing evening.

Then it was evening, then morning, the next day.

Day 5:
This was a day of just doing whatever. No plans, no reservations anywhere. The boys spent some time on the beach.

Delta spent a lot of time collecting sand fleas. We did not let him keep them. We learned that lesson years ago with his older brother.

When we go to the beach at Lake Michigan, it has flags to let you know the danger level of the waves and current should you go swimming. Green for safe, yellow for caution, and red for danger. Standard stuff. The beaches in OBX have the same system, but because it is also so windy the flags are either red or double-red. I assume the yellow and green flags are in pristine shape, possibly still in their original packaging.

The hotel was not that far from the pier, and the pier was pretty close to some seafood restaurants, so we decided to make that our evening.

The pier is a working fishing pier, in that it mostly used by people who are fishing. Them, and tourists like us.

There were some pretty good waves that day, because it’s always windy in the OBX.

We walked by people who were fishing, and we walked by a section where people had fished.

The pier also has a photo-op place setup, a sign you can stand under and have your significant other take your picture. Or you can take a selfie and send it to your significant other. Or just pose there and try to find a significant other.

Then just around the corner from the pier was a decent restaurant. Not a fancy place, but we were looking for something representative of the area – a local joint if you will. We went with Sugar Shack. There was also a Sugar Creek restaurant nearby, I’m not sure why things were named “sugar” around there. I couldn’t quite tell from the restaurant’s website, but it was more of a takeout place. And it was a place that would also cook your own fish if you did catch something on the pier or on a boat and brought it in. Like “your own fish served with two sides” was an item on the menu. But we did not have our own fish so we ordered their stuff. Here’s a shrimp po-boy that Some Wife got.

It was more of a take-out place, but they had both indoor and outdoor seating available and were very welcoming to obvious tourists who wanted to eat there. We chose outdoor seating, and here was our view. It was on the bay side not the ocean side.

Everyone was happy with their food, so it was a successful evening.

Then it was evening, then morning, the next day.

To be continued…

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