Beaufort: Day 3

Today we went to the Cape Lookout lighthouse. It was a 3 hour tour (queue singing). On the ride out we stopped to look for turtles. I didn’t see any, but did see bomb jellyfish. Despite their name, they’re actually harmless. You could even pick one up if you wanted, they just happen to look like little bombs in the water. I personally thought they looked like pastries.

We stopped on Cape Lookout for a little over an hour. It’s 167 feet talk and is the second Cape Lookout. The first was too short and by the time sailors would see the light, they were likely going to hit the shoals. The new Lookout has a black and white diamond design, with the black facing North and South while the white face East and West. The stretch of the southern barrier islands where Lookout is located run perfectly North to South, so wherever you are on these islands the sun will rise and set over the water. You couldn’t ask for a better location than that.

After leaving Cape Lookout, we rode by Shakleford Island, home of wild horses. Unlike the bankers, which are descendants of the shipwrecked Spanish mustangs. An old plantation owner put these on the island. When he died, his wife decided to have them put there for tourists. Now Shakleford and Carrot Island have these horses as inhabitants.

When the boat dropped us off, we walked over to Finz for burgers. My mom had what she said was the best shrimp burger she’d had since moving from Arkansas. After a little cat nap, mom and I went back over to Fort Macon to crash some waves until clouds started rolling in. We came back in time to beat the storm and went back to the Front Street Grille for dinner. Food was still excellent and I had the flounder. It started pouring while we were eating, but we were covered under a large outdoor tent. Since we’d walked to dinner, we stayed and enjoyed pomegranate margaritas until it calmed down and we could walk home.

Beaufort: Day 2

The morning got off to a lazy start. About 11:30 we headed over to Fort Macon. It’s on the edge of Atlantic Beach. The water was wonderful, but the air was at least 100. Mom and I had fun jumping waves and enjoyed the sunshine. Around 4 we left, stopping for milkshakes. We showered and cooled off before going to dinner at the Dock Room. The view was great, the food alright, but the beer was cold.

Mom and I went in search of a coffee shop for dessert and ended up in the Cru wine and coffee bar. They had a live band of 50-60 something year old people, just jamming and having a good time. We had some laughs and warm chocolate croissants.

Beaufort: Day 1

We woke up around 9, packed up and went into the main part of Southport for some breakfast. It was an old house renovated into a small shop. We had bagel sandwiches on the porch. Not much else was open yet; they seemed to get off to a lazy start. It was a couple hours over to Beaufort (bow-fort). We drove through Emerald Isle to get there. Once in town we went over to the maritime museum where we were very excited to see the newly resurrected anchor of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard’s ship. Unfortunately we found out that when papers reported this maritime museum would be hosting the anchor, it meant in 4 years after being preserved. Not a total loss though. The museum itself had a whole exhibit on Blackbeard and his voyages, full of tales of his demise in Ocracoke, and some general maritime history.

We wandered around Front Street, the main street in Beaufort. We stayed at the Inlet Inn, which was happily located on Front Street and looked over the water. Again, if you’ve ever seen A Walk to Remember, this is the town where it was shot and you can see our inn (blue roof) in a shot of the town. For dinner we went to the Front Street Grille, which sat on the water and was a charming restaurant. I ate soft shell crab for the first time and thought it was delicious, to the shock of my mom. After dinner we spent the evening talking and enjoying the view from the widows walk off our room.

Southport

And now we journey to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. If you've never been, its an absolutely gorgeous part of North Carolina. While there are your traditional tourist beach areas, its so easy to avoid them here. The Outer Banks is a 200 mile stretch of thin barrier islands along the North Carolina shore line. It's the home of Kitty Hawk where the Wright Brothers flew for the first time, Roanoke where the Lost Colony landed and disappeared, and the home of Blackbeard. It's also the home of 9 lighthouses. There is a lot of history and some very interesting towns.

And so we begin our adventure in South Port. We left Charlotte around 6:30 and arrived in Southport in time to catch the ferry to Bald Head Island. We were there to see Old Baldy, the lighthouse on the island. It's the oldest lighthouse in North Carolina and a grey, patching thing. The coast guard used to whitewash it yearly, but has quit when it was decomissioned that hence the fading. It was 109 steps to the top and a steamy climb it was. The top has a nice breeze where the light used to be. It was decomissioned because of the building of the Cape Fear lighthouse which has a fully mechanized light and can be seen for 24 nautical miles. 

Across from the lighthouse was a great beach access that lead straight out to the edge of the cape. After having my last two vacations being Greece and Hawaii, it was nice to spend time exploring my home state. We stayed in Southport at the Southport Angler Outfitter. If you've seen Nicholas Sparks' Safe Haven, this is the town where the movie was filmed and you can see where we stayed in opening flyover shots of the town. It wasn't quite on the water but there was just moring and marshed between us and the waterway. For dinner we went to Fishy Fishy Cafe. It had great seafood, live music, and sat right on the water. We had a great view of sunset. There was a boardwalk leading out to gazebos where we walked after dinner.