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.