Wild horses, lighthouses and beaches.

Yes, I'm working on posts from Ireland and Vienna--but I'm going to post the occasional current one too. Today I went to the Outer Banks with Carol (my mother-in-law) and Olive (her sister--aunt-in-law?) I had wanted to go to the Outer Banks (OBX) for some time, but yesterday while getting a pedicure I read about the wild horses in Corolla in the northern OBX, and that cemented my desire to go; I want to see wild horses!

Wild horses in Corolla, OBX, NC. They are the descendants of
spanish horses who survived shipwrecks in the area.

So this morning we decided to go, in spite of the weather man who forecasted rain. Luckily, he was wrong--we had a few sprinkles on our windshield; otherwise a lovely day.

The OBX is a narrow barrier island that extends along the coast of North Carolina. At points it is so narrow you can see water on both sides. It is obviously a huge tourist area--we hit traffic today along the one road that extends along the island--I can only imagine what traffic will be like over this holiday weekend!

One of the things I noticed was all the interesting names of the towns: Duck; Nag's Head; Kill Devil Hills; Jockey's Ridge. So of course I had to look up the origin of the names.
Nag's Head: Probably named after places in England. Perhaps those places were named that because of a geographic formation that looked like a horses' head? There's a local tale that the name came about because pirates would hang lanterns around mules necks on the beach to look like ships--so ships at sea would sail towards them thinking it was a harbor and then run aground for the pirates to plunder. As I said, a tall tale.
Duck: So named because of the many species of wild duck found in the area. How original.
Kill Devil Hills: Once again, pirates take the blame for this one. Apparently they used to brew moonshine so vile it could kill the devil. Or there was a popular rum called Kill the devil that the town was named after. Or that ships carrying cargo including large quantities of rum would wreck and the locals would imbibe all that rum-enough to kill the devil. Take your pick.
Jockey's Ridge: No, not the site of a horse race-probably named after the original owners of the land-Jackey or Jawkey.

In my research I also discovered the old islanders had their own vocabulary--now archaic and rarely heard. A few samples of the most interesting words:
A-gal-lin: a date with a girl. Tommy's going out a-gal-lin again tonight.
Berlaskin: ailing, crippled. My berlaskin back's acting up again.
Chunk: To throw. He chunked a rock at the wagon.
Disremember: To forget. I disremembered your name again.
Frap: to hit. Stop frapping your sister.
Mommick: to beat up. His boat got all mommicked up in that bad storm we had.
Pizzer: porch or veranda. I'm gonna go set on the pizzer for a bit.


(Thanks to the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce for the above enlightening information. We have all learned something today.)

Moi in front of the Currituck lighthouse. We did NOT
wait in the very long line to pay $7 and climb the lighthouse.

We first drove to Corolla in the hopes of seeing the lighthouse there (another one of my obsessions--to be added to sheep and wild horses.) We found the lighthouse, and then went to the beach-except that you had to DRIVE onto the beach through some rather deep, soft sand--Olive decided that didn't seem like a smart thing to do in her car. Most of the vehicles going down the beach were big trucks and four-wheel drives. So I hopped out and walked the beach--it was a gorgeous, big flat beach with lovely waves breaking onto the shore; dolphins and pelicans cavorted in the sea, and dunes rose up behind the beach. But the beach was deserted; why? Because those big trucks and four-wheelers were roaring up and down! I walked for quite a ways enjoying the water and the sun and the sea--by myself, except for the passing trucks, etc. Weird. I don't understand the whole driving ON the beach thing. Make a parking lot! Beaches are for walking, lying in the sun, playing on; not driving!

Gorgeous break.

Beautiful beach--just have to watch out you don't get run down!

My toes amongst the dunes. Like the new color?

Birds on poles.

Pelicans in the sky.

We drove back down towards the southern half of the island to Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk and Nag's Head. We stopped in Kitty Hawk at the Wright Brothers monument--only it was closing in one minute! I snapped a picture of the monument as we turned around. This is where Orville and Wilbur Wright changed the world.

Wright Brothers National Memorial.

Stopped at the big kite shop to go climb the dunes at Jockey's Ridge and watch kids fly kites. Apparently the island used to be mostly big dunes like those at Jockey's Ridge. Now it's developed and commercialized, and the big dunes are limited to Jockey's Ridge national park.

Giant cow kite at the kite shop. Because everyone needs one.

Sand sculptor.

Kite flying in the dunes.

Dunes.

It was a lovely day. I saw two of the five lighthouses on the OBX. But those darned wild horses were no where to be found.

Bodie Island lighthouse.

On the beach at Nag's Head.

Carol and Olive--the Macdonald sisters.