Ocracoke Images

The Ocracoke Lighthouse (oldest in North Carolina)

Renting bikes is huge here (also golf carts)

Blackbeard was killed in a bay in Ocracoke

We were originally going to stay here for only a night or two, but we've decided to stay just "one more night" (our forth), which is what we tell the Park Ranger every morning when we pay for that night's campsite. It's just been too damn gorgeous to leave. This has thrown our East Coast schedule off a bit (sorry Ed, Joni, Jamie, et. al.), but we've been hankering for some sandy beach hang-time for quite a while. So we should be off tomorrow . . . or will we?

Erin reading on the beach ("State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett) . . .

. . . and Yours Truly walking off into the sunset (okay, it's a sunrise, but how ineloquent is it to "walk off into a sunrise")

I haven't done a video in a while, but this one gives an idea of the size and underpopulation of the beaches here: