Getting Ready for a wedding in Jackson

Yesterday we took our hike up to the top of the Empire Bluffs. What a great walk and a great view. From the top we could see the southwest side of South Manitou Island, the shore of the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, the town of Empire, South Bar Lake and Point Betsie to the south. We sure appreciate the beauty this area has to offer and it truly is one of the most beautiful areas in the U.S.

We are getting ready to head south this weekend to Jackson for Jeremy and Laura's wedding. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

The view to the north at Bar Lake, Empire, and South Manitou Island

Zooming in on South Manitou

Looking south along the bluff and out to Point Betsie

Benches and the end of the boardwalk

A look at what the winds do to the bluff, blowing sand and creating bowls.

Westward towards Wisconsin

A view from the trail at Bar Lake and Empire

Spring in the woods along the hike

This area was homesteaded in the 1800's

The Glen Lake narrows with the sand dunes in the background (top left of picture)

Mid-Week Blog

 We woke up yesterday morning to quite a surprise, we got about half an inch of snow overnight!! It was all gone by 10am so we felt a lot better. Today is sunny and high forties we are going for a hike up the Empire Bluff. Mike did this last weekend and now we have to see it!

Enjoy your day wherever you are!!

Our Tuesday morning surprise!! Welcome back to Michigan!!

Jenny and the new addition to the family. Meet Murphy!

After the Holiday

All the kids were here for Easter and we had a good weekend. The weather was much nicer than we expected and everyone got a full weekend of sunshine and blue skies with mild temperatures!
The grand kids had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday and woke up on Sunday to find their Easter baskets full of goodies.
Everyone has gone home now and the house is too quiet. Now we have to catch up on all the unfinished odds  and ends around here and get ready for the summer.

Easter morning.

Seven of the grand kids. We were missing Evey!

We found how tough it is to get all of the kids looking in the same direction at the same time!

The kids are all growing so fast it's incredible!

Back in Michigan on Wednesday

We drove all day yesterday and made it to southern Ohio. Today we finished the drive and had dinner with Tom and are camping now at Camp Pleasant Street in Romeo. The vacation went well and on Thursday we will be driving north to see if our house is still standing.
Can't wait to see everyone there.

Our last day on OBX (Outer Banks)

We explored Hatteras Island today a bit closer to the campground. We took a drive to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and wandered out to Hatteras Point. The wind was fierce today and when we were near the ocean the sand was flying and the waves were crashing. The temperature never broke sixty and we wore hooded sweatshirts most of the day. This is really a neat place when you take the time ot get off the beaten path and do some exploring.
In the morning we are hooking up the camper and will get an early start to get back to Michigan on Wednesday.
Happy trails to all!

The day was spent in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

This is the tallest brick lighthouse in North America

The lighthouse dates back to the early eighteen hundreds.

Year first constructed	1803 (original tower) 1870 (current tower)
Year first lit	1870 (current tower)

We saw a couple of groups of deer. Here there were three but by the time I got the camera out one was gone and a second was going!

If you hate cormorants you will really hate this picture. Zoom in and see all of them in this pond by the coast.

You can see the lighthouse way off in the distance. The sand was really blowing out on the beach today.

Another view of the light.

Hatteras Island to Ocracoke Island, Sunday daytrippin'

We spent a great day cruising the islands today. We are camped on Hatteras Island and after breakfast burritos we took a drive to Orcacoke Island for the day. The south end of the Outer Banks seemed so much better than the north end with it's development and congestion. Here the park service owns more of the island and the housing is less dense and much more sporadic. We drove for several stretches where there were miles of wilderness. Then when you came to a village it was not over developed and a lot more quaint and rustic. Much more like the old fishing towns we were expecting.
The North Carolina Transportation Authority operates the ferries that go between the islands here. The one that went from Hatteras to Ocracoke Island was free and took about forty minutes to make the crossing. We got in line and were on the next ferry in about fifteen minutes. Ocrakoke Island is sixteen miles long and the first thirteen miles are national seashore. After that the town of Ocracoke was only a mile wide and very quaint and old time. This would be the place I would concentrate on whenever I come back to the Outer Banks.

Kite boarders on Hatteras Island. The Outer Banks are one of the favorite locations for this sport.

Typical beach houses on the outer banks. Many are four stories with exterior stairways and balconies. I bet the hurricanes love to play with these! I wouldn't want to be an insurance company covering this nonsense!!

We were on a car ferry like this going from Hatteras to Orcacoke Island.

The laughing gulls (notice the black heads), love to follow the boats looking for food that gets stirred up in the wake.

A line of cars and trailers waiting for the ferry from Orcacoke to Cedar Island.

This building is a teaching facility for the state of North Carolina.

Hurricanes constantly change the layout of these islands and demolish what man has built on them.

Silver Lake in Orcacoke village

The Lighthouse.

Some of the local residents.

Ponies at Orcacoke Island. They are derived from the spanish settlers and are considered wild even though they are cared for by the park service.

Sunday on the Coast

We arrived at the Outer Banks yesterday along with the cloudy cool weather. It rained off and on most of the day and the temperature is in the sixties. It looks like that will be the trend for the three days we are here, but the rain is supposed to stop.
The islands are interesting, but a bit more developed than we thought. It's a good thing the government sets aside land for parks and national seashore, or these crazy people would put beach houses on every square inch of available land. The hurricanes come through periodically and take back some of the land, but the people keep rebuilding and putting houses where they shouldn't be. I hope these folks spend too much money on homeowners insurance!
We explored the north end of the islands yesterday and wound up in a town called Duck. It was the most prestigious of the communities we drove through. The roads into the beaches were private and in some cases gated and the homes were magnificent. there were two main north/south drags going along the island. One was busy with traffic lights and a lot of shopping and restaurants and the other was smaller and closer to the beach with houses on both sides. We drove to a state park and saw the sand dunes of the Island and then on to Kitty Hawk to a park with a monument to the Wright brothers since this is where they made their first motorized flight. (They came to the Outer Banks since the winds were reliable here and helped them launch their aircraft). At one point the houses stopped and we drove through miles of national sea shore. Then back to Rodanthe on Hatteras Island where we are camped. (Look at a map). The towns here are Duck, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, Nags Head, Whalebone, Oregon Inlet, Waves and so on.

Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday...

The visitor center at Roanoke Island. This is where we came across to the Islands from I-64

 1000 foot long fishing pier that was first built in the 1930's and rebuilt several times there after.

Another view of the pier.

Looking south along the beach.

Looking north.

A light house in the National Seashore

Park shoreline on Hatteras Island