Trip to Outer Banks

At the end of September, we took a short trip to the Outer Banks ( islands off the coast of NC).  This was our first trip to the Outer Banks since moving here.  We have been to the beaches several times in South Carolina but never to North Carolina beaches.  This is mostly because there are a lot of great places to go on the beach in SC, and they are a shorter drive.  I bought our trip off of Living Social, and it included a stay at a B&B.  We were both slightly apprehensive about staying at a B&B, as the last two times we stayed at them, it ended up being less than what we were expecting.  However, we had a fantastic time and this B&B was great! 

Matt in front of The White Doe Inn

We stayed in the Raleigh room

Matt outside on our private veranda

 We were only a short walk to downtown and the ocean.  It was too cold for swimming but nice to walk around.

View of the harbor

 We went for a drive along the coast and decided to go to Corolla, which is where the wild horses are.  They roam free along the island, but are prevented from going into Virginia or into the towns of NC by large fences.  We also stopped by the local horse museum, and learned that until about 20 years ago, when the fencing went up, the horses would often wreak havoc in town by getting in trash and also causing traffic problems.  On this part of the beach, you can drive your car (if it's 4WD) and try to catch a glimpse of the horses.

We didn't think we were going to see any horses, and then on the way back to town we ran across 4 horses hanging out on the beach!





  We also had some other excitement on the trip - Matt discovered a scavenger hunt in our room and then solved it!  This started when I was leaning against the bedpost and it fell off.  Matt was trying to fix it but couldn't and then checked all the bedposts to see if they had this problem.  Under one of them we found a note!  (apparently I was not the first one to lean on the posts!).

Here's the note.  In case you can't read it very well, it says Look behind the carved word CROATAN.  I was a bit stumped by this clue, as we were in the Outer Banks so there were a lot of things about Croatan (the Lost Colony) in the area.  So, I gave up after about 2 minutes of pondering.  Matt, on the other hand, kept at it until he figured it out!

 Turns out another note was hiding behind a picture in our room of the colonists carving the word "croatan" on the tree.  (after Matt noticed this, I realized I had just been looking at these pictures the day before when we first got to the room, but apparently I was not paying good attention!)

Here's the note that was left:
Wow - You found it!  Take the penny for good luck but leave the notes and another small token for others to find.

Alright, I admit it...kinda nerdy but it was fun to find on our trip! :)