Thursday, May 16, 2013

A visit to The Outer Banks of North Carolina...



The Outer Banks (also known as OBX) is a 200-mile (320-km) long string of narrow barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina and a small portion of Virginia, beginning in the southeastern corner of Virginia Beach on the east coast of the United States. They cover most of the North Carolina coastline, separating the Currituck Sound, Albemarle Sound, and Pamilco Sound from the Atlantic Ocean. (credit: Wikipedia).

It is here that we were able to spend five days this past week. We camped at a KOA campground in Rodanthe (where the movie with Diane Lane and Richard Gere, "Nights in Rodanthe", took place), and our campsite was separated from the beach by only the dunes. Below is a picture of me standing in front of those dunes. Note, we did not come down that path behind me, as you are not allowed to do that since it breaks them down and reduces their ability to offer protection from bad storms and hurricanes. I am 5'4", so you can see how high they are.


Of course, I could not resist the opportunity to hunt some stuff on the beach to use in future art projects, so pictured below are a few of my finds.

Some whole and broken shells and an old branch.
I thought the broken shells would be nice to use
in some wire-wrapped jewelry some day...


During our stay, we ferried over to Ocracoke (at the southern end of The Outer Banks), visited Roanoke Island, where we went to the historical area of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, toured the Elizabethan Gardens, and ate lunch in the sweet little town of Manteo. We also spent some time on the northern end of The Outer Banks (my favorite spot, but that will be shared on a future post!).

Below are some finds from shops in those areas.

A beautiful white starfish and the most beautiful shell
I have ever seen, purchased in Ocracoke...



A close-up of the shell...


The outside of the same shell...


A sweet, jute-bound fabric book with craft paper
inside, also purchased in Ocracoke.
 I will further embellish this and use it
 to house some of the pictures we took...


Driftwood from a shop in Manteo...


And from the same shop, a rusty cast iron mermaid,
and pieces of netting in the most lovely browns
and taupes...


...and some other rusty pieces that I couldn't resist.


What a great place to visit!!!

2 comments:

  1. looks like a beautiful vacation at the ocean and I love your photographs!

    ReplyDelete

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