 Konstantin Yakovlev |
 Tatiana Floyd |
 Alex Floyd |
 Alexander Pashko |
 Yulia Vinnitskaya |
 Zina Vinnitskaya |
Trip to North Carolina Outer Banks, September 2004
On the Labor Day Holidays of September 4-6 ( Saturday, Sunday and Monday ) our group went to North Carolina Outer Bank ( Hatterras and Ocracoke Islands ).
North Carolina Outer Bank is a chain of narrow islands ( banks ) stretching along North Carolina Coast. The islands are built from the sand, and the only vegetation there is the grass and the bush.
It took us about seven hours of driving to get from Washington area to Hatterras Island: the most Southern Island in the chain where to you can get with roads and bridges. The islands to the south of Hatterras Island are accessible by ferries only.
The outer side of the banks is the open Atlantic Ocean where the water is clean and the sand bottom is nice, but strong ocean winds may create severe conditions of hurricanes as well as strong waves and currents. The strong ocean wind blowing along the coast is the usual weather for the outer side of islands. Those winds made North Carolina "First in Flight" state since the Outer Bank was the place were Wright Brothers flew their first controlled and powered airplane on 17th December 1903. The inner side of the banks is a system of very shallow and warm bays ( they call them -- I don't know why - "Sounds" ), but the silty bottom makes swimming in some places unpleasant there.
The really amazing thing I saw at the Outer Bank was the night sky: the night sky full of swarms of large and bright stars crossed with the distinct stripe of Milky Way. This mass of stars was so dense that it even prevented the observer from distinguishing of the shapes of separate constellations, and the stars which stayed just above the horizon were as bright as the stars close to the zenith, so they seemed to be part of Earth landscape reachable by long enough walking. Actually, almost the only constellation which was not messed with those star swarms was the Scorpio. Its fan-like shape ( with its main star: red Antares which means "Mars' competitor" ) clearly distinguished above the Southern horizon.
Our vacation was great. We went with two cars, stayed at the motel at Hatterras Island and had a lot of fun! We pitched the tent on the beach, walked along the beach, swam, sang songs with guitar, flew the kites, had nice food and drink, etc, etc...
The weather was great: sunny and hot, 30C-35C around the clock on Saturday and Sunday while even the wind was not so strong as usually. Only starting Monday morning we encountered some severe ( but warm ) rains, but we were already driving back and made only one short stop at the beach. It was already raining then but so warm that it was a real fun to swim under such rain !
THE GROUP
Subtitles under the images indicate the place
The images marked with asterisk (*) are borrowed from Tatiana Floyd's site where more images can be found
Day 1 Driving to NC; Falcon Motel at Hatteras Island; Fun at the beach on Hatterras Island; Atlantic Ocean; Sunset over Pamlico Sound, Hatterras Island.
Day 2 Sunrise over Atlantic Ocean; View from Hatterras Island; Visiting Cape Hatteras Lighthouse; Taking Ferry to Ocracoke Island; Fun at the Beach on Ocracoke Island; Sunset over Pamlico Sound, Ocracoke Island
Day 3 Leaving Outer Banks; Fun at the beach on Pea Island; Restaurant at Nags Head