The Outer Banks

It was fun to drive the length of the Outer Banks.  It confirmed how wonderful Ocracoke is, as the other famous towns - Nag's Head, Kitty Hawk and Cape Hatteras are condo clusters and considerably larger than Ocracroke.

Ocracoke Harbour

It doesn't get much better than this - no chain stores, boats of all decriptions and the traffic is mainly golf carts and locals on bikes...some riding with cell phones and/orsipping beer.

The Ocracoke lighthouse is white, without the distinctive black graphics that distinguish the other lighthouses along the Outer Banks.

North Carolina Marintime museum

I had a couple of hours to visit the Maritime Museum in Beaufort at the south end of the Outer Banks while transiting through on a sail boat earlier this week.  Its a wonderful small museum which is augmented by a traditional wood boat building workshop.

One of the benefits of sketching is that if you ask, you can often get in past where the public are allowed and engage staff in conversation about what they are doing.  It was about 90 degrees F that afternoon, but the offshore breeze was moving through in the shade of the workshop made it quite comfortable.