Wednesday, July 18th...family pictures, Roanoke Island and Captain Johnny's Dolphin tour

 Sand castle galore!

 Sepia?

 Or Color???  My gorgeous girls!  <3

 My girls love one another so much!  I am doing something right!  :)

 Our family photo!

 Dancing on the beach...

 Juliette's favorite..."ring around the rosie".  She calls it "ashes ashes".

 The crew.

 A fisherman on the beach was showing us his catch...a "croaker" fish.  It makes a croaking sound.

 At the visitor center at Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island.

Isabelle found the tiniest toad!

 Jamie in front of the unearthed remains of the colonists original fort.  In 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh along with John White (artist) and 118 men, women and children arrived in Roanoke Island to start a new colony.  The first "American" child by the English named Virginia Dare was born during this time.  Raleigh and White needed to leave for more provisions and when White returned 3 years later the entire colony had disappeared.  Many have theorized that they were killed, although no bodies were ever found or possibly they had assimilated with friendlier Indian tribes such as the Croatans.  A great mystery!

 At a Kitty Hawk kite shop in Manteo.

 A replica of the Elizabeth II, the ship that brought the lost colonists to the island in the 17th century.

 Dolphin watching in the Roanoke sound

 Dolphins!  The sound is 3 to 4 feet deep and is brackish water.  The dolphins that live in the sound are much smaller then their Atlantic bottlenose relatives whom we saw several times in the ocean while we were on the beach.

Bodie Island Lighthouse was built in 1872.

 A shrimping boat at sunset....note all of the birds nearby!

 Watching the sunset

 Gorgeous sunset at the sound.

Tuesday, July 17th...Corolla and the Wild Horse Jeep Adventure

After a day at the beach, we drove to Corolla to catch a glimpse of the Wild Spanish horses that live on the beach in Corova which is very close to the Virginia border.   We all piled into an open-air jeep to take the short drive to Coroava.   The horses were possibly left or stranded by a shipwreck nearly 500 years ago and have survived living along the banks.  They are now fenced off on this section of land due to them being harmed years ago.  Their diet is very different then the typical horse.  You can only see them by taking a 4x4 vehicle off-road on the beach...but actually this section of coast and sand is a road that you can drive on!  The houses that are here are very remote and can only be accessed by a 4x4...no restaurants or stores...we did go by a tow truck company and our guide said that he is quite busy!   

 The "cattle egret" on the horse's back helps catch flies.

 Pretty exciting!

The Currituck light house

 Allie enjoying the breeze with Grandpa!

Juliette has her tongue out like a little puppy with her head outside the window.  :)

Monday, July 16th...Jockey's Ridge State park

The desert-like sand dunes of Jockey's Ridge State park make it the tallest active dune on the east coast.  It is hot!  And the sand is about 20 to 30 degrees above air temperature!  The girls envisioned rolling down the dunes like they did last year in France but found themselves moaning about walking over it (they had shoes on!).  The small fresh water shallow "ponds' provided welcome relief to our warm tootsies!  

 Best view!  It is incredibly windy...people find it a perfect place to parasail and fly kites.

 Up on the tall dune.

 A bit more vegetation here.

 Walking back to the car.

 Taking a break on the deck.

 Public beach access with a lifeguard.

 Pretty umbrellas...

Girls having fun for about 5 of 18 holes of miniature golf!  :)