I LOVE taking photos of lighthouses! We were able to photograph

4 lighthouses along the coast. First off is one of the most famous;

the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.

Ocracoke Lighthouse.

On Ocracoke there are miles and miles of heavenly

undisturbed beach that is part of the National Seashore.

The only bad thing about this island (other than the

remoteness, 2.5 hour ferry ride from Cedar Island and

another 40 minute ferry ride to Hatteras island) are the

mosquitoes. It was like the movie Jumanji!

The Bodie Island Lighthouse is also on Hatteras Island.

It sits accross a goregeous grove of tall trees and behind it is

a boardwalk trail through marsh and reeds.

Currituck Lighthouse

This was the only lighthouse open for climbing.

Most of them close to climbers in early October.

View from the top (looking toward Virginia)

The next stop on our vacation blog tour is Wilmington. Wilmington is a fun town with an artsy vibe yet retains that Southern charm. It was one of our favorite parts of the trip. We stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast called the Greystone Inn. It is a 5 diamond inn and I highly recommend it! While in Wilmington we toured a couple of historic homes. (Yeah, we're geeks like that and yeah, we also watch the History channel!) Before we left town we toured the WWII battleship the North Carolina. (Andy had more fun with the ship than me. I can only take so much history in one day).

The Greystone Inn

Our room and chocolate turn down service.

The grand staircase.

The dining room and parlor.

They made a delicious southwestern egg fritata for breakfast.

The former ballroom on the top floor. The doors go out to a rooftop patio

where the band used to play back in the day. So cool.

We wanted to take a trolly tour through the historic district

but they canceled the last one of the day. We settled for a

cheesy cariage ride instead but the host was very funny

and we had her to ourselves. Andy took this lovely

photo of the horse's backside. (His name is Ned).

The Bellamy Mansion and gardens.

We must shoot a wedding there some day!

View from the cupola of the Bellamy Mansion.

The Burgwin-Wright House and Gardens.

The host gave a great tour.

A daytime and nightime photo of the river walk area

(Along the Cape Fear River).

Andy wearing an old mask at this fun store downtown called Planet.

He found a man version of a copy cat Shootsac (a.k.a. a regular mesenger bag) there.

The last two photos are from the battleship.

Now that our next event is not until the 29th, I can finally post photos from our trips! First is the road trip we took accross the state of North Carolina in October. There is so much to post I will have to do it in incraments ;o) Here is our day at the Biltmore in Asheville. They also had a beautiful garden and greenhouse where we took lots of flower pics! We ended our trip to the Biltmore with a tour of the winery, a wine tasting (kind of lame for the amount of time we had to wait), and an early dinner at one of their outdoor bistros.

Me practicing my how-to-pose-without-

emphasizing-my-double-chin pose. The greenhouse.

Andy at the wine tasting. We waited in line forever

just to taste 4 wines! (Only 2 of our choosing)

The best BarBQ quesadillas ever.

Those sweet red pepers and picked carrots were awesome!

Just posting this photo is making me crave it!