South Carolina to Virginia Beach ~ From Cottonmouth to Boogie Boards

The next stop on this journey took us to Congaree National Park where we spent a couple of hours on a canoe tour. It was an old hardwood forest with lots of Cypress trees but this area was saved as it was pretty hard to get the wood out of the area. The tour also provided us with some unusual wildlife as seen in the following photos. 

I had such a great canoe partner!

This was the little alligator that we saw. It is about 3-4 feet in length and is unusual for the area. 

Cotton Mouth or Water Moccasin Snake. This guy was laying on this stump that over hung the creek ~ 

Brown Water Snake is what I think this one was called. He looked alot scarrier than the Cotton Mouth but was actually the harmless one of the two. I am kind of hopeful that this will be it for reptile encounters on this trip!

First night on the beach ~ Top Sail, North Carolina  Our campground was right on the beach so the rest of the day and the next day were spent in the sand!

We have had to ferry a couple of times ~ once to Ocracoke Island for 2.25 hours and then to Cape Hatteras, which was much shorter. 

We stayed on a gorgeous beach in Ocracoke and to do it over again, we would have added a few nights there. We stayed right on the beach and the beaches were amazing. Very quiet island and very fun place to be. We rode our bikes into town and checked out there light house. Fun artistic little community. We then moved up to Cape Hatteras. All of these areas have been experiencing record rainfalls. I believe one lady told me they got 8 inches in 24 hours a few days before we came.  This shot is from the top of the dune by the beach headed back into our campsite.(I rode my bike through it and the boys walked so it didn't close anything, It just flooded everything!)  The second night we were going to stay here Tropical Storm Colin was suppose to hit. We decided to move a bit North as the road sometimes floods here and we didn't want to be stuck down there. So we moved further North up the Outer Banks. 

Alex bought a new kite as it seems like "the thing" to do here. The boys spent the evening flying the kite and at the beach waiting for the storm to hit. It started raining about 8 PM and was done in the early morning. There was alot of rain but it wasn't bad. Tropical Storm Colin could learn a thing or two from Orman Dam, that is for sure! We headed to the Cape Hatteras Light House and up the coast where the days have been spent mostly enjoying the beach. 

We climbed to the top of the Cape Hatteras Light House. 

We toured the Wright Brothers Museum. Photo credit to Adam :) 

 Virginia Beach 

We took a tour of the Norfolk Naval base. There are so many planes flying over and Navy ships going by here it is kind of amazing to see. Very busy base that is for sure.