~Sunday~ Robert opened the curtains to our balcony at a little after 6:30, and we were greeted by some birds and Mr. Sunrise over the ocean.
We went back to sleep, and got up in time to have a cup of coffee in the room before heading down to the hospitality room for a complimentary coffee and pastry breakfast. I sat out on the balcony noting the high tide:
drinking my coffee and doing my best “Hat Fail”:
The hospitality room actually consisted of two adjoining rooms on the second floor with a little sitting area in one room and the kitchen and serving area in the other room. This sign was outside the entrance:
Our girl Shirl moved in right behind you and wiped up after you, replacing anything you moved, and generally doing whatever she could to avoid interaction with the guests.
We decided that she must have been classmates with Miss Puss in Finishing School. After two weeks at the six-week finishing school, they said to them, “You’re finished now.”
Of course she (as did Miss Puss on the check-in counter yesterday) had a jar for “Tips.” Robert and I leaned into these flowers on the table like they had a microphone in them, and Robert said, “Here’s your tip, Shirl: Smile and talk to the customers.”
At around 11:00, we got on the road down to Hatteras, which was about an hour ride that took us along a quintessential coast, crossing a bridge here and there, and with various sized dunes, some with sea oats, along the ocean side of the road.
Here I am at the welcome sign:
And here’s Robert before we went to the ticket window to get our tickets:
We arrived with good timing, purchasing our tickets—$7.00 a piece—about five minutes before the next group was being “released” to head up the 257-stair climb. You had to get a little lecture from an outdoorsy park ranger, her spiel consisting of orders like, “Don’t run up the stairs and don’t skip any stairs. Your foot must touch every single step on the way up. Do take advantage of the strong breeze on each of the landings to catch your breath. Don’t throw anything off the top of the lighthouse,” and those sorts of things.
Here’s a shot of the beast up close:
We encountered this sign along the way:
The people in front of us for the first 50 or so steps were huffing and puffing, and they made comments about the arduous climb as they were passing others coming down. Without fail, everyone coming down said, “But it’s worth it.”
When we reached the top, this sign was posted at the doorway leading out onto the balcony:
We entered, and to be honest, I think we were out there for about 8-10 minutes. Here is a shot from the top:
On the way down, we passed a lot of people commenting about the climb, and Robert and I both joked about saying, “It’s totally not worth it,” to each and every one of them. But we refrained, and said it under our breath after they passed us, instead. And then cracked up.
On the hour-long ride back, we came upon an area with several people parasailing, and I stopped and snapped a couple of pics:
Arriving back at Nags Head, we continued on up to Kitty Hawk to grab lunch at another place recommended by my sister and her husband, Capt’n Franks, a hot dog place. We each got a “Snap Dog” to go, and enjoyed it back at the room.
The effects of Hurricane Earl have begun to show here at the Outer Banks and today’s warnings, which included “high surf” and “rip currents,” made it a “No Swimming” day. You can see the warning flag in this shot from our balcony:
While I was out there, I took this shot off to the right, showing the jacuzzi that’s down in the indoor heated pool area:
Robert spent some time checking out the jacuzzi, lying out in some chairs just outside the indoor pool area, and checking out the beach. “The water was the perfect temperature; too bad you can’t swim in it today,” he reported.
I stayed indoors intending to work on my Friday blog, but talked to nappy instead. Eventually I did complete Saturday’s blog entry.
We had dinner at the Rundown Cafe, yet a third recommendation from my sister. I had a most delicious meal there, although Robert’s was just “meh.” This is what I had:
which looked like this when it came:
It was most delicious.
During dinner, I got an e-mail from Steve Moore detailing a couple of his favorite places to eat in Nags Head, and one of them listed the Kill Devils Hill Diner for cheesecake. We decided to forgo dessert at the Rundown Cafe and stop there on the way back, since it was on the way back to our place. However, we found it closed, and later found out on the Internet that it’s closed on Sundays & Mondays.
Instead we stopped at American Pie Pizzeria & Ice Cream, where we had the most delicious treat. I had Pistachio Nut ice cream in a waffle cone, and Robert had a cup of Rum Raisin.
Just before going in, I got a call from my Aunt Rita in Florida asking me if I’d send her duplicate copies of pics I’d sent her some time ago from her and my uncle’s 50th gathering over Memorial Day Weekend. It was good to talk to her, since it was the first time doing so since my uncle passed.
Back at the room, we had some issues with our television, and I ended up calling down to the front desk to have someone come look at it or bring us another one. They brought up new batteries for our remote, and after agreeing that the TV was messed up, they left saying they were going to call their “on call person” to come look at it or to bring us up another one.
Shortly after they left, Robert entered a “1” on the remote with the new batteries in it, and the TV popped onto a channel and worked after that. Strange. We watched some of the Emmy’s, before lights out around midnight.
A full, full vacation day.