Cape Hattaras and Ocracoke Island

Getting all our travel pictures up is proving to be difficult. Now that I'm spending nine hours a day at my clinical site during the week, I'm not as flexible. Thankfully, I feel like I'm getting better at managing my down time - just in time to switch things up! I start my OB/GYN rotation next week and can't wait to deliver some babies! I start my rotation off doing OB and then finish it doing GYN. It's going to be a huge change from family medicine. I'm working in a hospital that sees a lot of women with high-risk pregnancies and babies with serious complications post-delivery. The environment will be much more intense than the outpatient clinic I've been at (I've primarily been seeing patients for follow-up of their chronic diseases).

I take my family medicine shelf this Friday and then we're headed on a weekend trip to the Adirondacks. Nothing too crazy, but a little something to look forward to before I start having crazy hours on my OB/GYN rotation. In between the normal programming I'll be doing some more travel posts like this one! The last post I did from our trip was filled with pictures from Assateague and Chincoteague Islands. After leaving Virginia, we headed to the Outer Banks.

Our first stop was in Cape Hattaras where we climbed the lighthouse to see panoramic views of the ocean and cape. I've only climbed one other lighthouse before - the Ponce de Leon lighthouse in Florida. I've always had a slight fear of heights. Nothing horrible, but certain things like open steps can make me nervous. I've always forced myself to push through it. When I climbed the Ponce de Leon lighthouse, I remember that not only were there open steps, but at the very top, the wind was extra strong and I literally was clinging to the center of the lookout deck. I was laughing with Spencer before we started climbing this one because I figured I'd have a similar experience. The Cape Hattaras lighthouse was much better - and I can proudly say I didn't feel the need to plaster myself against the wall of the lighthouse! The lookout deck was windy, but for some reason it didn't bother me and we were able to just enjoy the view.

After we left the lighthouse, we headed further down the cape. Apparently the Outer Banks also has wild ponies and we were driving by right around feeding time! 

Next, we took a ferry to Ocracoke Island which was the furthest point of our destination. Ocracoke is the epitome of a quaint, little island town. There was lots of activity going on while we were there, but it's such a small island that it takes no time at all to walk wherever you want to go. We stopped to see the fat, little lighthouse and did some more sightseeing around the island before catching a ferry back to the mainland. 

On our drive back along the cape, we grabbed some ice cream and stopped to enjoy some beach time. Since the entire cape is one long expanse of white, sandy beach, we got the entire place to ourselves and enjoyed a golden sunset before heading back to our hotel.