In June 2008, our families went to Corolla, North Carolina, which is located at the northern tip of the Outer Banks. We rented a 3 story beach house for the week that was near the Atlantic Ocean and the Currituck Sound.

We spent the mornings at the beach and the afternoons napping or in the pool. The first few days were toasty with lots of humidity. The rest of the week, the weather was perfect. It seems that every time we go out of town, there is a wildfire in the area. This vacation was no different and the smoke blew in a couple of days.

One day, we drove down to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which at 207 feet high, is the tallest lighthouse in the United States and the tallest brick lighthouse in the world. We climbed the 268 steps of the spiral staircase to the top and had spectacular views.

In 1999, they moved the whole lighthouse 1800 feet away from the eroding beach. You can still see the path they cut away to move it.

The black and white stripes signify North Carolina. Other lighthouses on the Outer Banks have horizontal stripes and black and white diamonds.

We also went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kittyhawk. The memorial marked the exact locations where their first powered flights took off and landed. There was also a 60 foot tall granite monument as well as a full size repilica of their plane and glider.