Greetings from Kitty Hawk

We spent another lovely, very warm day in the Outer Banks beginning with a couple of hours on the beach after breakfast. The water wasn't quite as warm as the day before, but the waves were beautiful and again the beach had as many seagulls and pelicans as people. After lunch we went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial, which is only a couple of minutes from our hotel; we saw the reproduction planes in the visitor center, walked out the path that follows the course of the first four flights made at Kitty Hawk, and climbed up the hill to the monument that overlooks most of Kill Devil Hills. It was quite hot and dry -- the hill has cacti in the grass -- but the view was spectacular.

Later in the afternoon we went to Jockey's Ridge State Park, which has the largest natural sand dune on the east coast and is a place where many people go to hang-glide. It was so hot that we didn't walk much on the dune itself, just the boardwalk out to the overlook and down the steps to the sand. Then we drove to Duck to stop in a couple of stores before going to the buffet at Pizzazz Pizza. Dementordelta had to head home in the evening, so first we took a walk on the beach, where we finally saw dolphins -- many of them jumping in the waves not far offshore from where the fishing lines were placed. They were graceful and playful but it is Shark Week on the Discovery Channel and we overheard some nervous families with surfboards looking at the fins and worrying -- we were more worried about the jellyfish washed up along the tide line!


The Wright Brothers memorial from below, near the visitor center.


Me with Delta at the base of the memorial.


My kids at the marker for the end of the final flight on December 17th, 1903.


A replica of Orville on a replica of his first glider.


Hang-gliders learning to take off...


...on the sand dune at Jockey's Ridge.


Me with a sand crab on the beach in the morning...


...and one of the dolphins on the beach in the evening.