Hotels Motels In Outer Banks Article

From a seagull's perspective, the Outer Banks of North Carolina stretch ruler-straight over the horizon, a giant map of sand, greenery, and rooftops bordered by electric blue as far as the eye can see. It's eerily quiet up here, harnessed beneath a big triangular kite. As little gusts of wind lift and shift the hang glider, I hold onto a metal bar with one hand and tightly grip my partner's harness with the other. Fm alternately awed. thrilled. and terrified. One of us circling around up here is an expert, and it's not I.

All too soon we've landed back on the sand, upright and safe, Somehow the essence of this place has been tapped; its ghosts grati fled-even joined.

The thin, sandy skeins of the of Outer Banks, fragile and ceaselessly shifting with the wind, aim like a taut bowstring from the North Carolina coast into the swirling currents of the Atlantic Ocean. Ruled by the quixotic tempers of the sea, yet claimed by terra firma, the 200-mile stretch of barrier islands was once a remote and barren place, suitable only for millions of migratory birds and great schools of fish running offshore.

More recently, man made unique imprints here-adventurers not to be erased by waves and wind. Some four centuries ago, America's first English colonists vanished on Roanoke Island- mystery that has never been solved. In 1718, near his lair on Ocracoke Island. Blackbeard the pirate met his end at the hands of the British Royal Navy. In 1903, the high, empty dunes of what is now Kill Devil Hills served as testing grounds for Wilbur and Orville Wright's first flying machine.

Even today, while modern man is bestowing upon these islands his inevitable stamp of approval in the form of rampant development, nature still dominates. Last fall Atlantic storms battered the area and Hurricane Bob gave warning of what is predicted to be a decades-long period of intense storms to menace the entire East Coast and the vulnerable Outer Banks in particular.

Once called the Graveyard of the Atlantic, the Outer Banks' treacherous currents, unpredictable winds, and shifting ofTshore sandbars have claimed hundreds of ships. One of them, the "Monitor," a Civil War ironclad, is beng excavated 16 miles off Cape Hatteras, its artifacts to repose in a museum there.

Today high winds and waves attract hoards of surfers and windsurfers. Fishermen out for "big blues" can charter from the largest fishing fleet on the East Coast. A resident population of 23,000 annually swells with an influx of 125,000 visitors.

Because the constantly blowing sands are moving inexorably inland in a southerly direction, in the late 1930s the National Park Service began an extensive seashore reclamation project. Thanks to their efforts, mass tourism has not encroached upon 130 miles of beach and sand dunes designated as Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout National Seashores. They begin south of Nags Head and bypass "Banker" villages, most of which were sparsely populated by second-generation Virginia English, fugitives, and shipwrecked mariners long before the government stepped in.

Now in vigorous competition for tourist dollars, hamlets have succumbed to various stages and styles of development. A few have strict building codes, zoned for traditional, lowprofile architecture reminiscent of the New England seacoast.

The wood-shingled style that predominates in the area derives from lifesaving stations built from 1870 to 1915 at seven-mile intervals to rescue passengers and crew from wrecked ships. During that period, the . Lifesaving Service, now the Coast Guard, is said to have saved more than 175,000 lives.

The stations were decommissioned in 1954, after shipping technology made their operation obsolete. They are now used for various purposes, including homes, restaurants, and museums. For example, at the restored Chicamacomico Life Saving Station in Rodanthe rangers reenact the oldtime lifesaving drill on the beach each summer Thursday at 2 .

In addition to nostalgic weathered cedar houses, often built high on pilings to protect them from angry seas, the islands' architectural legacy includes five scenic lighthouses. Among them, the famous Cape Hatteras light, the nation's tallest brick lighthouse, which threatens to be undermined by receding sands. The beach totally abandoned Bodie Island lighthouse (pronounced "body"), which now stands inland. Cape Lookout Light is so isolated and hard to reach it's seldom visited.

Carolla Lighthouse, a red-brick beauty, stands tail north of Duck, a beach hamlet so named because its marshes were once thick with thousands of ducks, geese, and swans. In the years between 1869 and 1922 the Northern Banks were famed for luxurious hunting clubs, yet villages had only a few hundred residents and one or two grocery stores. Now the beaches hold exclusive planned communities, a few of which are accessible only by four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Where Duck's one-room schoolhouse once stood, now there's an art gallery-just one of a fetching clutch of shops with cutesy names like Lucky Duck, Duck Duck, Bizarre Duck, Christmas Duck, Literary Duck, Decoy, and Duck Blind. Nearby, an 1899 lifesaving station has been restored and turned into the Sanderling Inn, part of a 300-acre development.

A sea of touristic clutter found further south in Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, and Nags Head is more than enough to eclipse the "unpainted aristocracy," 30 or so circa-1850-1890 weathered, shingled "cottages" that were lifted and transported to Nags Head via logs and horses by rich planters. These days it's difficult to distinguish the old vacation homes from new ones built to look old. Another unchanging tradition is casting a line from Nags Head's wind-whipped fishing pier.

The most visible landmarks in Nags Head are two huge, breezy sand dunes known as Jockey's Ridge. Hang glider afficionados by the hundreds come to the highest sand dunes in the eastern USA to follow the air currents that lured the Wright brothers to a nearby hillock for their first experiments.

Commemorating their maiden flight -a mere 12 seconds and 120 feet that changed the world-Wright Brothers National Memorial offers a park and museum, a full-scale replica of the 1903 Wright "Flyer," narrated tours, and an impressive white monolith topping a green hill. That first extraordinary flight actually took place in what is now Kill Devil Hills, a community that became a separate township from Kitty Hawk only in 1953.

Long before the mystery of manned flight was solved, our country's earliest unsolved mystery began on Roanoke Island, a verdant, protected isle snugged between Banks and mainland. What became of Sir Walter Raleigh's first settlement sent from England in 1587 is still a riddle. When the next ship arrived three years later, more than 100 colonists had vanished. On summer evenings "The Lost Colony," the nation's first and longest-running outdoor drama, tells the puzzling story on the very site of that first settlement.

Solitude's most prominent symbol and the centerpiece of windy Hatteras Village is, of course, the candy-striped lighthouse now being shored up and renovated. Another impressive lighthouse graces Ocracoke Island, accessible only by water. A free ferry from Hatteras Village leaves frequently on the grand, windy, 30-minute ride.

Starkly white, the 1823 Ocracoke lighthouse rises above a postcard-perfect fishing village where many a tale is told about the infamous Edward Teach. For years people have been looking for treasure they suspect Blackbeard's pirate band buried hereabouts. But, no matter, these days the treasure comes from travelers seeking the hardy isolation that made these islands unique and still endows them with a special spirit that seems worthy of the dare.

If You Go

* WHEN TO GO: The high season is June 10 to October 15, with crowds dwindling after Labor Day. Windsurfers come in hurricane season when vacationers leave. Spring weather is unpredictable.

* HOW TO GO: Major airlines fly into Norfolk, about a two-hour drive from the Outer Banks. You'll need a rental car to get around. and the speed limit is strictly enforced. Always stay tuned for storm warnings. Also, exercise caution when traveling in the pro| tected wild pony area.

* WHERE TO STAY: Rental cottages are the preferred Outer Banks accommodation. Also, ther are about 100 motels in the area. In Duck, try luxurious Sanderling Inn (919-261-4111 ). In Manteo on Roanoke Island two luxury B&Bs, Tranquil House Inn (800-458-7069 or 919-473-1404) and Roanoke Island Inn (919-473-5511 ), welcome travelers with every comfort. Ocracoke Island has B&Bs and several charming inns, including Berkley Center (919-928-5911) and the 1901 Island Inn (919-928|4351). Numerous National Park Service and privately run campgrounds operate during the spring and summer season.

* SIGHTSEEING: For an overview of the thin, fragile Banks, try the 25minute airplane tour offered by "Captain Kitty Hawk." ($15 per person for a group of a! least three; Kitty Hawk Aero Tours, 441-4460).

* GLIDING: Across from Jockey's Ridge, Kitty Hawk Kites has the USA's largest hang-gliding school, offering a three-hour, five-flight beginner course for $59 (919-441-4124). If you're a novice afraid to fly alone, they will take you out past Duck and Corolla to the end of the road for an exciting high altitude tandem flight ($59 plus USHGA membership fee).

* EATING OUT: Try breakfast with the locals at Sam & Omie's; Owen's Restaurant for coconut shrimp and strawberry shortcake; the she-crab soup and sweet potato biscuits at Kelly's Outer Banks Restaurant & Tavern (all three in Nag's Head); clam chowder and steamed shrimp at the Barrier Island Inn in Duck; crab cakes at the Island Inn on Ocracoke; blueberry pancakes at the Tides in Hatteras Village; sandwiches at the Ship's Galley in Manteo; black bean soup at Queen Anne's Revenge in Wanchese; fried softshell crabs at .'s Restaurant, Nags Head; or catch your own and have it cooked at the Nag's Head Fishing Pier.

* MORE INFORMATION from Dare County Tourist Bureau, . Box 399. Manteo, NC 27954 (919-473-2138 or 800-446-6262) or Outer Banks C of C, . Box 1757, Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948 (919-441-8144).