Friday, August 7, 2009

Climbing a Lighthouse


Each year, my family stays at a beach house in Buxton, North Carolina. Normally, I am content to just play at the beach.. digging, lounging, reading, surfing and swimming. This year, our family wanted to do some side trips too, so we decided to climb the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse which is only about one mile from where we stay. At the lighthouse, they have a rule: no carrying kids (even in a backpack), so my baby and my husband went on their own adventure to find the local airstrip. Fortunately, Sydney (my 4 year old) met the height requirement by a few millimeters and was able to come along too.



Drew (age 7) got to lead the way, and I walked right behind Sydney in case she slipped, which never happened. Since this is the tallest lighthouse in North America, there were A LOT of stairs. There were landings every few floors (where there were windows) and we could take a rest when necessary. Sydney and Drew were eager to get to the top, and it probably only took us around 10 minutes.


We made it! It was a windy and overcast day... the Atlantic Ocean is behind us but the nice woman who took this shot covered it with the railing.


Drew and Sydney comment how "the people look like little ants". It really is higher than it looks from the ground.


On the way back down. Note how thick the lighthouse walls are behind Drew.

After the climb, we went exploring in the bushes near the lighthouse. Climbing the lighthouse was a great little activity. It cost $6 per person I think, and you don't need to pay to get into the park. Since the house that we rented is only about 1 mile south of it, it was nice to look at the beacon from the light and know that we made it to the top.

3 comments:

Janene said...

cool. you all make me want to move to the east coast! :o)

Corinne said...

Sweet! I've never done Hatteras, but I want to :)

Tricia said...

We drove out there last year after climbing hours. It looks like it may have gotten a new coat of paint since then!

It looks like you had fun!