Fair warning: this is a very photo-heavy post, and very little of it has to do with my outfit. But since today marks the unofficial end of summer, it seemed like a good day to tell you a little about my end-of-summer vacation. If you’re just tuning in, I was at the beach (Emerald Isle, NC) with my family all last week. It was glorious and relaxing and everything a beach vacation should be. Most of the week was filled with sunbathing, walking, eating, and drinking — you can see some of those photos on my Instagram if that floats your boat.
But speaking of boats…There was one day we all got dressed and left our island to take a ferry to Cape Lookout. And that brings us to today’s program. I don’t flex my behind-the-camera muscles that often, but I’m pretty proud of some of the photos I took! Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I was taking photos of wild freaking horses and dolphins!
Our ferry ride took us past Shackleford Banks, where wild horses live. Just bein’ all horsey and stuff. And look, a pony!
After stopping to ogle the wildlife a few times, we docked at Cape Lookout. There’s a lighthouse there, plus some boardwalks to the beach, and a little museum and gift shop. It costs a few bucks extra to climb the lighthouse, and it’s more than 200 steep, winding steps with no air conditioning to get up there. They make it sound so appealing. But if you trek all the way out there, you gotta climb the lighthouse, right? So we did.
Yep, allllllll the way up there. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but my legs definitely felt the burn. It was totally and completely worth it though. The view from the top was pretty mind-blowing, and it was a different breathtaking view in every direction. I’m going to shut up now and let you soak up the amazingness from some of my photos (although they obviously don’t live up to the real thing).
OK, now that’s a gorgeous view, right? We were pretty proud of ourselves for climbing the lighthouse (and, let’s be honest, making it back down with the bad knees that run in our family), so a group photo was in order. Those people in the middle made me, and they made that other one on the right. We all like each other, and we all look great in shorts.
There’s no special reason for this photo of cattails, other than the fact that I like cattails. OK, now on to more wildlife excitement. We saw a pod of dolphins on the way out and on the way back. It’s really hard to get photos when they’re out of the water, but I did my best.
Yay dolphins! So pretty.
If you’ve made it this far, you either really like me, or you just really like living vicariously through other people’s vacation photos. Either way, I’m flattered. As a reward — and because I know this is supposed to be a real-life style blog and all — here’s an extra photo of my real-life ferry riding and sightseeing outfit.
There are only so many times that a shirt that says “BEACH” is appropriate so I took full advantage. Shorts were obviously a necessity because it was hot. The pigtail braids (while obviously adorable) were functional too: they let me fit a hat on my head but didn’t let my hair whip all over the place on the ferry. I had to hold my hat some of the time on the ferry so it didn’t blow off, but the rest of the time it protected my sensitive face from the sun. There you have it. For once, my outfit is the least interesting thing on my blog 🙂
I hope you enjoyed this little detour. Have a fabulous Labor Day.
