It was wonderful waking up in a lovely big house with balconies overlooking the sea.  I watched the sun rising over the Atlantic and then spent  leisurely morning researching into North Carolina folklore.  Just before lunch, I headed down the road to Kitty Hawk and spent a delightful couple of hours with the Wright Brothers, learning all about their historic first flight – four flights really, two by Orville and two by Wilbur.  I also so the large hill on which they conducted many of their earlier experiments with gliders.  It was a glorious, sunny day and the temperature on the field was a balmy 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  Perfect for being outdoors. 

After visiting the museum and the NASA exhibit on the 100 years of flight, I strolled outside to the recreated flight hanger and home-away-from-home that the Wright Brother’s used during their stay in Kitty Hawk.  Then I examined the places where the flights took place.  I had not realized before that the first four flights took place in a flat part of the field, and that it was the fact that an engine propelled the plane off the ground, steered her, and landed her, that made it so historic.  I marveled at the short distance of the first three flights.  I could have jogged that far in under the time it took the first airplane to fly the same distance.  Twelve seconds for the first two flights – Orville first, Wilbur flying second.  Then Orville went 15 seconds on the next flight, and Wilbur made it all the way down the field – over 800 feet in 59 seconds – for the last flight.  Unfortunately, he crashed, and the first airplane was damaged beyond repair.  But what a moment! 

What I found the most astonishing of all was how rapidly the technology was embraced and developed once the first breakthrough was made.  Sixty-six years after the first flight, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.  Amazing!

I hiked up to the big monument on top of the hill in company with a lovely couple from Michigan, come to the Outer Banks to escape two feet of snow.  Their golden retriever – Daisy – was convinced that I was going to throw a tennis ball for her.  She kept dancing back down the hill with the ball, right past her owners, and thrust her head at me for a quick pat, and a pleading look – lifting the ball suggestively.  Considering the slimy texture of the ball, her owners suggested I pass on the game of fetch.  Deciding they were correct, I gave Daisy a good rub behind the ears instead! 

I grabbed a quick lunch after leaving the Wright Brother’s Memorial, and then drove out to Bodie Island Lighthouse – a massive lighthouse stripe black and white -- and then across the street to the beach to collect seashells and watch the seagulls playing in the surf.  A couple were riding horses down the beach, and two different SUVs rolled through the packed sand and back up on the dunes while I strolled along in the wind and the sun.  Several other folks – warmly wrapped against the chill wind – were also collecting shells and sea glass and anything else that took their fancy.  I found many strange black hollow husks with four long tips, extending from each corner.  I asked some of my fellow beachcombers about them, and they said they were the husks or shells from skate eggs.  Apparently, they wash up on the beach all the time.  I was fascinated.  I’d never seen them before. 

After a little more driving through the long, low dunes and scrub brush that characterized the parkland and one more beach stroll, I headed back to Nags Head for dinner and then home for an early night.  Tomorrow I head down to Ocracoke!