off to Ocracoke

finally, something that might be interesting. my good friend Luke is currently living on Ocracoke Island and had been wanting me to come visit for a while. this place is the gem of North Carolina's Outer Banks and you can only get there by boat. i got the idea that i would take my bicycle since the ferry ticket is a mere $3 and the island isn't but 12 miles long. when i let word to my Greenville friends, it turned into another group adventure to add to our list. much thanks to Luke for letting me ride up to his house and stay two nights with a posse of five. Three where fellow photo students (omg, the number of cameras that went) and another old friend, Katie.

[throwing popcorn on the Swan Quarter ferry]

we ended up riding separate, the girls taking the earlier boat and the guys coming in the evening. the beach was the first stop, but the sun came down hard really quick and we opted to chill at the house and meet the roommates. let me just say: 8 boys in a four bedroom house.

[beautiful Aileen lounging on the porch]

we picked up Nick and Bayardo from the dock and proceeded to cook-out, followed by night swimming at the beach. the skies are so dark and clear out there that i couldn't find many constellations because of the thousands of stars that i normally can't see. we were not lucky enough to experience it on this trip, but sometimes the plankton in the water have a bio-luminescent glow that can light up the whole ocean. at most the wet sand by the surf sparkled when we stepped on it.

Katie had to leave on the afternoon ferry the next day, but her short-lived vacation was still a blast. me, her and Luke have known each other for over ten years and i really value the time we get to spend together. that left four photographers, each with their own camera. it may have been a bit intimidating, but we went out on our own excursions while the house went to work.

[photo majors doing what photo majors do]

Luke joined us after getting off work and we headed out to the beach again. i must say, i am jealous of being able to jump in the ocean after a long day.

[a 'Bayardo moment' playing paddleball]

a little more history on Ocracoke: they were all about pirates long before Pirates of the Caribbean came out. it goes back to the days of plunder and booty in the Graveyard of the Atlantic when Edward Teach (Blackbeard) went to his hideaway in the woods of Springer's Point. in case you didn't know, Blackbeard was pretty badass. he would braid his beard with fuses and light them before battle so there would be smoke smoldering around his menacing face. we tried to catch a sunset photo op since the Point is on the sound side of the island, but clouds blocked the horizon and denied us of all the pretty reds and purples.

[Springer's Point at dusk]

we had to catch the 7am ferry to get back to the mainland with time for people to get to work, which meant getting up at the buttcrack of dawn as Luke was leaving to open the coffee shop. needless to say, if you go to the complete album, there will pictures of us passed out on the boat.

[the photo crew heading home together]

go check it out. i recommend it as a top choice on the east coast. especially Ocracoke Coffee. the owners Jackie and Garrick are awesome people, as well as most of the locals.