After spending much of the first day of our mini trip in Santa Cruz, we headed down to Pajaro Dunes, where we would be staying at a beach house for the next couple days. It was a beautiful and spacious beach house right by the shore, and we had a great time relaxing there, enjoying the view, and easily taking walks on the beach as it was only footsteps away.
Jellyfish on the beach at Watsonville
Our beach house at Pajaro Dunes
Mio and Mirei unwinding at the house
Mio and Grandpa
Mio drawing
Mirei coming close!
View from the beach house window
Exploring the loft at the beach house
Our little climber loved it!
Mio and Mirei with their gift of handmade zabuton from Grandma – so impressed that she sewed them herself!
Taking a morning walk on the beach the next morning…
Saturday was our last full day at Outer Banks, so we drove around Cape Hatteras to explore the little attractions in the area. It was a nice way to end our weeklong stay in Hatteras.
We found this abandoned UFO-shaped building on the side of the road and had to stop and take some photos. Here is our family looking like we landed from space.
Dan and Mio by the flying saucer.
There were aliens painted in the windows…
“Mio, it’s time for you to go back where you came from…”
Next stop was the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum.
There was a lot on the history of the Outer Banks in the museum, including information on the USS Monitor and other Civil War maritime casualties.
The original lighthouse lens of the Hatteras Lighthouse is on display in the museum.
Mio as a pirate. “Arghhh matey!”
Outside the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum
Some cute colorful cabins on Eagle Pass Road.
Love the colors!
Dan and Mirei at Capt’n Rolos Raw Bar and Grill, where we went for lunch.
Dan got oysters, and Mirei really wanted to dig in too!
A crabcake sandwich for moi!
After lunch, we explored some gift stores in the area, and then Dan and Mio hit the beach again one last time while Mirei and I rested at the beach house. In the evening, we drove out to see our last sunset at Outer Banks.
Waiting for the sun to set.
The sun setting on our last evening at Cape Hatteras.
On Friday during our week at Cape Hatteras, we went to visit the famous Hatteras Lighthouse, which is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country. Since we had a baby with us, we didn’t climb the lighthouse, but it was still an impressive structure to see.
Our family at the Hatteras Lighthouse.
Mio photobombing Ted & Elisa’s photo.
Standing at 210 feet tall, it’s the tallest lighthouse in the country.
Ted eating the Hatteras Lighthouse
Afterwards, we visited the old original site of the lighthouse (it was relocated to its current location some years ago), and found a little river-like area where lots of turtles were swimming.
The turtles seemed really friendly and started coming up to Mirei and I.
More and more emerged from the water until there were about twenty out of the water coming towards her.
We joked that Mirei was the long awaited turtle queen and the turtles were coming to pay homage to her. (Our family has had a running inside joke even before this vacation that Mirei resembles a turtle.)
Suddenly, the lead turtle stretched its neck out and snapped at Mirei’s sock! I screamed and had to make sure all her toes were still intact before I could calm down.
It must have mistook her sock for a worm or something!
Mirei seemed to be unfazed and oblivious to the biggest crisis of her 5 month old life.
We headed back to the house and of course squeezed in more beach time before the predicted thunderstorm came in.
Dan caught a ghost crab at the beach.
Closeup of the ghost crab.
Mio was ambivalent about the crab…
Mirei lying inside the beach tent.
Dawww…
My sister Miwa playing frisbee on the beach with my brother Ted.
The rain started coming down so we had to quickly run back to the house to take refuge from the incoming storm… we still got drenched.
Dan, Miwa, and Ted were fascinated by the ghost crabs after catching one on the beach in the afternoon, so they went on an adventure that night catching more crabs on the beach.
They caught a whole bunch of them, but in the end let them go.
Our vacation at Outer Banks got a whole lot more eventful once the other half of our family arrived late Wednesday night! The girls and I really missed Dan, and we were excited to really kick our vacation in gear once he, Ted, and Elisa arrived. My siblings and Dan really wanted to go bicycling around the area on Thursday, but I opted not to join because the bicycle rental shop didn’t have any adult tricycles available at the time. (That’s right, at age 31 I never mastered how to ride a bicycle due to my balance issues… so sad!) There was the option of going on a tandem bicycle with Dan, but I decided to stay behind and watch Mirei with my parents while Mio rode with Dan and the rest of the gang. She had so much fun with it, and I’m glad that they captured lots of photos and video for me to see afterwards.
Mio strapped in, ready to go bicycling with Daddy!
Mio looks like she’s having so much fun!
A video Dan took while bicycling:
She eventually fell asleep on the bicycle… lol.
Too funny!
Still KTFO.
…and still asleep when they got back to the rental shop.
Mio woke up just in time for lunch!
I got the buffalo shrimp wraps at the Buxton Munch Company.
Dan with his fish tacos!
This place is apparently known for their “best fish tacos”, and they did not disappointment! They were some of the best fish tacos I’ve ever had!
Sorry Mirei, you’ll have to wait a little longer before you can dig in with us…
Happy to be reunited with Daddy!
After lunch and relaxing a little bit back at the house, we went to hit the beach together!
Dan and Mio going in the water.
Dan on the boogieboard
Look at those rays of light shining through the clouds! It was a really gorgeous day.
After coming back from the beach, we sat on the patio and enjoyed the view behind the beach house as the sun was setting.
A panoramic view I took on my phone.
Mio cooling down with an ice pop. ♥
More on our last few days at Outer Banks in the coming days! 🙂
