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.

Hatteras Lighthouse
Our family at the Hatteras Lighthouse.

 

Mio photobombing Ted & Elisa's photo
Mio photobombing Ted & Elisa’s photo.

 

Hatteras Lighthouse
Standing at 210 feet tall, it’s the tallest lighthouse in the country.

 

Hatteras Lighthouse

 

Ted eating the Hatteras Lighthouse
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.

Turtles approaching Mirei at Hatteras
The turtles seemed really friendly and started coming up to Mirei and I.

 

Turtles approaching Mirei at Hatteras
More and more emerged from the water until there were about twenty out of the water coming towards her.

 

Turtles approaching Mirei at Hatteras
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.)

 

Turtle attacks Mirei's sock
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.

 

Turtle attacks Mirei's sock
It must have mistook her sock for a worm or something!

 

Old Lighthouse Beach
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.

Looking at the ghost crab
Dan caught a ghost crab at the beach.

 

Catching a crab at Outer Banks
Closeup of the ghost crab.

 

Looking at the ghost crab

 

Looking at the ghost crab
Mio was ambivalent about the crab…

 

Mirei at the beach at OBX
Mirei lying inside the beach tent.

 

Mirei at the beach at OBX

 

Mirei at the beach at OBX
Dawww…

 

The girls on the beach

 

Frisbee on the beach
My sister Miwa playing frisbee on the beach with my brother Ted.

 

The rain coming down
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.

 

catching crabs at night
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.

 

catching crabs at night
They caught a whole bunch of them, but in the end let them go.