What do you get when you put “ocra” and “coke” together?!?
Ocracoke! Ocracoke Island is a free ferry ride from Hatteras Island along the Outer Banks (OBX) of North Carolina.
And “free” means the lines can be very, very long… and the wait even longer…
…but the wait is worth it. You’ll see all manner of shorelife:
We spotted this Great Egret stalking lunch…
…and these Brown Pelicans:
Ocracoke Island is bipolar. It has two distinct personalities: the sparse northern end of the island…
…and Ocracoke Village, where narrow streets and plenty of tourists make navigating the town an adventure all its own. In the more than ten years that have passed since we’ve been here, we noticed fewer bicycles and more golf carts…
…another piece of evidence about why America has such a problem with obesity, don’t you think!?
Ellen had her first taste of bluefish here at the Jolly Roger…
…where Bob took her photo…
…while she was taking pics of the Brown Pelicans that perched…
…swam…
…and flew nearby:
We strolled the island, but the surf shops didn’t appeal to us…
Where did all of those quaint gift shops and galleries go? Probably the victims of higher rent and property taxes…
…so we sought out the lesser-traveled spots, like this boat launch:
And we caught this glimpse of the Ocracoke Lighthouse across the bay:
The ferry ride back gave us more birds, like this Black Skimmer…
…and if we looked really hard, we could see jellyfish just below the surface…
…thousands of them… here, there, and everywhere:
Finally, Ellen had found one critter of the sea she was not willing to eat 
Note: Our apologies for the lateness of these posts. If you’ve been reading the blog awhile, then it’s no surprise that it lags behind real time by several months. We were in North Carolina in July before Hurricane Irene hit.
