Our Gang

Here are a few pictures of the group of folks we visit the Outer Banks with every year.

This crew should look familiar...me, Jazz, Indy, Tess, and Jim!

Here's the whole gang for our annual group photo:  Kim, Bentley, Twist, Scorch, Eric, Ian, Ethan, Jim, Tess, Indy, Jazz, me, George, Bo, Toby, Shaina, Lois, Sammie, Mariann and Jim.

Here's a picture from our favorite place to visit in the Outer Banks:  Uncle Eddie's Ice Cream!!  Our gang always invades Uncle Eddie's at least once during our trip.  This year, we ran into another group of folks from Pittsburgh, as we visited Thursday evening and were all cheering for the Penguins in their playoff game.  Small world!

Diggin' the Outer Banks

As in years past, one of Tess, Jazz, and Indy's greatest joys is digging in the sand at the beach.  Here's a few pictures of this year's excavations...

Gee, Mom...I don't know how I got all this sand on my nose!!

Ocracoke Island

Today, we were happy to get back to one of our favorite places in the Outer Banks, Ocracoke Island.

This was Indy's first ferry ride to Ocracoke.  We were on the ferry with two tour buses of middle school students, and the Dals were the life of the party!

Jazz, Tess, and Indy by our truck on the ferry.  The dogs just love the ferry ride and love to sniff the sea air.

We've been visiting lighthouses while we're in the Outer Banks, so our first stop was the Ocracoke Island Light Station.

Here are the Dals with the Ocracoke Lighthouse in the background.

From the lighthouse, it was on to our favorite Ocracoke beach, where Tess, Jazz, and Indy cooled off in the surf.

While none of the Dals like to actually swim, all three enjoy wading into the surf.  Tess' new trick is to jump over the waves as they come in.  

Tess, Indy, and Jazz on a bench at the beach at Ocracoke.

Beach Photos

We're having another great week at the beach.  Here are some pictures of the Dals at the beach in Frisco this afternoon:

Here's Jazz contemplating how she's going to catch up with one of these birds on the beach.  She's tried several different strategies, to no avail.

Indy entertains himself by finding a seashell and then repeatedly burying it in the sand and then digging it back up.  He's also developed quite a knack for knowing where little crabs are buried and digging them up, too!

Tess enjoys happily romping in the surf.  She was particularly silly today, and it was fun to watch.

I was trying to take a picture of Jazz among these little purple flowers, but the flowers didn't show up too well.  Oh, well...cute pic of Jazz anyway!

Bodie Island

As part of our Outer Banks adventure, Tess, Jazz, and Indy visited the Bodie Island Light Station today.

Even though we experienced a few raindrops while we were there, we were able to take some pictures of the Dals near the lighthouse and then walk out to the Sound.

Here's Indy, Jazz, and Tess with the Sound behind them.

And here they are with the lighthouse in the background.

We've visited the Hatteras Light Station and the Bodie Island Light Station while we've been in the Outer Banks, and we're hoping to go to the Ocracoke Lighthouse this week.  Last year when we were here, the ferry to Ocracoke wasn't running because of changes in the channel after a large storm the previous fall, so we couldn't get out to the island.  We're looking forward to resuming our annual trips to Ocracoke this year.