First trip to the Outer Banks

I'm not sure how we have lived in Norfolk for a total of 8 years and haven't spent any time in the Outer Banks. It is an hour and a half away and everybody loves it there. We finally corrected that problem and drove down there over our Spring Break and had a wonderful time. We completely lucked out with 75 degree weather and clear skies for the 2 days we spent there. On our drive home it was pouring and there will be a 40 degree temperature drop tonight!  Anyway, we loved the beach of course, and crazy Mia even went in the water. We also loved Jockey's Ridge (I felt like we were in the Sahara), and the lovely lighthouses and the fishing pier (we saw someone catch skates, and sharks!) and the very cool Wright Brother's memorial. The highlight was seeing whales off of the fishing pier! We think it was a pod of pilot whales but it was simply incredible to see them come up and blow air out and then splash their tails!  We were standing next to a guy who said he'd been coming there for 15 years and had never seen that!  Unfortunately I did not get photos of that, but they were far enough away that they probably wouldn't have looked like much anyway.  Plenty more photos below. And time to plan another trip down there!