This was probably the best OBX trip ever, and that's saying something, 'cause we always enjoy the Outer Banks.  But this time, we saw dolphins.  From our balcony.  Five days straight.  (They were most likely out there the first two days, but after I took sunrise pictures we spent the mornings hanging with Mom & Dad.)

The first morning we saw them they came out to investigate a kayaker.  I'm afraid of deep water (thanks so much, Dad!  It was his fault.), but that made me want to get out there in a kayak to get closer; they were SO beautiful!

We also chased one up the shore one morning; he was maybe 15 or 20 feet offshore, and ran parallel for quite a while. I had a hard time getting a good shot, though, because I'd be focused on where I THOUGHT he'd surface, only to have him pop up 5 or so feet to the left or right. Sigh.

All in all, we probably saw a maximum of 12 or so individuals at a time, with the majority of sightings being 3 to 5 individuals.  We also saw some juveniles.  I got close enough to one to get a good shot of his dorsal fin, but I have no idea if it's the infamous "Onion", or another dolphin.

We also took a canoe tour through the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.  We thought we'd get some good wildlife sightings, but thanks to the pack of squealing teenagers on the tour with us, we only saw two turtles & a heron.  Y'all, it was SUCH a pain being on the tour with those kids.  There were two people to a canoe; we all had trouble at first, but after about 5 or 10 minutes most of us recalled how to paddle successfully.  Not the ones in front of us, though.  We managed to get behind two different sets of kids on each canal (maybe 6-8 feet wide at the widest point), who went down the canal like they were riding on a pinball, bouncing from obstacle to obstacle.  Once I swore they HAD to have hit a stump on purpose, 'cause there was FIVE FEET of clear water to the right of it.  Instead, they made a beeline for it and WHAM!  So Mr. C and I spent a lot of time stopping and starting, as we waited for them to get free of one obstacle after another.

Still, we got a lot of rest, had plenty of Fat Cat ice cream (peanut butter cup, of course), and got plenty of sun.  Oh yeah.  We also discovered that Burt's Bees Herbal Insect Repellant works great on just about everything EXCEPT black flies.