On our first full day on the Outer Banks, we headed north with two objectives in mind. First, to visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kill Devil Hills just south of Kitty Hawk. Unfortunately, as we discovered when we arrived, the Visitor's Center, which houses most of the exhibits, was undergoing renovations and was closed to the public, so we chose to head on to our second objective, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse at the north end of the Outer Banks. Along the way we stopped at the Aycock Brown Welcome Center to pick up some maps and visit the Century of Flight monument on the Welcome Center grounds.
Exiting the Welcome Center, however, we took a wrong turn and found ourselves on a long bridge across Currituck Sound heading towards the mainland. Once there we drove for a few miles before it dawned on us that we were no longer on the Outer Banks. We turned around and got ourselves back across the bridge and on to the right road to Currituck Beach. The bridge and body of water were both beautiful, so we weren't unhappy at all about the short side trip. We stopped for a quick pizza lunch in the city of Duck, which we would visit again on our last day on the Outer Banks, then headed up the road to find the Currituck Beach Lighthouse
The north end of the Outer Banks is the pricier end. More elegant beach houses and more upscale stores along the main road. The Currituck Beach Lighthouse is located in the city of Corolla, the nothernmost city on the Outer Banks, and is nestled within the 39-acre Corolla Park along the Currituck Sound. Here's a photo of the park taken from the top of the lighthouse.
After the obligatory stop at the lighthouse gift shop, we headed south and back to Nags Head where the First Colony Inn happy hour awaited us. We had a nice dinner at the Tale of the Whale, then back to the First Colony Inn to relax on the porch.