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There were numerous places to rent bikes in the village. One was centrally located and doubled as an ice cream parlor, which easily cemented it as our choice. They had a good deal on multi-day rentals: you could rent for one day, and then upgrade to a 2, 3 or 4 day rental. We got 5 bikes and began exploring the back roads on our 1 speed cruiser bikes. Jordan and Joya demonstrate proper technique, below.
Ocracoke has a very old working lighthouse, still maintained by the Coast Guard. It is the second oldest lighthouse in North Carolina. Located only a half mile from the center of the village -- pretty much everything is only a half mile from the center of the village -- it is very picturesque, and a busy tourist stop. On this cool, blustery day so early in their season, we had it nearly entirely to ourselves.
While at the lighthouse, we practiced our various gymnastics skills (or non-skills, as the case may be). Below I am attempting to get on my hands in preparation for walking on my hands. As you can see, I need a lot of coaching.
Jody and the girls executed several lovely handstands, and gave me lots of advice, which actually paid off: by the end of our little impromptu floor exercises I looked lots better, and got on top of my hands once or twice, with back and arms straight. No walking, though.
Joya took this one as we pedaled along the harbor front near sunset. The homes pictured in the background are typical of island architecture.
Another Joya shot, this one of Tessany, Jordan and Jody in silhouette. She also processed this image using Adobe software. Another version of this same shot appears on her page, should you like to compare.
Another Joya image, this one of Tessany, converted into black and white. We were visiting a little beach on the Sound, very near sunset -- one of our favorite spots.
Yes, this was also taken by Joya. She is becoming quite a proficient photographer, and is much more skilled manipulating images with digital photo editors than I. Jody and I are thankful that she is using a digital camera; the pictures are essentially free. During a typical Joya photo shoot, she takes dozens of pictures and then discards the duds, which is the way the pros do it -- but it does not cost us anything. Those are Jordan's toes. It is an especially good shot in that the beaches and sand out here look like this, for the most part, and we love the difference between this look and the pacific beaches look. There are many species of shell here that we do not have, some quite large and beautiful.
Posed, but showing authentic sentiment.
We spent most evenings after dinner playing cards, eating cookies and drinking tea. This night was no different. Joya and Tessany needed lots of easy, no stress times while integrating their EnCompass experiences, so days like these really worked for them -- and were not too rough on the rest of us, either.
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