Honeymoon on Ocracoke Island

Don and I spent our honeymoon on rustic Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. To get there, we traveled down North Carolina's Outer Banks until we got as far south as we could drive. Then we took a ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke Island. The ride takes about 40 minutes. Once we reached land, a 13-mile drive south from the ferry took us to the village of Ocracoke itself. It is a peaceful little fishing village with only about 800 year-round residents. Its popular with sport fisherman because it is relatively close to the Gulf Stream.

Until recent decades, Ocracoke was so remote and cut off from the mainland that it developed its own dialect or brogue. "High tide" is pronounced "hoi toide," for example. Other examples can be heard on Youtube.


In its early days, Ocracoke was a haven to the likes of Blackbeard the Pirate. Until shortly before the Civil War it was a port of crucial importance to North Carolina. In more recent years tourism has become the center of its economy. Here Don and I are posing in front of Ocracoke Lighthouse. Click here for other pictures from this part of our trip.