Corey Ann Photography | Northeast Ohio Photographer

The final day of our trip also happened to be our second wedding anniversary and more important IT DID NOT RAIN!

I begged and pleaded with my hubby to at least take me to ONE NC lighthouse I hadn’t seen so we went off to see Oak Island Lighthouse. We then followed that up with stopping at Orton Plantation and finally Poplar Grove Plantation. That was a perfect anniversary for me!! We ended the day with our final day of visiting my husband’s uncle who lives in the area before heading back to our hotel.

All in all it was a good vacation but I’m going to have to make sure to put in an order for no rain next time!

Oak Island Lighthouse is one of the newest lighthouses in the United States, being built in 1958. It’s definitely one of the most unique lighthouses I’ve ever seen. The lighthouse is made up entirely of concrete which was colored when it was poured so it will never need repainting. It is also the second brightest lighthouse in the world, following one in France. Finally this lighthouse does not have stairs inside but instead it has multiple ladders – which is why I chose not to climb it (you can’t take pics inside and can’t climb to the top w/o an appointment). It was a very interesting stop and I’m glad I got to see it!

I love Sea Oats. I wanted them in my bouquet for my wedding but there’s that pesky law about not picking them and I just didn’t have time to grow my own (or the climate). Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to keep taking pictures of them!

Our next stop was Orton Plantation which sits on the Cape Fear River and is one of the only surviving plantations left on the river (most were burned during the Civil War). As I’ve said before, I love old homes and when they’re done up so pretty – well it’s hard not to love them! This plantation is still a private residence but the gardens are open to the public – and they are stunning. For the movie & television fans out there, you may like to know that this plantation is also featured in Firestarter, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, A Walk to Remember, Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill.

The Scroll Gardens which overlook Cape Fear River.

The Crooked Bridge – there is an old belief that ghosts and evil spirits could only move in a straight line, so the owners built this bridge crooked so that any evil spirits that were following them would fall into the water and die.

There are a lot of birds, animals and insects on the plantation but this one is the one that held still the longest. They sure don’t make spiders like this in Ohio – thank god!

Luola’s Chapel which was featured in A Walk to Remember as the place where they got married. It has been used a lot in movies…. I love it! Does anyone getting married here need a photographer??

The one thing I think I love more than the houses themselves are the gorgeous Live Oak lined driveways that lead to the estates in the south. The Spanish Moss is a lovely touch too!

Our next stop was Poplar Grove Plantation. It was just moments before they closed so I took only a few quick shots before enjoying the tour!

Did I mention that it rained pretty much our entire vacation? Well in case I didn’t, it rained. HARD. Every day almost due to a storm system that stalled over the coast of North Carolina for a few days. We decided to head to downtown Wilmington for the day since there were semi-dry stuff that we could do and the things I wanted to do on Saturday I wanted to have dry weather for. So off to downtown we went!!!

Our first stop was Bellamy Mansion, a gorgeous antebellum home that is featured in many ads for Wilmington, with good reason. If you didn’t know from visits to my blogs, I have a bit of a fascination with old homes and estates. Perhaps it’s because my childhood home (before moving to the one I’m in now that I’ve lived in most of the years since I was 6!) was a century home? Who knows but I just LOVE old homes. This house is grand and just stunning. The tour was amazing and I highly recommend it to all. They even let you up in the belvedere, which is VERY rare – and a stunning view! This is a super quick panoramic (and I mean quick, due to the pouring rain!) I took of the front.

The back of the mansion.

An old wheelchair that was used in the home for the last member of the family to live in the home.

As soon as I walked into the parlor I was drawn to this picture and then discovered that one of the daughters of the owner of the house painted this, what talent!!!!

Gotta love the visit to the latrine

After our trip to Bellamy, we went on a trolley tour of downtown since it was still raining. Here is a house that I loved that’s historic – and complete with Crepe Myrtles. I want them for my house but have a feeling they wouldn’t like Ohio winters!!

Another historic home on the tour, I adored the unique look to this home with the massive columns!

Yet another home I want to say is the Caroline Kennedy house?? I could be VERY wrong.

As we were walking back to our car, we saw them breaking down the set for One Tree Hill which they were filming downtown that day. There were a TON – and I mean a TON – of teenage girls running around downtown and we overheard that the stars were out and filming for some of the day.

I have been traveling to the Outer Banks just about every year since I was a kid. In all of those years however, I’ve never actually STAYED on Ocracoke Island, we’ve only just done day trips there. This year for our 2nd anniversary, we decided to go ahead and stay there for a few days before heading down to Wilmington to see my husband’s uncle. We stayed at The Captains Landing, which I highly recommend, and relaxed for about 4 days before heading off.

For those that do not know of Ocracoke Island, it is one of my favorite islands in the world. The beach here has been voted as a #1 beach by Dr. Beach and with good reason! The water here is typically about 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the Outer Banks and the waves are calmer for those kiddos to play in. The most important reason I love this beach though is the SHELLS! I have a LOT of memories of my first trip here in 1986 but my most vivid memory is of me and my dad finding sand dollars, up until then I really didn’t think they were something that was on the beach – just in trinket stores!

Ocracoke isn’t just about the beach though, there is a LOT of history here. For history nuts like myself, this is almost as good as of an attraction as the beach itself! Ocracoke was one of Blackbeard’s favorite haunts and he actually died here as well. His ghost is rumored to still haunt the island – and his hidden treasures are still reported to be on the island somewhere. In addition to the pirate aspect of the history here, there is also the many shipwrecks that have occured here. This is how their heard of wild ponies are said to have got here along with a lot of the timber for many of the old cottages. Depending on the tides and shifting sands, you can sometimes see some of these wrecks without diving to them. Or if you prefer to stay on dry ground, you can go to the British Cemetery where 4 soldiers are buried that were lost on a shipwreck. Their graves are deeded land to England, so you can technically go to England without flying.

While our trip was mostly rained out, I did manage to get a few shots in, enjoy!

The view of Silver Lake Harbor from our room.

Fishing is a big industry in Ocracoke so it’s not too surprising that there are a lot of pelicans about looking for a free meal.

The British Cemetery.

The waves were really calm when we did make it to the beach, too bad the winds out of the south gave us sandburn! YOW!

Ocracoke Lighthouse, one of the oldest lighthouses that still work!

I am a pizza lover and Jason’s pizza is pretty much awesome!

Rain moved in on our first day there at sunset and didn’t leave until the middle of the night the following day. While it ruined most of what we had planned for the trip, I do have to say the atmosphere made for some great night shots. Due to the humidity, the lighthouse had great beams rather than just a spotlight.

The lighthouse the following night at sunset just as the storms and rain moved out. Notice the light is totally different from the lighthouse now due to the lack of humidity?

Sunset over Silver Lake.

The day before I left Louisiana, we took a trip with the kids out to Global Wildlife. I’m sure they have similar things all over the country – but it’s a park with a bunch of animals that you drive through and feed as you go. The one here in Ohio I know of you drive your own cars but at Global Wildlife you actually board a train. We met back up with Miss Carolina and Miss Petra and I also got to me Master Gavin and Master Christian as well. You can feed almost all the animals right from the cup they give you with your food however you cannot feed the zebras as they will bite and it could be ugly. Miss Petra barely escaped a bite not only once but TWICE. Yikes!!! It was a fun trip though and not something you do or see everyday. I thought there’d be a ton of photo ops but I found out that between awkward seating, cramped spaces, a moving vehicle and kids on a mission with food taking pictures isn’t quite as easy as I thought it would be!!! I still got some shots that I thought I would share, enjoy!

A view of the train before us leaving to go into the park.

A shot of the massive bucket of food that we had TWO of… and the kids went through ALL of it. When my friend had mentioned a bucket I was picturing a sand pail, not THIS size of a bucket!

Not the best shot of them but this is Gavin and Christian (2 and 4).

Miss Carolina is back! This is totally unedited as well, her eyes are just that gorgeous! What’s really ironic is her parents are both brown eyed but both her and Petra have dazzling blue eyes!

A deer eating some of the food that essentially is almost POURED from the train through the park.

A zebra coming to stake his piece of the food.

Not the best shot in the world, but I love this shot of me feeding a reindeer from the cup. He was a sweetie and even let me pet him.

Another zebra coming in for some food, I believe this is one that thought Petra looked good enough for a snack! If you notice, they don’t really have black stripes, they are brown.

A mommy zebra and a baby zebra that is just two days old.

Even at two days, this guy can already walk and hop around! This was shot through people on the other side of the train – I love my zoom lens! Isn’t he precious?