Wow! What an amazing trip we had. :) On Saturday 8/4 we packed up early and rolled out for Hatteras Island, NC. It was supposed to be a 6 hour trip, but of course it took 10 because of traffic. We set up what was to be our home for the week when we arrived.
We had a really busy week. It turned out to be one of the hottest weeks ever at the Outer Banks and it averaged at 103 for the week--- a few days it hit 106! Very hot sticky camping, but we found lots to do to beat the heat. We went bowling one evening, had some lunches in the A/C, visited the campground pool, went to the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island, visited the lighthouses, went shopping, and of course we hit the beach. In the evenings, we had dinner at the campsite, flew kites and played cards at sunset. We had a great breeze at night and the weather was hot, but not stormy at all.
Camping in the RV park was definitely a different experience for me--- but it was great! Everyone was so friendly. People came and stopped by the tent in the evenings as we were cooking and playing cards. The girls made friends at the pool. We loved the place we stayed at :)
Our home away from home was bigger than I thought it would be. It had three divided rooms and was plenty big for the 5 of us. Here's a picture of our compound decked out midweek.
You can see the path to the beach behind our van, but here is a better shot.
On the first day we spent the whole day at the beach, the second day we had to visit the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
We walked inside, but we didn't hike to the top.
The girls loved every bit of the vacation. They hated leaving the beach and pool when it was time to go.
We also visited the Bodie Lighthouse which is south of Nagshead.
The girls had way too much fun on the beach. The beach we were at was not crowded at all. The campground was very small compared to others we passed and there was plenty of room on the beach.
Here they are on the last evening. They are wearing the shirts we had made at one of the beach shops--- they each picked the design they wanted. 
We planned on leaving Friday morning but ended up leaving late Thursday evening because bad weather was moving in that evening and we didn't like the idea of packing up either in the middle of a storm or packing up a bunch of wet stuff. 