It is most popular to see animals in their natural habitat. Nobody messes with them, brings them food, or care – no human intervention at all. It is essentially their island. It is a great place to see about 30 or so wild horses who live off the island. They also have really cool shells and an occassional sanddollar too. We arrived on the island around 10:30 and we saw maybe 4 people.
Since we really wanted to see the horses, we started walking miles down the beach. Heather was really wanting to find a full sand dollar. We were told if you “moonwalk” down the beach, that is the best way to find them. Heather ended up finding a half of one a few miles down the beach. Since her and Tessa were also spending a lot of time looking for large shells, I started to walk out in front of them by about 100 yards or so. All of a sudden I stopped by a large pile of shells. I moved the sand a bit, and BAM a full sand dollar. As if the rays of Heaven were shining on it for me to see.
When the girls caught up with me, I told them to pick a hand. They were certain I was going to show them a cool shell, and then I reveal the sand dollar. Heather had the best reaction to the sand dollar as she was so excited. I gave it to her and we continued another 3-4 miles along the shore, and we looked over and were fortunate to see 3 horses in the water. There were also about 4 or 5 more further down the beach. Wow, what a very cool site.
Since we had now seen most of what we wanted to see, we made our way back to the ferry area. We put the chairs out and laid on the beach for a bit as if this was our own private island. The weather was perfect and the breeze was awesome too. We saw the ferry coming so we packed up and got out of the way. Since there is nothing on this island, the ferry literally plows into the beach and we get on to board.
Afterwards, we walked around the cute town of Beaufort and had a nice meal on the overlooking the water at the Dock House Restaurant. We then drove back towards Emerald Isle and stopped for a fun game of mini golf at Professor Hacker’s Lost Treasure Adventure Golf. Mom and I both had hole-in-ones, and we finished Dad, Mom, Tessa. We then had ice cream at Scoops down from the golf place and called it a day.
Topsail & Surf City BeachesApril 16, 2025/
