My sister and her family live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Each summer, they spend a week on the Outer Banks. This year they invited me along. We stayed on Bald Head Island, the southernmost point of the Outer Banks, off Cape Fear. It’s a beautiful and quiet spot, and rather secluded, relying upon a ferry for connection to the mainland. British troops built a fort here during the American Revolution, and a second fort was manned by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. There’s a famous old lighthouse—called “Old Baldy”—built in 1817. There are a few hundred houses, a post office and some small shops, a large wetlands preserve, and miles of open beach. We slept late, swam a lot, read many books, and played poker at night. Here are some pictures.

Old Baldy stands ninety feet high. There are 108 steps to the top, which I climbed for a five-dollar fee. The hexagonal walls are built of brick and plaster and braced inside by beams of yellow pine.

Another view of the beautiful weather-beaten structure. The lighthouse beacon was used until 1930, and it was used to broadcast a radio signal until 1958.