The Blue Dolphin

09/04/2026

I love Hatteras Island in the fall!

08/28/2026

Have you ever seen a sunset like this? We have them all the time here on Hatteras. This island watches the sun rise over the ocean and set over the sound.

08/24/2026

This is a great place to hike and visit in the off-season.

There is a real forest on the Outer Banks, and it exists because of fresh water sitting on top of salt water. 🌿

Buxton Woods on Hatteras Island is the largest maritime forest left in North Carolina, several thousand acres of live oak, loblolly pine, dwarf palmetto and American holly growing on a sandbar in the middle of the Atlantic. The trees survive because rain soaks into the dunes and floats there as a freshwater lens above the denser saltwater underneath. The whole forest is drinking out of a bubble.

Walk into it and the wind just stops. The oaks are bent flat toward the sound side from a century of salt spray, their branches braided together into low tunnels you have to duck through. Between the ridges there are freshwater ponds that hold water year round in the middle of a barrier island. It is quiet in a way the beach a half mile away never is.

That freshwater lens is also what Hatteras villages have drawn their drinking water from, which makes the forest less of a scenic bonus and more of a reason people could live out there at all. 🌊

08/17/2026

Don’t you want to be here on the deck, watching the sun rise, enjoying your morning coffee? Or maybe you enjoy sleeping in. Either way, you are welcome here!

08/15/2026

So lucky!

08/08/2026

Truth.

Rationalizing wanting BUNS OF STEEL….but, also:
BUNS OF CINNAMON!

Salad!🥗

Here for a wee bit longer.
Come grab a delicious treat before it’s too late!
❤️

08/08/2026

I love getting here and seeing the cute sheets, different every time. This week it’s flamingos.🦩

08/04/2026

Wouldn’t it be great if you could use your HSA to book The Blue Dolphin? It’s true people do a lot of healing at the beach.