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What a difference a few decades make! The images of New York City were taken in 1970 (Bernard Gotfryd, Library of Congress) and in 2018 by Afif Ramdhasuma (from pexels.com). Earth Day has been celebrated on April 22 since it was established through grassroots efforts in 1970. It was a response to increasing concerns caused by smog (intense air pollution caused mainly by exhaust fumes), Great Lakes at risk of dying from pesticide runoff and waste dumping, and rivers that caught on fire (the Cuyahoga River in Ohio famously caught fire in June of 1969). It was also the year when monumental legislation was enacted to address all kinds of environmental concerns. ...read more
At Home | Inspiration
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If it’s true, as they say, that seeing is believing, then we at Mast Store would like to propose another entry to your quip collection: Doing is moving. “Doing” not only requires movement - “doing” moves you both physically and emotionally. ...read more
Local Flavor | Mast Family Favorites | Travel
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What is a library? It’s a big building with lots of books in it. But wait, it’s so much more. The library is a gateway to your wildest dreams, a place to learn, a place to imagine, a place to make friends. Today’s libraries are repositories of books, but they also are places to get help to learn to read or improve your reading, to improve your math skills, to listen to a performance by a string quartet, to watch a movie, to refine your crafting skills, and to gather with fellow writers. Yes, libraries are SO much more. ...read more
Adventure | Inspiration | Mast Family Favorites
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... Our favorite foods! Food is universal because everybody’s got ta eat! And the last two months of the year are filled with more than their fair share of family meals, work gatherings, special outings to favorite restaurants, tins filled with homemade cookies and fudge, and the anticipation of food traditions handed down from generation to generation ...read more
At Home | Recipes
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Even before we bought the Mast General Store, we were taken by the beauty of Valle Crucis. We’ve heard people describe the drive out Broadstone Road as traveling through a time portal. In the 1970s, fields in the river bottoms would be filled with tobacco, cabbage, or high with hay to feed cattle that were grazing in the summer pasture. ...read more
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The lucky few who have seen the Earth from a different perspective – astronauts - all echo the same viewpoint upon their return. Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut and the first human to go to space, commented, “Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it.”
Behind the Scenes | Inspiration
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Cape Lookout National Seashore includes a Visitor Center on the Mainland at Harker’s Island, North Carolina, as well as Shackleford Banks and North and South Core Banks. You can reach the Cape Lookout Lighthouse and Shackleford by ferry (from Beaufort or Harker’s Island), or if you are adventurous, by paddling out on a kayak.
As a little girl, I became fascinated by the wild ponies that roam free on the barrier islands of Virginia and North Carolina; I’m thinking that was after I read Misty of Chincoteague. I’ve always wanted to see the wild ponies in their natural habitat.
These horses were marooned on Shackleford after Spanish Galleons ran aground in the shifting shoals of the Graveyard of the Atlantic. They’ve adapted to their surroundings and subsist on grasses and brackish water, and they are much smaller than you’d imagine. An adult horse stands about 12 hands tall at the shoulder, which is around 48 inches. Using my imagination, I think about how sturdy they must be to carry the Conquistadors, along with their armor and armaments, while they were exploring the New World.
The herds on the island are managed to maintain their environment and the strength of the breed. The horses roam the island, so to see them you’ll need to do some walking. Make sure to bring your binoculars and a zoom lens for photography. The Park Service recommends that you stay at least 30 feet away from the horses. They are wild animals and can be unpredictable and protective of their groups. The other reason you’ll want to bring binoculars and a long lens is the pests are out in force when it’s warm. You’ll want to stand on the edge of the beach and peer inland to escape the biting flies and no-see-ums.
On your ferry ride over to the island and while you’re walking on the beach, keep an eye out for dolphins. We saw a pod during our visit.
Also, a part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore is the Cape Lookout Lighthouse. Its diamond-shaped daymarks make it easy to know where you are along the North Carolina Coast. To add another reference for seafarers, the black diamonds point north and south and the white ones east and west. Constructed of 600,000 bricks, the walls of the lighthouse are 9 feet thick at the base and 1 foot 7 inches thick at the top. This light is still used to guide ships and was automated in 1950. The United States Coast Guard at Fort Macon maintains it.
The structure you see today is actually the second lighthouse. The first one was built in 1812. It was a little further inland (you can see a hump where the structure was). At only 107 feet tall, its light was produced by 13 oil lamps and parabolic reflectors projecting the light 16 miles out to sea. The Cape Lookout Lighthouse you see today was operational in 1859 and used a Fresnel lens until 1979. This lens focused the light to be seen at 18 miles.
Located at the base of the Lighthouse is the Keeper’s House. Today, it features a museum telling the story of the lonely life of the keeper and of the Surfmen, a group that often had to rescue sailors whose ships were stranded on sandbars or were otherwise in distress in the shallow and treacherous waters. Be sure to pick up the “can of oil” and imagine yourself carrying two of these 45-pound cans up the 200+ stairs at least twice each day.
Here’s the bonus on the visit to either Shackleford or the Cape Lookout Lighthouse, the beaches are great for shelling and they were voted by readers of USAToday as some of the best beaches in the National Park Service. For more information to plan you trip, visit their website HERE.
- Sheri, Mast Store Home Office
For more of our Mast Family National Park Service adventures and recommendations, click HERE