Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education

If you vacation, or live, in the Outer Banks, be sure to check out the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education in Corolla.  It's a great family friendly outing.  It is located in Currituck Heritage Park, which is a must see spot anyways, so you can just make a full afternoon of it!

Inside the building kids are fascinated by an 8,000 gallon fish tank.  There is also a giant diorama, a decoy display, and short documentary.  Additionally, the Wildlife Center hosts enjoyable classes for all ages.  The schedule is online and registration is easy.  Catherine and her cousins enjoyed an afternoon of learning how to fish.  Before casting into the water they practiced on land with magnetic fish, which you can see above.  My husband, brother-in-law, and I enjoyed a class of archery basics.  We all had a great time.

While there, you will want to visit the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.  The above picture of Catherine with the lighthouse in the background makes me smile.  That facial expression!  (I think this picture is from 2012.)  Below, Catherine is learning the fundamentals of baseball on the large lawn near the Wildlife Center. (This one is from 2014.)

By the way, this is not a sponsored post.  Whenever we visit the OBX the whole family enjoys spending some time at this location, and I wanted to share it with you.

Dupont State Forest and The Hunger Games

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Waterfalls are simply beautiful, aren't they?  I've always been fascinated by them.  There are four gorgeous falls in Dupont State Forest.  The forest is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina.  It is just about an hour car ride from Asheville, NC.

A few weeks after Dominic was born we decided to take a little trip out there.  We saw two of the magical waterfalls.  While there are quite a few trails, there are over 10,000 acres of forest after all, the trails that we hiked were extremely easy to navigate.  (I use the word "hike" loosely here, I was still recovering from my c-section, was wearing an infant, and Catherine was wearing a sundress and sandals.  We weren't ready for anything too adventurous.)  We only encountered one fairly large hill.

My husband carried a small cooler with water and snacks, which was great.  (I do recommend bringing water with you!)  We took a break near one of the waterfalls in a picnic area.  We did manage to take a wrong turn (or miss a turn?) on one of the trails, so we didn't quite make the loop we had originally intended, so be warned -- pay attention to the trail markers!

Source

The geeky side of me also appreciated that some of The Hunger Games was filmed at Dupont State Forest.  (Actually, most of the Hunger Games was filmed in North Carolina.)  According to Wikipedia, most of the outdoor scenes, including those from the arena and those from the outskirts of District 12, were filmed in DuPont State Forest.

If you have a free day, or even just an afternoon, and are looking for a family friendly outdoor adventure in Western North Carolina, I highly recommend visiting Dupont State Forest.

Have you been to Dupont State Forest?  What did you see?  

Did you know that some of The Hunger Games was filmed there?