Summer fun on North Carolina's Coast From Wild Horses To Lighthouse Tours

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAPE HATTERAS, N.C. - Segway trips to see wild horses and moonlight tours of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse are some of the things you can do this summer on the North Carolina coast.

In Currituck, try offroad Segway tours through rugged terrain. One tour takes you to a private reserve for Spanish mustangs; the other rolls through beaches and dunes. Tours last four hours and are by appointment; reservations suggested. Details at http://www.outerbankstours.com/segs-onthebeach.

At the Corolla Wild Horse Museum, kids can pet live mustangs on Wednesdays, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they can paint a cutout of a horse and either take it home or leave it on display for a week on the grounds. Admission to the museum is free. The museum asks for a US$5 donation for painting large cutouts and $3 for small. Details at http://www.corollawildhorses.com.

http://www.nps.gov/fora, the Wright Brothers National Memorial, http://www.nps.gov/wrbr, and Cape Hatteras National Seashore, http://www.nps.gov/caha. Together they'll offer 383 visitor programs daily through Labour Day. Programs range from the Village Walking Tour, a heritage walk through the streets of Ocracoke Village, to guided moonlight tours of the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

If you're intrigued by pirate history, you can visit some of the places associated with Blackbeard, who died in battle off Ocracoke Island in 1718. The North Carolina Maritime Museum features pirate ship artifacts, and details of the Blackbeard Trail can be found at http://www.VisitNC.com/itineraries on the third page.

In the Wilmington-Cape Fear area, the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher has an albino alligator - http://www.ncaquariums.com/fort-fisher - and the Shakespeare on the Green festival offers free performances in Wilmington of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "The Comedy of Errors." Details at http://www.myspace.com/shakespeareonthegreen.

The Bald Head Island Conservancy offers evening "Turtle Walks" to see loggerhead turtles nesting and hatching, June through mid-August. Only conservancy members can do the walks (membership starts at $75 for families). Details at http://www.bhic.org/.

The Ingram Planetarium on Sunset Beach has a new Spitz SciDome high-definition digital projection system and new dome and evening laser shows; http://www.ingramplanetarium.org.