- What I really, really wanted to do was to show people around, take 'em on tours specifically of the Cape Lookout National Seashore Rachel Carson Reserve.

We have so much beauty on these islands over here.

That's what I really wanted to do.

The National Park Service had a moratorium on their permits which means that you couldn't get a permit to operate commercially on the national park.

They weren't allowing anymore.

Then the moratorium was lifted and I was literally on their doorstep the next day.

Today, we're going to wonder out.

We're gonna go see if we can find some ponies first thing this morning.

- Yay.

- Then we'll tour the Rachel Carson Reserve.

We'll leave there, depending on what the wind does.

It's supposed to actually lay out a little bit as the day goes on.

To effect people's lives and to see them remember this for years.

No matter what job you do, you cannot put monetary value on that.

[upbeat music] Families come down here.

They get away from all the commercialization.

They leave their phones at home.

They leave their video games unplugged and they come out and they experience what this world has to offer.

Especially in this environment around here.

Not only do you have water, but you have land and you have all types of different creatures, whether they be water born creatures or air born creatures or the horses.

- [Woman] Oh, they're playing.

Oh my goodness, they're so cute.

- The wild horses on these islands it's... Incredible to see them in their habitat just surviving and living off the land.

Having the kids go out and have fun in the waves, so great to see them touching into their wild side and their adventurous side a little bit.

And as much as I love it, I'm trying to be the protective mom and keep them safe.

Look at me.

We've ran into a little snag.

There was a little plant called the prickly pear and my son, 11 years old, stepped on it and Captain Monty came to the rescue and he pulled the little spikes right out for him He didn't even shed a tear.

- I think we got it all out of there, buddy.

- Like I've stopped looking at what was around me to actually listen to what he had to say.

I mean, going all the way back to from Carrot Island to Cat Island to... I never knew what then the heritage behind like the history behind the draw bridge.

- The last time the drawbridge got stuck open was prom night.

Supposedly, if you look back at the charts in the early days, we see this island referred to as Cart Island, c, a, r, t, Cart Island.

The Cart-ographers, they came in a little bit later that drew the newer maps could not understand our local people.

So we literally believe that they didn't understand what they were saying and they named it Carrot Island now.

If you'd have come to Beaufort back in the days, this is what we would have looked like everywhere.

Working waterfronts over the entire Front Street waterfront was there to support the fishing industry.

This is what is called dredge spoils.

The Harker's Island was originally settled by the Mormon faith.

The jellyfish, when they have tentacles, what stings you is called a nematocysts.

Interestingly enough, Sea Oaks are not indigenous to the beach either.

So he took the seeds from the Gaillardia and spread them all over the outer banks to memorialize his wife.

So the legend says.

I can talk about all this stuff because I've been here most of my life.

And was fortunate enough to sit on the docks with some of the old timers around here and listen to their stories and soak it in like a sponge when I was young.

- You cannot take away what a local can give back to the people that come to visit.

If you get to know someone and have the opportunity to be on a tour with someone like this gentlemen, you'd wanna come back.