I was at my house in Salvo, NC,on Hatteras Island. It was April 2,2014,had been a beautiful day and was now a nice evening, about 9:30p.m. After dinner I went onto the deck to look at the stars. The milky way was visible, all the stars were out. I noticed Mars rising over the ocean directly E of my house (it's the biggest, brightest and most red I've ever seen, right now) . A little further south, about the same height in the sky I saw a large red/orange orb.I watched it, trying to figure what it was ;too big for a star, not moving. Then I noticed a second, exactly the same but apparently closer up the beach (they appeared not too far above the other houses). I thought they were Chinese lanterns, at first;tourists sometimes set them loose.Then one of them blinked off, then the other. Meither had made any movement, at all, before blinking out. Seconds later,one blinked back on,then the other. I watched for a minute or two s they kept periodically going on or off,sometimes appearing further N or S. When I described it to friends, one friend told me he and two others had seen the exact dame thing 5 miles N over the beach the night before. Two other friends witnessed the same about 6 or 7 years ago.