The other weekend, my husband and I took a drive north east together to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. From where we're at, it was only a little over 3 hours of a drive. My family and I used to drive down to the OBX every summer for family vacations. I remember going in I think it was 1994, 1995, and 1996. The summer vacations had to stop after I got involved in showing horses and we moved my pony Dale to our home, unfortunately doing both wasn't going to work out! We did get down there as a family once more in 2000. I have such fantastic memories of these vacations, even though my brother and I fought quite a bit! They were still wonderful vacations. We rented the same condo every year, the exact same unit. The condo was called Sea Walk. It was a two bedroom little home right on the beach. It probably took all of 35 seconds to get from the back door to the waves breaking on the shore. My mom is the mega beach bum of the family, I know this was some of her favorite days as well. One of my favorite memories is when my mom woke up very early before the sun rose. She put a tape in the video recorder and tried to capture the beautiful sunrise. My mom is not a morning person, never has been! But in her morning daze she must have loaded the tape backwards and when we went to watch the video it was nothing but black and white 'snow' on the TV. What a bummer, but a funny story to tell at the same time. :)
Anyway...Tony has never been to the Outer Banks! He has been living here in Jacksonville for 4 years during his time in the Marines. This is pretty much the only opinion he has been able to form of Coastal Carolina. And quite frankly, this area does not do Coastal North Carolina any justice! Sometimes while I am here I forget I'm on the Coast of NC. He seemed to really enjoy the OBX. It was late March on a Sunday morning/afternoon. So there weren't many tourists and it wasn't crowded. We went to Jockey's Ridge. We took tons of pictures. I always found Jockey's Ridge so impressive--a huge pile of sand mountains in the middle of everything. I have only been on the dunes once before when I was about 9 years old and our trip to the top was cut short by a sudden thunderstorm and we had to leave. I truly enjoyed climbing the sand mountains and taking in the view at the top.
We then parked at the public beach access and walked around on the beach. It was a little chillier by the ocean since its still very early in the season, but it was still very beautiful. I tried to soak up the sand and the sound of the ocean. I love the smell of the beach and how my skin and hair feels from the salt in the air.
Something I never visited in all my trips to the OBX is the Wright Brothers Memorial. So Tony and I figured "why not?" and went to check it out. It was actually rather interesting. The dunes have been preserved and the area declared a National Park. Grass has been planted on the dunes to keep from the wind blowing the sand around. There is a museum in the area with an exact replica inside of the first plane. There are also blocks to mark the exact location of the take off spot and the 4 landing spots from that day in December over 100 years ago when the brothers first flew. At the top of the largest grass-covered dune is the memorial. I've seen it from the road but seeing it in person was impressive! It was a beautiful sunny day so we hiked to the top to take pictures and enjoy the view. I really enjoyed it!
Last but not least, we enjoyed lunch at a little local bar and grill called Tourtuga's Lie. This is a family tradition and one of my favorite places to eat in the whole world! On every trip to the OBX we have gone here to eat probably 2 or 3 times each vacation, maybe more! Its delicious, the service is extremely friendly, and the prices are very reasonable. Its one of those places that only locals and seasoned visitors know about. As a kid, I religiously ordered the same item on the menu--gilled cheese! I ordered that again, and my mom's regular item--steamed veggie platter. It was wonderful! Tony had some very juicy looking burger that he really enjoyed. I couldn't finish it all so I got the rest of my veggies to go and finished it off on the car ride home.
This little day trip was fantastic. We didn't spend very much, just a tank of gas and some money on a few suveniers and our lunch. I took nearly 100 pictures and felt so happy once we got back to Jacksonville. Living so close all these months, I had to take advantage and make the drive up! Some day I hope we can all go down as a family again, in the summer of course to soak up the sun!
