Beach or Bust

It was great! Great to get away and forget about everything....well kind of. I thought I'd give you a day by day run down, but that would be quit long so I'll give you a brief over view of the fun, where we ate, etc.

The first semi-exciting and scary part of our trip was flying. The flying part didn't really bother me. The flying in a tropical storm was the scary part. We left Charlotte with a report from the captain. "Short 20 min flight, slight rain, gusting winds." He didn't say how gusty, but we would soon find out. Once we get up, flying above the clouds is all pretty. Descending, through the clouds, yucky! It was grey outside and raining and very VERY gusty. The plane was rocking and rolling. Ok not that bad but it was very scary sitting there waiting to land. You could definitely tell it was gusting and that the pilot was having to correct for each gust. We land, get our rental car, and make our way to the beach. It was rainy and windy most of the way there. By the time we got to the Outer Banks, Hanna had passed through. Some minor flooding when we were coming in but nothing too bad. We could see the ocean from our hotel. :)

Throughout the week, I think I ate my weight in crab legs. They were yummy!! I tried squid. It was ok, really had no flavor, I'm just not a fan of the texture.

We kept calling this trip an adventure. That it was for sure. We drove around places we hadn't been the prior years we had been there. We ate places we'd never eaten before and we tried sports made for 12 year olds. That was a bad idea. Skimboarding. Its like a mini surf board and you only use it where the waves come in. We saw some kids using one, looked cool. Again, its only made for 12 year olds. We rented a board and proudly took it to the beach on Monday. Heath was the only one who could almost successfully "surf" on it. I stood on it and didn't move. Ben tried, same thing. Towards the end of our beach fun, Ben was picking it up out of the waves and the end came down and hit his big toe. Immediately, his toenail was turning purplish-black. Really it was blood behind his nail. That night, it continued to get worse, but you know men. They don't want to go to doctors. Maybe its not a man thing, but its a my husband thing. He didn't sleep that night. That morning it wasn't any better, so we went to the urgent care that afternoon. They basically poked a hole in his nail to get the blood out. That was gross and smelly and I couldn't watch. The smell brought back memories of my surgery rotation from school. ick! They also did an xray to make sure it wasn't broken, and it wasn't. All the people were super nice and I think they liked us. Random nurses and the xray tech came in to just chat with us while waiting. After that the skimboard stayed in the garage, never to be touched again.

Another thing we did was paint pottery at Art, Glass and Fire in Manteo. We ended up going twice. I painted a large bowl the first time. Second time around I did dog bowls. I can't wait to see them!! Ben made me some jewelry. I'll post pics of these ASAP.

We went on a wild horse tour in the 4x4 area in Carova. Basically the highway ends at the beach and you can continue driving, only if you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Well you could drive without one but you wouldn't get far. In this are there are houses, rentable ones and there are people who live up there year around. There is a lot of wildlife up there, including the wild horses. They roam along the beach and up in peoples yards. Its just a normal thing. Of course you cannot feed them or touch them. This year we used Back Country Outfitters and Guides. We had a tour guide and rode in a surburban down the beach. You can also rent segways for the tour. The guide was very informative. The spanish mustangs used to roam all along the northern part of the Outer Banks but as more people came in and built, they were getting hit and things. So they moved the horses up the beach. Some of the far north parts of the beach are protected. Theres a fence to keep them from going south or from going north into virginia. He did tell us a story about some of them going in the food lion one day. They just walked right in the front door of the grocery store. Oh yeah and we took lots of pictures. I'll put those all in a different post.

We bought ourselves a hammock from Nags Head Hammocks. We actually got a double rocker because getting in and out of a hammock is scary and I don't trust that the swing would stay put after we sat in it on the front porch. So we got this one. That was our splurge purchase for the week. I've wanted to get one the last times we've been there but we've never done it. Yes they're expensive, but they're made in the USA and very good quality. And we got 1/2 off shipping and no sales tax because we shipped out of state. AND an additional $20 off because her computer crashed and Ben helped her. :)

Here's a list of where we ate:

Barefoot Bernies, The Black Pelican (it was right by the ocean and housed in a former Livesaving Station), Dirty Dicks Crabhouse, Poor Richards, Oceanfront Grille (literally oceanfront, view awesome, food not so much), Sooey's BBQ, Awful Arthur's, Sundogs Bar & Grill, North Banks Restaurant and Raw Bar. I'm sure there were more places, and really you probably dont care that much. We also visted Bacchus Wine and Cheese. We bought some good wine from Duplin Winery. Good stuff!!

Overall, I believe we all had a great time!! We of course never want to leave once we get there, but we have to come back to reality sometime. I dont know what it is about that little skinny piece of land. Once you cross the intercoastal waterway bridge, its like you're in a different world. You get bit by the obx bug and you there's no cure for it. So you keep coming back. I would totally live there, if it wasn't so expensive, if there was a job and if we hadn't just bought a house. Here's a link about the Outer Banks, if you're interested. Of course I can get you more info if you want it.

Oh and we stayed here for the week. Pictures of everything coming soon!