Outer Banks, NC

“In my mind I’m gone to Carolina” – James Taylor

My very first concert as a kid was James Taylor. Carolina In My Mind is my favorite song because in my mind, I’m always gone to Carolina. James Taylor even has a bridge named after him in Chapel Hill, NC.

You will come to learn that North Carolina is my favorite place. I have a soft spot for this state and it will forever hold a special place in my heart. I grew up visiting family, going to camp, and visiting beaches in NC since I was a kid. I love the southern hospitality and the heat! There is nothing like the Carolina sun! Ever since I can remember, I have said I wanted to live in North Carolina.

Over the years I have done and seen a lot in North Carolina. I spent a lot of time in Chapel Hill, went to summer camps, and visited Bald Head Island which was always our go to vacation spot (I will do a separate post about BHI because there is SO much to talk about).

This was the first time I visited the Outer Banks. My parents and brothers went a few years ago and loved it so of course when they were talking of going again I was excited to go with them (and yes I watched the Netflix show and enjoyed it). The house was beach front (on the Atlantic side, not the Sound side) in Avon and it was absolutely beautiful! It was one of the best beach houses I have ever stayed in. It had a movie theater room, game room, hot tub, in ground pool, and my favorite part was the kitchen on the third floor. When you got to the top of the stairs you were looking out at the ocean and it was incredible.

For me, there is something about the ocean and the salty air that is soothing. I like looking out at the open water and remembering how small I really am and how much of the world is out there to see. I feel the same way about the night sky. Almost every night that it wasn’t cloudy my brothers and I set up the telescope to look at the stars. We got good views of Jupiter and Saturn! For me there is no better stargazing than at the beach. I have always gotten the best view of the Milky Way laying on the beach. I will never forget falling asleep in the sand while stargazing and waking up to the same starry sky awhile later. The sounds of the waves crashing and how dark it is on the beach, it’s perfect!

Just as the sun goes down, it comes back up and I was up to see almost every sunrise. I enjoyed watching the world wake up. Everything was still quiet and the beach was empty since most people were still sleeping. Total opposite of sunset, where everyone is out trying to get the best view. The last day in OBX I had the beach to myself. I laid in the sand until it was time to get in the car and leave. I didn’t want to waste a single second of my last few hours in this beautiful place.

The towns in OBX were touristy. There were so many gift shops but there was also a ton of surf shops, ice cream places, restaurants, bars, and other cool places to check out. One of my favorite places was Hatteras Bowls. It was a little smoothie shop in the town of Waves. The first time I went I got a Purple Smoothie which was so good and made with lavender. The second time, I got a smoothie bowl called the Backdoor. It was so good! (For those who don’t know, I have recently been on a fruit journey. I have never really tried / liked any fruits before and so far it’s been amazing. I also started getting Daily Harvest boxes so I get their smoothies all the time now and I LOVE it!)

Another good food place I went to was Bros Sandwich Shack. It was a sandwich / burger place and I got a chicken sandwich called the Cali Club. Usually I am somewhat picky when it comes to chicken sandwiches but this was delicious and felt like it was melting in my mouth.

Aside from all the food options in the Outer Banks, there is also so much you can do! One day I rented a jet ski for an hour from Hatteras Watersports in Salvo. We could only ride on the Sound side (the Sound side is the side that is facing the mainland. It also is an estuary where freshwater and saltwater mixes together.) we couldn’t ride out in the Atlantic which was fine by me. I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous about getting on a jet ski in the ocean. I’ve ridden one dozens of times on a small lake, but never in the ocean. I wasn’t going to let a little bit of fear stop me from trying something new and going outside my comfort zone, that’s why we’re here after all. It ended up being a really cool experience and believe it or not the water was pretty shallow in the boundaries we had and it was crystal clear. The waves is what I was most worried about but there weren’t big waves even from the other skis and boats out in the water.

Something I have always wanted to do is horseback ride on the beach. It’s been on my bucket list forever and when I found out there was a barn 20 minutes from the house you bet I signed up for a trail ride! The facility is called Equine Adventures in Frisco. The people there were so nice and very informative. They wanted to ensure everyone not only enjoyed themselves but had a safe ride. I originally scheduled the ride for Tuesday evening but we had a tropical storm roll in and they said they would rather us be safe than sorry, so I was able to rebook to Friday evening. The ride started at the barn and they paired us with our horse after going over the rules and safely procedures. My horse’s name was Bo and he was so sweet. The ride was about two hours and we rode through the thick Carolina forest for about 45 minutes and then spent 15-20 minutes riding on the beach. They even gave us the option to canter down the beach! Again, something I have always wanted to do on any trail ride I went on. The whole experience was amazing and I can’t say enough great things about it. I would recommend doing this at least once in your life. It was incredible! I am already looking at going back next year.

Right near the road to get to Equine Adventures is a place called the Futuro House. It’s a giant UFO! There were stickers and license plates on the inside and there was even a little guest book you could sign. It was a fun place to stop for a cool photo op.

Farther down the island is the Hatteras Ferry you can take over to Ocracoke Island. It is about an hour ferry ride over to Ocracoke and you can even take your car if you wanted to! I will say when I was there, there was a long line for the car ferry. I took the regular people ferry and rented a golf cart on the island. Driving golf carts around as the main mode of transportation is so fun! That’s part of the reason I love BHI! There are people that live on Ocracoke all year which I think must be pretty cool to always be living island life. While visiting, some of the locals I talked to told me some fun facts about living there. For example, the high school graduating class this year was 7 kids! I went to a large high school so only 7 is crazy to me. Below are some photos from Ocracoke Island.

So let’s not forget one of the best things to do in the Outer Banks, going to the beach! You can bet I spent as much time as I could in the water. The first few days the waves were really big and the currents were strong. The undertow was crazy! It was literally pulling people off their feet! Me, my brothers, and my cousins were all out there though getting tossed around like we were inside the washing machine. We didn’t go out very far because it did get pretty deep in some areas. We would actually walk a ways up from our spot on the beach to get in the water because 10 minutes later we would end up a mile down the beach from getting pulled in the current. (We know about rip currents and how dangerous they are and what to do if you find yourself stuck in it. We were all mindful of what was going on around us and looking out for one another.) Needless to say we had a blast tumbling around in the waves for hours.

One of the things I couldn’t wait to do was surf. I had been surfing a few times before on other beach trips but I had read OBX is a good spot for surfing. I rented a surfboard and a skimboard for the week. When I had enough of getting pummeled by waves I took the skimboard out. I had never done it before and at first I was really bad at it. I fell so many times (it worried my grandma) but I like a challenge and I don’t give up easily. By the end of the week I got it figured out pretty good and even ended up catching a small wave.

On the days the waves and currents weren’t so rough I took the surfboard out. Even though the water was calmer, the waves were still pretty big which at first was a little intimidating, but again, I will never let fear hold me back from anything. At first, I wouldn’t go out to the big waves since it had been a few years since I surfed but I skateboard, wakeboard, snowboard, pretty much any board sport you can think of; so I went in with a little extra confidence.

When it was low tide there were so many cool shells in the sand. I collected so many throughout the week. I even found a mermaid’s purse (sting ray egg shell)! I had been on the look out for a sand dollar. I saw a group down the beach from me found one but I never came across one myself.

One of the mornings I was out early for the sunrise, I saw a National Park truck on the beach and two rangers digging in the sand. I instantly knew it was probably a sea turtle nest they were looking for. When I went to talk to them, they said it was a false crawl (that means the sea turtle came up the beach looking for a spot to lay her eggs but decided this spot wasn’t good enough and turned around). You could see her tracks in the sand coming up from the ocean and then back down again. I was upset I missed it, but thankfully I have seen a handful of sea turtles nesting on other vacations. If you’ve never seen a wild sea turtle come up and lay eggs, it’s a once in a lifetime experience! Watching the turtle dig out the nest with her flippers, seeing the eggs drop, and watching her cover the nest back up is just beautiful. Also, watching the baby turtles hatch (boil) from the nest is just as amazing (the nest boils because there are so many little turtles coming out at the same time. Go watch it on Youtube, it’s pretty cool)! Can you tell I wanted to be a Marine Biologist?

I hope to make it back to OBX again soon. A week by the ocean never seems like enough. I felt like I arrived, blinked, and then it was time to leave. The warm salty air and salt water always heals my soul. Until next time North Carolina.