As part of catching up on almost two years of quiet, I wanted to record our best family vacation to date.
We both grew up either vacationing to Florida or other parts of the Carolinas, but had obviously heard of the Outer Banks. One day, I had the last-minute crazy idea to put a vacation together in 3 weeks. And it ended up being amazing! The car ride from Columbus is brutal (12 hours and TONS of traffic on our particular day), and the drive back makes you want to open the car door and roll out. But for the week that you are there, it's worth it.
Our family, Matt's mom and brother, and our niece and nephew stayed in a house on Hatteras island, the part of the Outer Banks that is much more remote than the northern portion. This is good (empty beaches! Nature! Closer to the lighthouse) and annoying if you need conveniences (14 miles to the nearest store). Our particular "city" was Salvo, which is between Rodanthe and Avon (Avon is where we'd stay next time for a little more convenience).
Our house was one row back from beach front, which is absolutely essential. If you're going to the beach, you don't want to drive to the beach each day. Our kids loved the water and sand, and I have never seen Matt enjoy himself more than he did that week!
We had an ice cream truck come through the neighborhood each night, had an amazing steam pot feast from Austin's, and enjoyed lots of meals together. Things I never want to forget are sitting up on the rooftop deck and watching the sun set, watching Shark Week every night, the kids adoring the sand and water, and watching cousins have fun together.
The Avon Pier and Hatteras Lighthouse were two of our favorite tourist attractions, and if we had had more time, I wanted to go off Hatteras to Okracoke Island.
Not sure if you remember hearing about the power outage that hit the Outerbanks in summer of 2017? Well, that happened on Day 4 of our trip. Yes, that's me in the article, but they made it sound worse than I really explained. I kept pointing them back to the way the community needs tourist dollars to help the small businesses stay afloat, but she wanted to know how terrible it was. It was a bummer and we were not refunded any part of our vacation, but even so, we would definitely go back to OBX!
We both grew up either vacationing to Florida or other parts of the Carolinas, but had obviously heard of the Outer Banks. One day, I had the last-minute crazy idea to put a vacation together in 3 weeks. And it ended up being amazing! The car ride from Columbus is brutal (12 hours and TONS of traffic on our particular day), and the drive back makes you want to open the car door and roll out. But for the week that you are there, it's worth it.
Our family, Matt's mom and brother, and our niece and nephew stayed in a house on Hatteras island, the part of the Outer Banks that is much more remote than the northern portion. This is good (empty beaches! Nature! Closer to the lighthouse) and annoying if you need conveniences (14 miles to the nearest store). Our particular "city" was Salvo, which is between Rodanthe and Avon (Avon is where we'd stay next time for a little more convenience).
Our house was one row back from beach front, which is absolutely essential. If you're going to the beach, you don't want to drive to the beach each day. Our kids loved the water and sand, and I have never seen Matt enjoy himself more than he did that week!
We had an ice cream truck come through the neighborhood each night, had an amazing steam pot feast from Austin's, and enjoyed lots of meals together. Things I never want to forget are sitting up on the rooftop deck and watching the sun set, watching Shark Week every night, the kids adoring the sand and water, and watching cousins have fun together.
The Avon Pier and Hatteras Lighthouse were two of our favorite tourist attractions, and if we had had more time, I wanted to go off Hatteras to Okracoke Island.
Not sure if you remember hearing about the power outage that hit the Outerbanks in summer of 2017? Well, that happened on Day 4 of our trip. Yes, that's me in the article, but they made it sound worse than I really explained. I kept pointing them back to the way the community needs tourist dollars to help the small businesses stay afloat, but she wanted to know how terrible it was. It was a bummer and we were not refunded any part of our vacation, but even so, we would definitely go back to OBX!
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