OBX in March

After our enjoyable time island hopping on the South Carolina coast, we decided we would take an island hopping trip every year in March, before the busy summer season began. Hotel rates are lower, no crowds, no heat... sure we can't swim or surf, but we've found so many other things to do and see, new restaurants to enjoy without the summer crowds... and we're able to spend the day exploring without getting sand in our drawers!

This past March we made our March trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina...

We arrived in a bit of a roundabout way... my sister had just given birth to a new baby girl in Virginia on the 17th and only minutes after we heard the news of the new addition, we got a call that my uncle had passed away in Asheville, NC... we took a couple days off work and headed to Virginia, stopping in Asheville to visit with my aunt and cousin. We offered our condolences, had a wonderful visit with them, walking down memory lane and laughing and crying together as we remembered so many great things about my uncle Richard. After a few hours we continued our journey to Lynchburg, VA to see the new baby and visit with my sister and her family. Stayed a day and two nights and headed out on our own to  OBX.

I had been many times, my DH had not... I had always arrived from the south end of the islands or midway at Roanoke Island, Manteo, Nags Head... this time, since we were already in Virginia, we chose the northern islands and worked our way south...

I'm a lighthouse nut, so our first stop was Corolla to see the Currituck Lighthouse... one I'd never seen before. We paid the $7 and climbed the 100 plus steps to the top of the red brick lighthouse where we could see for miles out across the Atlantic Ocean on one side, the Sound on the other and houses as far as the eye could see. At the north end of OBX there's a beach left that can be driven on and we were in my new car... Kia Soul... DH just had to see how my Li'l Punkin would drive in the hard packed sand of the beach even with the signs reading "Four Wheel Drive Vehicles Only."

I'm happy to report Li'l Punkin had no trouble driving on the beach... it was so fun!

After our adventure driving the beach, we headed south in search of food, making it to Kitty Hawk and then Nags Head before we found the seafood place we were looking for, Awful Arthur's... DH had a steamer dinner and I chose tuna steak... delicious!

We found great rates at a local motel, got a good night's sleep and headed out early the next morning, riding and looking at the beauty of the Outer Banks... it's grown more crowded since I began going there in the late 1980s, but there are still long stretches of nothing but ocean, sand dunes and sea oats... I love it!

We walked the near deserted beaches, dipping our toes in the chilly water and searching through the abundance of shells, hand in hand, the wind whipping around us and the foam lapping at our feet as we strolled along. It was a perfect day, warm but with a nip in the air. We watched the gulls, the pelicans and the sandpipers... felt the breeze in our hair and smelled the fresh, brisk early spring air of the islands.

Our ultimate goal was Ocracoke, my all time favorite lighthouse, but the day got away from us and we only made it to Hatteras before we needed to head back to Manteo and across the Pamlico Sound, our whirlwind weekend ending much too soon for our liking.

We grabbed a quick late lunch at Big Al's before reluctantly making our way inland and back home to Columbia.