Although I had hoped to go to both Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, it was not to be….Rick decided he didn’t want to drive up the coast and that we had spent so much time on the beach already. Really? Is there a beach limit? I thought not. He was ready for an I-95 shot straight up. Didn’t seem worth arguing about, but a little sad to have missed it….We wound up stopping in a little place called Rocky Mount, where I-95 and 64 intersect, and then decided to head back to the coast and spend a few nights in the Outer Banks, which is something I just had to see. My guess is Charleston is probably similar to Savannah, and Myrtle Beach probably similar to Hilton Head. So, whatever…..

We got a place on the beach in Nag’s Head, which Rick thought was oddly appropriate and hilarious . Um, I’m not laughing…..The drive to the Outer Banks was beautiful, so green with lakes and streams and farms everywhere. The tobacco farms were so beautiful, it’s hard to believe something so pretty could be unhealthy…..You go over this really long bridge (maybe 5 miles), and then you are on the island. The strange thing is, that with Ponte Vedra and Hilton Head and all these beautiful places we have been to, it’s just a little kitschy. The first impression is not good. We immediately found a little seafood joint, that is supposedly popular with the locals and the shrimp and crab was delicious, but the clams, not so much. After lunch we headed out to the Wright Brothers Museum, which was very interesting.  And then we checked in to our “3 star hotel on the beach”. They are using the star system rather liberally on this one. But, ok. I can handle it for two nights. I walked in and wiped down every surface we might possibly touch with Cavicide wipes. For people not in the dental field, think Lysol wipes on steroids.

I kept thinking about the first time we went to Kauai, and had reservations in Kapaa. I was underwhelmed, and couldn’t believe all the hoopla I had heard about Kauai. Then we headed to Princeville and Hanalei, and I totally fell in love.  Hoping that was the case here, we decided to head north to Duck, Pine Island and Corolla to check it out. And that is exactly how it is here. The far north, is beautiful, and according to our server in the seafood place in Corolla, the south, Hatteras, and Ocracoke, is also beautiful (and just the middle is kind of meh!).  We didn’t get to see the south part, but I will take her word for it. There are still wild horses that live on the Outer Banks, and if you have a four wheel drive vehicle, you can get to the beaches where they hang out. (I guess we took the wrong car) They say the horses will actually get pretty close to you if you see them on the beach. The wild mustangs are descended from the Spanish mustangs  which arrived close to 500 years ago. You can get on a tour to see them, but advance reservations are necessary, and since we don’t know where we will be in the next week, that is not possible. This is a go by the seat of your pants kind of trip, after all.

The next stop will be outside of Washington DC, in Virginia. We have friends that live there and we will stay with them for a few days and explore around there. I am hoping they let me cook. Eating in restaurants for a month really makes you want to cook again.

Here are a few photos from the area.