Travel Flashback: The Outer Banks

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Too bad it's Monday and we're back to work today. Maybe I'll have a margarita later to celebrate? Anyway, I've been sharing all of the places we got to visit on our East Coast vacation in June of 2012. This weekend, I shared our experiences in Washington D.C., and Virginia Beach. Today is all about The Outer Banks, NC. (Warning: It's long, but there's lots of photos!)

I think it's safe to say that the Outer Banks was one of the coolest places I have ever seen, and one of my favorite places on the trip. We spent a full day driving through it, and exploring along the way. We drove from Virginia Beach, VA, through the Outer Banks, and all the way down until we got to our hotel in Wilmington, NC late that night. Here's a map of the Outer Banks to help visualize where we were:

We actually started in Virginia on 158, and went through Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, and all the way down to Hatteras. From there we boarded the ferry to Ocracoke, and then took a second ferry back toward Wilmington, North Carolina. A full day of driving and exploring the amazing sandy islands and the Atlantic Ocean!

Our first stop in the Outer Banks was in Kill Devil Hills (near Kitty Hawk). This is where the famous Wright Brothers made the first successful flight.

We're not total history buffs, but we thought it was kind of necessary while we were there, to stop at the First in Flight Memorial in Kill Devil Hills and check out the monument dedicated to Wilbur and Orville Wright and the famous first flights they made.

The monument was on top of a hill, kind of in the middle of nowhere. We first went into this building where they had a few exhibits, and then started the hike up the hill to see the monument up close and personal.

It was pretty cool, and the view from up on the hill was amazing.

It was really hot that day though, and making that trek up to the top of the hill, and all the way back, felt like running a marathon. My knee also started bothering me in Virginia Beach (I think from so much walking), and whenever I had to walk up and down steps it especially hurt. My legs were still sunburnt as well so I remember stopping a few times this day to apply more Aloe! Nonetheless, it was still an amazing day.

One of the coolest parts about the Outer Banks was just driving. And you have to do it with the windows down, at least for a little while.

There were sand dunes on each side of the road, and the sand was so white and so abundant. There were times when the island would get so narrow that you could see the ocean on both sides of the road, almost like an island bridge. 

There are several light houses in the Outer Banks, and we made sure to stop at a couple of them. This one is the Bodie Island Lighthouse in Nags Head, NC. It was in repair when we were there, so there was scaffolding surrounding it, unfortunately!

At a couple of points while driving down the island, we decided to stop and walk down to the beach. We had to walk over the sand dunes, which wasn't fun when you have a sore knee and sunburnt legs! I made it though!

Some of my favorite photos from the entire trip are from the Outer Banks. The sky was clear and blue, the ocean was clear, the sand was so pure...everything was just so pure and serene on these islands.

I collected a few shells, and it was nice to put our feet in the sand again.

When we got down to Hatteras, we took a ferry down to the island of Ocracoke. It was our first ever ferry ride, and it was very cool.

This was the shorter of the two ferries we took in the Outer Banks. (I think it was like 20 or 30 minutes) But I could not believe we were on a boat in the Atlantic Ocean!

Ocracoke was such a cool island. It almost felt tropical, but it was full of people, and lots of little shops. We drove from end to end, and may have even gotten lost a time or two. :) For dinner, we ate at a cool, laid-back bar and restaurant called Howard's Pub.

Trent had to have a taste of the local beer, Carolina Blonde.

 

We had a little time before we had to board the ferry (we couldn't get a ticket for the earlier ferry ride, so we had to board the later one). So we explored, went in some gift shops, and checked out the Ocracoke Lighthouse.

Then we went down by the pier and waited to board the ferry. 

Considering this was the view, we didn't mind waiting...

The sunset got even more beautiful when we were on the ferry. Leaving Ocracoke and heading out into the Ocean, really made it feel like we were in the middle of the ocean. The land behind us got smaller and smaller, and soon we were on a boat watching the sunset. It was one of the best endings to an amazing day.

It was windy on top of the ferry, so I didn't stay up there the entire time. It got darker, and the breeze got chillier, so I went back into the car and read for the rest of the trip. But Trent stayed out there enjoying the ferry ride.

It was late when we got back to the "mainland," and had to drive to our hotel in Wilmington. I still feel like this was one of the coolest experiences we've ever had together, and North Carolina was definitely the highlight of our East Coast vacation for me. The beaches, the light houses, the ocean, the sunsets... It was amazing! I know there was a lot of pictures in this post, but it was hard to eliminate photos when there were so many great ones!

My next East Coast vacation post will be about our time in Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. We loved North Carolina, so I can't wait to share more about our time there. Happy Cinco de Mayo, all!

East Coast Vacation 2012: Virginia Beach

To continue on with my East Coast Vacation flashback posts, today I'm sharing our experience in Virginia Beach. Trent and I spent two nights in Virginia Beach, after just having been to Washington, D.C. the day before. That had been a beautiful, surreal day in a wonderful city, but we were excited about seeing a beach, the ocean, and more importantly, the Dave Matthews Band concert in Virginia Beach (woot!).

We made a small side trip to the Arlington National Cemetery in the morning, and then drove to Virginia Beach that day. Our hotel was super nice, with a balcony overlooking the boardwalk, the beach, and the ocean. Here was the lovely Boardwalk view:

Trent spent a lot of time out here on our balcony watching the ocean waves, and he even got up in the mornings and watched the sunrise. I'm a little less of a morning person to do that.

The first night in VA Beach was the Dave concert. It's no secret we go to their concerts every year, so how could we pass this one up?

We were front row in the lawn / fan club area. And of course Dave was amazing as always.

Just looking at this pictures gets me excited for seeing them again in a couple of weeks! May 16 in Houston this year...can't wait!

Below is a picture of the Virginia Beach boardwalk at night from our hotel balcony. It was so peaceful at night by the ocean, listening to the sound of waves crashing. It was a little chilly at night, but for the most part, we had perfect weather the week of our trip, which was awesome.



Here's one of those Virginia Beach sunrises that Trent woke up early to see and take photos of:



We spent the next morning on the beach right outside our hotel. It was nice, because we could just walk right out there, and there it was. The beach, the ocean, and relaxation..It doesn't get much better than that!



I don't think I spent much time in the ocean - Trent swam in the ocean everywhere we went, but I think I just dipped my feet in here. I mostly enjoyed laying out on my towel with my feet in the sand. :)

One of my favorite things about Virginia Beach was that everything was right there, on the beach. There were so many cute beachy restaurants right next to our hotel, like where we had lunch - Chix Sea Grill and Bar. We stayed at the Ramada, and this was just a short walk away. We ate outside on the patio.

That evening we walked along the boardwalk, went to a few gift shops, and explored. It got a little overcast that afternoon and sprinkled a little bit, but it wasn't too bad. I liked how laid back Virginia Beach was. It was a perfect city to just spend a couple of days by the beach.





Of course we had to stop and take a few photos along the way, like when we stumbled upon these pretty cool fish sculptures...



And this King Nepture statue was definitely the highlight of the boardwalk:

We had both gotten a lot of sun that day, and I remember my legs were SO sunburnt! We walked into a Walgreens store and I got some Aloe to put on them. I was applying that the rest of the vacation!

We ended our last night there by eating at Waterman's Surfside Grille. Trent got their "famous" Orange Crush, and I got a Tequila sunrise. Oh yeah, and we had food, too. :)

It was the nice little couple of days of relaxation that we needed after all that walking in D.C.! Here's a picture of the last sunrise of our days in Virginia Beach. Taken early in the morning when they scrape the sand to get ready for another beach day -



After Virginia Beach, we headed to North Carolina, specifically the Outer Banks, which will be covered in my next vacation post! If you haven't seen enough of the beautiful Atlantic ocean, you're about to see plenty more in my next couple of posts....

Travel Flashback: Washington, DC

With our Texas vacation fast approaching (now just a week away!), I thought I would look back a little bit on our last big vacation: our East Coast vacation in June of 2012. It was before I started blogging regularly here, so I never really got a chance to share our experience on this little blog of mine. Although I've mentioned parts of this vacation in posts of yore - like my vacation shadowbox project where I posted a little about Myrtle Beach, and my post about one of our favorite little towns from this trip, Southport, NC - I haven't really gone into detail about all of the awesome places we visited on that trip. So I'm going to start out by posting about our day in Washington, D.C., and I will also post this week about Virginia Beach, Wilmington, NC, the Outer Banks, and Myrtle Beach.

First of all, if I could sum up our day in Washington, D.C. in one word, it would be: surreal. Neither Trent or I had ever been to our nation's capital before, and being right in the city, in the center of all of the buildings that you see all the time on TV, in movies, and in history books, was pretty cool. It was hard to believe we were actually there.

We only spent one day in the city, but we were there the entire day. And I think we squeezed so much into that whole day, that we felt like that was enough to see the majority of what we wanted to see. We didn't drive at all, which ended up amounting to a lot of walking, but everything was so close anyway, it didn't bother us not having a car. We took the subway into the city from Arlington where we were staying, and walked pretty much the rest of the time, except late in the afternoon when we took the subway again to Georgetown. My cousin Mark actually ended up driving us back to the hotel that night, which was a nice little coincidence that he happened to be in D.C. that same day!

Probably the most surreal building to see in person was the White House, since it's obviously one of the most recognized buildings in the United States. And funnily enough, it was also the most difficult to find for us! I think we were lost for a good half-hour before we actually found it!



Both Trent and I thought it seemed a lot smaller in person, but it is still really cool. There were tourists everywhere taking pictures, many in large groups. But Trent and I somehow managed to each get a photo by ourselves in front of the White House.





The photo below is of the back of the building - talk about a nice backyard. There was a garden back there that Trent and I both thought was super nice. I just kinda pictured myself hanging out back here. No big deal.

Although we had a tough time finding the White House, the Washington Monument, on the other hand, was far from difficult to find. You can see it from almost all views in the city I think! It kind of stands out a little.

And like the rest of the buildings, we each had to get our respective photo with them. How else are you going to prove you were actually there? :)

Unfortunately the inside was closed for renovations, so we couldn't go in it, but up close it definitely seems crazy big. It reminded me a little of the Arch in St. Louis.

The reflecting pool was also empty, which was kind of a disappointment, since that would have been really cool to see. The photo below was taken in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

And here it is...

Mr. Lincoln himself below - again, super surreal to be standing inside of these buildings.

One thing I wasn't expecting, which was kind of a nice surprise, was how pretty Washington, D.C. actually is. When you think about this city, normally you just think about politics, and all of the historic and political buildings and monuments. But it's also right on the Potomac River. Trent and I took a walk by the river, and it was gorgeous. I love those trees. It was such a serene place to go in the midst of such a bustling, touristy city.

I remember walking along the bike path and watching the ducks...it was almost like being back home in the Quad Cities! We even had time to take a selfie in front of the Potomac. Looking back, I totally wish I could have instagrammed this baby - #WashingtonDCSelfie, yo.

Right by the river was the Jefferson Memorial -

Which had one of the coolest ceilings I've ever seen.

We also stopped to check out the World War II Memorial, which was pretty neat.

After seeing all of the main buildings and monuments, we ate lunch in this big park area and rested for a while (can you say, tons and tons of walking?), and then we started on the museums. We kind of popped into as many as we could in the afternoon. We didn't want to spend too much time in each one, but we definitely wanted to check out some of the Smithsonian museums.

Here's the Smithsonian castle, which I thought was definitely the coolest looking one. It didn't have much inside that we really wanted to see, so we just briefly stopped by.



We ended up going into some Smithsonian art galleries, the Air and Space Museum, Museum of Natural History, and the American History museum. One big plus - they're all FREE. Awesome.



We ended the day in Georgetown. After taking the subway into that area of town, we walked on a bridge over the Potomac, and checked out all the shops and restaurants in that side of the city. Then we met up with my cousin Mark and had dinner and a few brews at the Bier Baron in Georgetown.



That was one place that Trent HAD to go while we were in D.C. :) It was a nice end to a long but fun day in the nation's capital. So crazy that we were finally able to see it all in person, and it was definitely an awesome start to our East Coast vacation. But only the beginning! I'm hoping to post more about our East Coast trip this week, so stay tuned!

April Showers, Bring May Flowers

It's May! The grass is now green, the leaves are starting to appear back on the trees, my hostas and flowers are starting to come back (woohoo!), and overall it's looking very springy outside. The view out the window is looking a lot more pleasant...

Which is nice, considering this past week has been cold and rainy. And muddy. But that brownish stuff coming up in the lawn are the peonies! Love when they pop up every spring. Time will tell if my hydrangeas will come back up. I don't have a picture, but right now they're looking kind of dead. I think the bitterly cold winter may have did them in. I'm still crossing my fingers though.

We've been busy once again, getting ready for our Texas vacation. We leave May 10th - next Saturday! Getting super excited! Trent has been out mowing and tilling yards. And I have been working on Haley's wedding invitations..and oh yeah, just plain working.

I wish I could magically snap my fingers and the porch would be all decorated with fresh flowers and pots, but we haven't really had any time to go shopping for flowers yet this year, or for seeds for the garden. So it looks like I won't be starting my summer porch decorating until after May 17 when we get back from our vacation, and we'll have a late garden planting, too.

I'm going to try to plan some posts for when we are on our trip, so that my blog isn't so sparse while we're busy having fun in San Antonio and lounging on the beach in Corpus Christi. Maybe I'll even have time to post while we're down there, or I'll gain some new found inspiration....We shall see. 8 days :)