Hello hello! Today I'm recapping Kenny's and my trip to Nags Head that we took last week for our anniversary and his birthday! All of my posts last week were pre-scheduled, but I'm back "live" today! Sorry I've been a little MIA - I've been working on this post, and it's a long one!
Kenny and I have never been to the Outer Banks together, so we thought an anniversary trip would be the perfect time to go, especially during coronavirus when we wanted to be able to take a trip while still remaining relatively distanced from other people (read: not fly).
October is the beginning of the off-season in the Outer Banks, which makes it less expensive to visit and also less crowded (although there were still plenty of people there!) Many people swear by the Outer Banks in the fall, and I can see why! The temperatures averaged in the high 60's while we were there, but the water at the beach was still plenty warm to wade, or even swim if you're not perpetually cold like I am.
One thing I will mention about visiting the Outer Banks on the off-season is that most businesses abbreviate their hours. If there's somewhere you're planning on going, I'd recommend giving them a call ahead of time to make sure they'll be open the day or time you want to go. We got burned a couple of times by checking the websites of businesses for their hours and they hadn't been updated for the off-season yet! All of the restaurants we saw closed at 8:00 or 9:00, so keep that in mind if you typically eat dinner later like we do.
TL;DR: I'll be describing everything we did day by day below, but if you're just here for recommendations, here's where we stayed, the restaurants we went to, and things we did!
Where We Stayed
Holiday Inn Express Nags Head Oceanfront: Kenny is great at picking out places to stay when we travel, and he ended up going with the Nags Head Holiday Inn Express for our trip. He looked at some small houses, but none of them were directly oceanfront (which was his main, if not only, must-have for where we stayed), and frankly, we didn't need a house for just the two of us. This hotel was the perfect option, even during coronavirus.
The room was a good size and had a mini fridge/freezer, a Keurig, a microwave, and plenty of cabinet space. We stayed in a king room with an oceanfront balcony that was SO nice, I loved watching the sunrise out there or just chilling with Kenny.
If you're wondering what precautions hotels in that area are taking, these were a few of the key ones we observed:
- No in-room housekeeping: Housekeeping didn't enter our room at all while we were there, which really wasn't a problem (although I would have liked to have our bed made!) If you needed new towels or any toiletries, you just had to call to request them and housekeeping would deliver them in a basket outside of your door. Dirty towels and trash could be left outside your door, and housekeeping would grab them on the way through in the morning.
- Grab-and-go breakfast: Since this hotel usually offers a hot breakfast, they had to modify their breakfast offerings so that it was safe for guests to come get their food. Everything was packaged up to be grab and go, and they had everything you normally see in a hotel breakfast (pastries, oatmeal, breakfast sandwiches, eggs, yogurt, cereal, fruit...) Only one member of your room was allowed in on any given day (although I think we both could've gone separately if we wanted to). I never encountered more than one other guest while I was in there, so it wasn't packed by any means.
- Limited number of guests in elevators: Only one "party," or four people from separate parties were allowed in the elevator at a time, and we never had to wait our turn. A couple different times we rode with a housekeeper, but for the most part we had the elevators to ourselves.
- Masks required: Because, duh. They also had clear vinyl dividers at the front desk to separate the guests and receptionists.
Overall I definitely recommend this hotel if you're traveling as a couple, or with a small group of friends! There were plenty of families there too, but I can't imagine sharing a hotel room with children, especially without housekeeping coming to vacuum up sand... LORD!
Where We Ate
Places we didn't make it to, but also love:
- Black Pelican: Long story short, one time my family's car broke down at the beach and we ended up eating here during our vacation extension. They have great food and they hold a special place in my heart!
- John's Drive In: My parents love this place, it's a little walk-up shack with great fried seafood subs, burgers, and milkshakes.
- Sugar Creek: Beautiful waterfront restaurant on the sound! I had my first kiss here in the gazebo outside, hahaha.
- Steamer's: A friend of a friend owns this place, and it's a great place to go if you're with a group. They have a regular dine-in menu, but they also have large seafood steamer pots to feed a crowd, which are fun to get and take back if you're staying at a house with a bunch of people.
- Awful Arthur's: This is a quintessential Outer Banks restaurant to me! It was the first oyster bar to open on the Outer Banks, and they serve pretty much any seafood you could want.
- Kill Devil's: The most amazing frozen custard! The featured flavor changes daily, they also have a concession stand with burgers, fries, etc.
- Booty Treats: Ice cream!
- Duck Donuts: I know they have locations all over the place now now, but Duck Donuts just taste better in the Outer Banks! I'm not a donut fan (sorry, Krispy Kreme), but these are irresistible.
- Surfin' Spoon: We've never actually been here, but we kept passing it and it looks so cute! They serve ice cream and cookie ice cream sandwiches made in an allergy-friendly kitchen.
What We Did
- Shopped: The Outer Banks has an outlet mall, as well as tons of cool surf shops and cute boutiques. I love Whalebone, 17th Street, WRV, Gray's, The Cotton Gin, and The Farmer's Daughter.
- Walked the beach
- Sunset cruise
- Jennette's Pier
- Jockey's Ridge
- Mini golf: Our favorite is Professor Hacker's!
- Bodie Island lighthouse
- Visit lighthouses: There are five lighthouses on the Outer Banks, pick your poison! Bodie Island and Cape Hatteras are my favorites.
- Photo shoot with Katie Ludolph Photgraphy
Things we didn't get to do, but recommend:
- Oregon Inlet: Watching the fishing boats come in at Oregon Inlet is such a cool experience! Every afternoon around 3:00, the boats come in and toss their catches up on the deck and you can see what they got. Boats have certain flags that they fly to indicate if they caught anything particularly special (like a marlin!) We've seen restaurant owners come around and buy fish right off the deck to serve that day!
- Day trip to Manteo: Manto is the most adorable storybook town. We spent a brief amount of time there during our trip, but it'd be a great place to spend a day, or stay.
- Outdoor activities: There's tons to do outdoors at the Outer Banks, whether you love hiking, kayaking, or fishing, they have it all! There are plenty of tackle shops along the main road and you can purchase a NC state fishing license for around $10 even if you're just a casual fisherman. There are also tons of rentals for water sports equipment, or you can charter a boat for fishing or just for play.
Now onto the details of our trip! We traveled from Saturday to Thursday (Kenny had another trip the Friday) and I have to say, driving back home on Thursday was SO much nicer than a "typical" check out day when you have to fight traffic.
Saturday
Saturday was our travel day. We got a bit of a late start, but we were making pretty good time until we hit the Hampton Roads area where we hit some major traffic! We ended up getting to our hotel around 6:00, took our stuff to our room, changed, caught the tail end of an amazing sunset, and headed to dinner.
We went to a place called TRiO for dinner that I'd never been to, and really loved it! It's a market slash restaurant slash wine bar, and I loved the vibes there.
I mentioned this above but in case you missed it and you're wondering where all the seafood is: Kenny and I are vegetarians so all of the places I'm going to mention us eating are vegetarian-friendly!
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For
dinner, I got the flatbread of the week which had red onion, blue
cheese, toasted hazelnuts, and honey which didn't look like much, but was SO flavorful. Kenny got the caprese panini
which he loved. I also got a glass of prosecco that was super good.
After dinner we needed ~something sweet~ so we swung through the Dairy Queen drive thru for a blizzard and headed back to the hotel to go to bed.
Sunday
The weather forecast for Sunday was abysmal (rainy and gross all day), so we planned on having a slow day and doing some shopping. We started the morning with brunch at The SaltBox Cafe. This place is a little off the beaten path, and made us feel like we were eating with the locals!
I got a garden frittata with vegetarian sausage and Kenny got pumpkin pancakes (!!) also with veggie sausage, and we also split an order of tater tots. It was so much food!
After brunch, we headed out to do some shopping. There are so many good surf shops and boutiques to browse (some of my favorites are Whalebone, 17th Street, WRV, Gray's, The Cotton Gin, and The Farmer's Daughter), as well as an outlet mall. We didn't do too much damage, I just got an Outer Banks sweatshirt at Gray's, which I ended up wearing all week so it was a good investment, ha. We also went to The Fresh Market which I've never been to, but was SO cute for fall! I have a thing for grocery stores, I love browsing them.
After shopping, we went back to the hotel for a little while to chill and decide where to go for dinner. We decided on Chilli Peppers because they have a lot of vegetarian options, AND because they have a courtyard cat! 😻 We didn't see the cat, but we still had a good dinner! I got the black bean pupusas which I shouldn't have gotten because I know I don't like corn masa. They were good, just not really my taste. I DID get a local white wine blend that was delicious, I don't typically go for white wine but I was in the mood and wasn't disappointed. Kenny got a Tex-Mex beyond burger which looked so good!
After dinner, we headed to bed after a long day of running from the rain.
Monday
Monday was our one-year anniversary! Since it had been stormy the day before, I wanted to do a sunrise walk on the beach because I was hoping to find some good shells and, I thought that the sunrise would be extra beautiful.
We could see Jennette's Pier down the beach from us, so I wanted to walk down to it. We walked and walked and WALKED for what felt like forever, and Kenny was getting pretty sick of it. 😂 BUT the sunset was beautiful, and the sky afterwards was so cool!
We FINALLY made it to the pier... and then had to walk back. When we got back, I checked the distance between our hotel and the pier on the map, and it was almost THREE MILES. And I didn't even find any good shells... Kenny will never let me live it down that I made him walk six miles on our anniversary all before breakfast, hahaha. We've made a tradition of commemorating our trips together with fridge magnets, so I had to pick one with a picture of Jennette's Pier on it for this trip. 😂
After our trek I SURELY owed Kenny breakfast, especially since we had missed breakfast at the hotel, so we headed to Dunkin' Donuts because he loves their Beyond sausage breakfast sandwiches. After breakfast, we stopped by the ABC store and the grocery store to stock up on some LIBATIONS for the beach. We got all of the fixins' for sea breeze cocktails (Laura) and Shirley Temples (Kenny), which is all we drank on our honeymoon, so we wanted to pay homage to that trip!
While we were out we drove around a bit, and along the way we found the house that my best friends and I had stayed in for beach week after we graduated high school! We also stopped by the greatest beach store of all time, WINGS (hah), to get Kenny some sunglasses because he's a serial sunglasses loser.
We came back to the hotel, fixed some drinks, and headed down to the beach for a couple of hours. I've been reading The Guest List and it's really good so far! Actually, as I was reading it on the beach one day, a woman walked by and yelled "Great book! Big twist!!" Ha!
For our anniversary, I had a booked a sunset cruise with Downeast Rover, so we headed back to the hotel to get ready for it. It's based out of Manteo which I had never spent much time in, but is truly the cutest little storybook town. I wish that we'd gotten there earlier to explore!
The sunset cruise was beautiful, and the first mate was super talkative and gave us some cool information and fun facts about the area. He had served as a park ranger all over the US and had a lot of cool stories in general.
The cruise was BYOB... clearly. 😂 You could bring any food or drink you wanted!
Kenny looking awesome on the boat, followed by me looking way less awesome. 😂
The funniest part was that even though there were only like ten people on the cruise, there was another couple there whose first anniversary it was too! AND it was the husband's birthday the upcoming Wednesday, which is the first mate's AND Kenny's birthday! They thought we were lying when we said that was Kenny's birthday too. 😂 What a funny coincidence!
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| Similar ring here and here |
Side note, all week I wore my antique diamond and sapphire ring that my mom gave me for my birthday last year, which was my "something blue" from our wedding!
The cruise was about two hours long, and so pretty and relaxing! When we got done, we had plans for dinner at Avenue Waterfront Grille pretty much right next to where the cruise left from, so we put our names in at the restaurant and then walked around for a bit.
We met a cat! His name was Shamus and we loved him. There was a shop worker walking in and out and he was like "I see you met Shamus, take him with you!" And let me tell you, we wish we could have!
By the time we got called for dinner, I realized I had been a little over-served (BY MYSELF) on the cruise, so we ended up taking dinner to go and eating it back at the hotel. I'm still kicking myself that I couldn't hang! The restaurant was really cute, we'll definitely go back next time we're in the Outer Banks. It's waterfront, so it'd be ideal for a sunset dinner (it was dark by the time we got seated).
Tuesday
Tuesday was our favorite day! We got ready and went to Jennette's Pier (we DROVE there this time) to walk around which is always fun.
I like seeing the fish in their aquarium, and watching people ACTUALLY fish. They post some crazy sea life that they see there on their Facebook page! We saw a bunch of purplish jellyfish that I'd never seen before, and I've seen rays there before too.
Kenny lookin ca-UUUUUTE at the pier. 😍
After Jennette's Pier, we drove around a bit and I was craving a smoothie, so we stopped by Mom's Sweet Shop which I had never been to, but spotted on the main road. I'm so glad we stopped in because it was SO cool in there! They serve smoothies, acai bowls, milkshakes, and ice cream. I ended up getting the "bae bowl" and Kenny got the chocolate peanut butter milkshake.
P.S. YES, that's a disposable camera on the table! I love taking them on trips after my bachelorette weekend last year. I can't wait to get these developed!
Aside from the "sweet shop," part of the shop is a cool store that sells fun merch, skate gear, old-fashioned candy, and vintage items. They had a really unique light fixture made from an upside down canoe and a bunch of miscellaneous Edison bulbs that was SO cool, photos don't make it look half as interesting as it was in real life.
After our midday snack, we went back to the hotel and headed down to the beach for a while. It was definitely chilly for me. 😂 I've never been to the beach in all real clothes before, but there was no way I was changing into my swimsuit just to read and bundle up in a towel!
Photographic evidence of me living my ABSOLUTE best life.
While our sunrise shell walk was a dud as far as actual shells were concerned, I did find a few goodies this next day. The most exciting of which (to me) being a good piece of fulgurite, which is a "rock" that forms when lightning strikes the sand and fuses it together. So cool!
After the beach, we went back up to the hotel to get ready for the evening, and I remembered we had to eat our wedding cake for our anniversary! My parents had packaged up the top of our cake so nicely after the wedding and stored it in their freezer, so they sent it with us when we left for the beach!
It was dry and not very good, as to be expected after sitting fully iced in the freezer for a year, but it was also kind of dry when it was fresh too, so no disappointment there. Still a fun tradition. 😍 Even though we didn't get a chance to eat it on our official anniversary, it was still on our anniversary trip so it counts! Plus, we didn't eat our actual wedding cake until we had left for our honeymoon and then ended up throwing most of it away in a gas station trash can, so it suited the original wedding cake eating experience. 😂
We planned to head to Jockey's Ridge for sunset that evening; I always love going there and Kenny had never been so I was excited to take him for the first time! If you've never been, it's a giant living dune that's been made into a state park to avoid development, and it's the best place to watch the sunset in the Outer Banks.
Kenny freaking loved it! It feels like a desert when you're there, and you have to climb over several large dunes to get to the sound side of the island. People like to fly kites there, and it's a great place for families.
The sunset over the sound was amazing and romantic - as usual, photos do not do it justice!
After the sunset, we headed to Professor Hacker's mini golf course. To me, it isn't a beach trip without a round of mini golf! Kenny and I are both more competitive than we let on, and AMAZINGLY, we tied. 😂
After golf, we went to Tortuga's Lie for dinner. Tortuga's Lie is one of the quintessential Outer Banks restaurants in my opinion, and Guy Fieri has been there for Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives! We were starving so we got a white garlic pizza for an appetizer, which was SO good. I would've eaten it for my meal!
For dinner, I ordered a hummus wrap and Kenny got a burrito, and we loved both. After dinner we headed home and watched Family Feud on TV til we fell asleep. 😂
Wednesday
For some reason on this trip, I could NOT sleep in! I woke up at 6:30 on Wednesday so I stayed up and watched the sunrise from our balcony, then laid in bed until Kenny woke up (it was his birthday!!) We got ready and went to the beach for most of the day!
LOOK AT THAT BIRTHDAY BOY! He has a SOLID collection of floral shirts that he got good use out of over the course of the week. 💯
I had scheduled a sunset photo shoot for our anniversary with Katie Ludolph Photography that evening (I can't wait to get the photos back and share them!), so we got ready and went on a little drive through Manteo and Roanoke Island before heading back up to Bodie Island lighthouse to meet Katie, the photographer.
The photo shoot got a little CRAZY (we got into the ocean in our clothes!) so before dinner, we headed back to the hotel to get changed. Kenny's a pizza fiend, so that's what he wanted for his birthday dinner!
We got a little screwed by seasonal hours on Wednesday; we had been wanting to visit Kill Devil's all week and had designated Wednesday to be the day to go, but they ended up being closed! Then when we were ready for dinner, the first pizza place we wanted to go was randomly only open for takeout that particular night, and the second place we tried said they were open on their website, but had switched to seasonal hours and were closed that day. Luckily the third place was the charm, and we ended up at New York Pizza Pub. The hostess there was pretty RUDE I've gotta be honest, but once we got seated our waiter was great and the pizza (plain cheese for the birthday boy!) was SO good, some of my favorite I've ever had.
Thursday
Thursday was the day we had to go home, I always get SO sad leaving trips, especially the beach!
We got all packed up and walked the beach one more time, then hit the road back to Virginia!
Before we left though, I HAD to get a picture with some of the beautiful pampas grass. It was EVERYWHERE, I wanted to take it all home with me!
The trip home went smoother than the trip down as far as traffic goes, but there was a wreck about 30 minutes from home and Kenny went rogue and tried to blaze his own trail home. 😂 It probably took us an extra 45 minutes to get back, but it was fun. We were so excited to get back and see ROXY! We've never both left her before, and we missed her so much!
That's it for our anniversary trip recap! Do you have any beach trips in the works? If so, take me with you!
xoxx, Laura
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