Outer Banks Trip Recap 2022

 


HELLO! Today I'm recapping everything we did during my family beach trip to the Outer Banks a couple of weeks ago! This is going to be a long one, so below I'm including a short list of my top recommendations for restaurants and attractions at the top if that's all you're here for. Also linking my two previous OBX travel guides below!


Favorite Attractions

Favorite Restaurants

Favorite Shopping

I don't think I've ever been so sad to leave a trip as I was leaving this one! The Outer Banks is my absolute favorite place to visit - it has the perfect pace with plenty to do, and it's also the ideal place to to absolutely nothing. This was the first trip I've taken there with my parents and brother since 2012, and we definitely aren't going to wait another 10 years before going back together again!

Saturday 

Saturday was check-in day! My parents and my brother Stuart all had things going on that day, so Kenny and I headed down on our own and got to have the house to ourselves for the evening, which was nice. We got a bit of a late start and arrived at our house right at check-in time, 4:00.


The house we stayed in was called Carolina Sol and we booked it through Village Realty. It was perfect for us - it's right across the street from the beachfront houses and a very short walk to the nearest beach access. The upstairs is newly remodeled and quite nice. It has a bedroom with a king bed and an en suite, a full bath (although it only contains a jacuzzi, no shower), the main living and dining areas, the kitchen, and a smaller back sitting area with a wet bar.  


Kenny, my brother Stuart, and I slept, on the main floor which has three bedrooms, two full baths, the laundry area, and a smaller living area. No one slept in the third bedroom, and it was nice to have that extra space to keep our suitcases in and spread out a little. There are two full bathrooms on the main level, one of which is an en suite and pretty small, and the other is off of the main hall and a little larger. I feel like if the house was at capacity then the main level would start to feel pretty cramped, but it would be fine if you were traveling with a bunch of kids.


The house has two decks out front as well as one out back that has such a nice unobstructed view of nature!

 


We also had a keg grill in the backyard, which I got a real kick out of. 😂

 


 

 


After Kenny and I checked in Saturday afternoon, we got some groceries and headed back to the house to change clothes. We hung out on the upper deck for a while and had some drinks - I had gotten a bottle of prosecco and that first glass at the beach was pure heaven!




After a while, we headed down to the beach. Our house was a very short walk to the Outer Banks fishing pier, so we took several trips there throughout the week.



When we got back from the beach, we sat out on our back deck and caught the end of the sunset. It was so lovely!


For dinner, we headed to Tortuga's Lie - it's one of Kenny's and my top favorite dinner spots (AND it has appeared on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives - Guy Fieri even signed the wall)!


We ordered the white garlic pizza as an appetizer and I also got the naked turtle punch. For dinner, I got the black bean burger and Kenny got the bean and rice burrito. The fries there are amazing and they also have their own hot sauce that is SO good.

Sunday 

On Sunday morning, Kenny and I headed right to the beach! He had bought a bocce ball set to bring on the trip, and I had never played so he taught me how to play and score it. After about an hour down at the beach, it started to storm so we headed back up to the house.



Kenny had brought a wagon for the beach that was a point of contention. 😂 He thought it would be the perfect thing to use to bring our stuff back and forth from the house to the beach which it was, but it was hard to get up and over the stairs at the beach access. We used it a couple of times but overall it was a bigger hassle than it was worth in my opinion.


By the afternoon it was nice again, so we went back down to the beach for a walk. Our house was two miles south of Jennette's Pier, so to the pier and back was the perfect distance for a nice walk. By the time we got back that afternoon, my family had arrived! We all went down to the beach for a little while, and then we came back to the house because it was still kind of drizzly. When we got back, Kenny, my brother, my dad, and I played bocce in the yard.


 



Once it was time for dinner, we all got changed and went to Goombays. My friends who frequent the Outer Banks love Goombays, but I had never been! My mom and I got some champagne to sip while we waited for a table, and then for dinner I got the rasta pasta which was great. Kenny got the black bean burger and I think that both of my parents got fish tacos.

Monday 

Monday was our first true beach day with everyone! We spent most of the day there walking, sunbathing, reading, and playing more bocce. My brother fished every day, and my dad often joined him. 

That evening, we made another grocery store run and fixed shrimp tacos at the house for dinner (I made some pretty banging quesadillas for Kenny and myself). After dinner my dad, Kenny, and I played rummy together.

Tuesday

On Tuesday the forecast was pretty bleak - it showed storms all day, BUT it ended up being beautiful all day long! We hadn't made any real plans because we didn't want to get caught in the rain, but we actually did a good bit. My parents and my brother drove around to see the Roanoke sound and try and find some good sound fishing spots, and Kenny and I went on a beach walk down to Jennette's pier.


I found a piece of (what I'm pretty sure was) fulgurite on our walk, which is a rock that forms when lightning strikes the sand and fuses it together!



When my family got back, my parents and Kenny and I changed clothes and rode down to Manteo to walk around. My parents had never been and Kenny and I absolutely love it there, so we really enjoyed showing them around. It was HOT AS ACTUAL HELL that day, we were absolutely dying and stopped into more stores than we usually would've just to get a break from the heat. 😂

 


We got to go into the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, which up until a couple of years ago was the only one of the five Outer Banks lighthouses that I hadn't visited.


 

 


There's a kitty named Shamus (the beautiful orange guy) that Kenny and I met a couple of years ago in Manteo, so we always hunt him down when we're there. This year we met a second kitty named Lulu (the brown tabby), and learned that there are actually about ten Manteo kitties running around! Lulu was SO SWEET, and a shop worker told us that they call her the town mayor. She turned 15 (!!) this May and they threw her a Cinco de Meow party! She also told us that they plan on throwing her a sweet sixteen next year complete with a police escort parade! That might be worth a trip down...


Before heading back to the house, we stopped at Frosties which is a soft serve and shave ice spot that Kenny and I went to last year. I LOVE soft serve, Kenny and I split a vanilla with crushed Oreos (this is their smallest size and it's huge!), and my mom got a shaved ice.


 


After a couple hours in Manteo, we headed home and made another grocery store run. I made vodka pasta for dinner and it was phenomenal if I do say so myself. While I cooked, Kenny finished our Outer Banks lighthouse puzzle - a family beach trip tradition!


 


After dinner we all went down to the beach for a night walk and some crab watching, ha!



Stuart did a little fishing and we got to see the beautiful moon! The moon was huge a couple of the nights we were there - I think it was a "strawberry moon" one night, whatever that means.


Wednesday 

Wednesday was quite the day! We headed down to the beach first thing, and my mom and I brought our chairs down to the water and read our books.



After about an hour, Stuart caught a pretty impressive fish (and the only one we really saw anyone catch all week) - a drum! Kenny got a video of him reeling it in, which was great because my dad wasn't there to see it - he was back up at the house doing something and we were all so sad he missed the excitement! Several people nearby came over to see what Stuart had caught, and he let some little girls touch the fish haha. He released it back into the water and off it swam!

Once my dad got down to the beach, we played some more bocce. My dad and I played against Kenny and Stuart all week and I'm pretty sure we lost every round (never by more than a few points!) but we still had fun - we'll get them back one of these days!


My mom had brought our kites down (Kitty Hawk Kites from the 90's!) and she flew one of those in the afternoon because it was super windy, but honestly I don't remember much during that time because I accidentally got super drunk and kept dozing off. 😂 Eventually Kenny dragged me back up to the house for a shower and a quick nap, and THANKFULLY I snapped out of it because we had tickets to a Kenny Chesney concert that night!

 


The concert was in Virginia Beach which is about an hour and a half north of Nags Head. We had a great time! Kenny Chesney is SUCH an entertainer and his energy was so infectious! I'm so glad we decided to go, I was on the fence about it because I didn't want to have to leave the beach, but we had a great time. I had a bit of a record scratch moment while we were there because I realized that the venue he played at was the same place that my friend Sarah and I had gone to see Warped Tour in 2009. 😂

 


Thursday

Thursday morning was a bit strange - my parents had gotten some bad news the night before and it was kinda drizzly, but we wanted to make the most of it! The pier near our house had a restaurant so we tried walking down there for breakfast, but they happened to be closed til 11:00 that day, so we rode up to Sam and Omie's instead which ended up being a great option. Kenny and I both got an English muffin breakfast sandwich, and we split a short stack of pancakes and some hash browns and a biscuit. Everything was wonderful, even the coffee!






After breakfast it was still a bit rainy, but my parents and Kenny and I hopped in the car and drove to Bodie Island Lighthouse, one of the five Outer Banks lighthouses. You can't climb the lighthouse, but you can go inside, and there are little boardwalks over surrounding marshes that you can walk on.



There's so much wildlife to see, we saw a nutria (the beaver-looking guy pictured above!), a water snake, some crabs, and a bunch of different birds. Kenny and I saw a rattlesnake there a couple of years ago!



After the lighthouse, we went on a little drive and stopped at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. The beach there is really pretty and they have a cute little visitors center with a lot of information and an area to bird watch.


My family had made plans to head to Oregon Inlet to see the fishing boats come in that afternoon, so after we got back from our lighthouse excursion Kenny and I had just enough time to take another pier walk. We headed back to Jennette's Pier and actually walked out onto it this time. They have a small aquarium that shows what types of fish might be swimming around the pier, and I always like to see that. We also saw someone catch a pretty big ray or skate, not sure which one.



After our walk, we headed back and got ready to go to Oregon Inlet. We missed most of the boats coming in (I think most of them came in early because there was a chance of storms that afternoon), but we did see a couple of them get back and toss their catches up onto the dock. The main boat we saw got several yellowfin tuna and one wahoo, which Stuart told me is one of the fastest-swimming fish. It's always interesting to me to see what people catch. The boats have certain flags that they'll fly to indicate if they've caught any game fish like marlin.

Once we headed home we were about ready for dinner. My dad suggested pizza which is always a yes, so Kenny and I headed over to Dare Devil's to pick some up. We ate quickly and then all headed out to Jockey's Ridge to catch the sunset!

 
Visiting Jockey's Ridge is one of my absolute must-dos in the Outer Banks - it's such a unique experience to be able to walk all over a "living" dune - the tallest one on the east coast! There wasn't much of a sunset that night (literally one little pink cloud out in the distance that you can see below 😂), but we had fun nonetheless!

 


Kenny brought his football so we tossed that around for a while, and some strangers even got involved. Jockey's Ridge is across from Kitty Hawk Kites so that's where we usually park to go there, and there was a random fire juggler in the parking lot - I think he was just doing his thing on his own, I don't think he was hired to be there... he was killing it, though. 😂

After our dune hike, we went home and all played a few rounds of rummy. I got out on my first hand in the first round, but somehow got beaten out by my dad and Kenny (and maybe Stuart too??) Luckily, I'm not too competitive!

Friday 

Friday was our last day, and I had a pit in my stomach all day long because I was dreading leaving so badly. This was the fastest beach trip of my life! We spent the whole entire day at the beach, my mom and I were the last ones down there and it was so hard to head back up to the house knowing that would be our last day! We walked around a little before heading out, and I found a perfect little piece of green sea glass! I was SO excited, I've been scouring the beach for sea glass for our past three beach trips - back in 2004 on a beach trip I found SO much of it, and this is the first piece I've found since!



After the beach, we got ready and headed to an early dinner at Tortuga's Lie. My family had never been and they really enjoyed it! We sat outside this time. Kenny and I split a black bean burger and a bean and rice burrito, my brother got a burger, my dad got fish tacos, and my mom got a tuna steak. Everything was amazing as usual!



After dinner my parents and brother were going to Brew Thru, so Kenny and I stopped by one of my favorite spots - Mom's Sweet Shop. I picked up an adorable little painting of the beach and it's on my desk at work now!

 


On the way back home, Kenny and I stopped at Surfin Spoon to get cookie ice cream sandwiches for everyone. They are SO delicious! My mom and I split the pistachio and the key lime and we agreed the key lime was our favorite.





Once we got back, we went on one final sunset beach walk, which was so bittersweet! My brother, Kenny, and I walked down to the Outer Banks fishing pier and just listened to the ocean for a while. We also saw someone reel in a big ole ray/skate!

When we got back from the beach, Stuart put on Napoleon Dynamite and we had an impromptu movie night. None of us had watched that movie in years, but it's one of our favorites! There are so many quotable lines.


Saturday

On Saturday, it was time to go home and I was so sad!!! Kenny and I got up to walk the beach at sunrise which was so nice, and it also gave us an early start to get all of our stuff packed.



Leaving the beach is the saddest feeling to me!! I always have to prolong my time there as long as I can.

On our way out, we all stopped at Gray's which is probably my favorite shop in the Outer Banks. We also went to TW's next door. We tried to stop at The Cotton Gin in Jarvisburg on a little further down the road, but one of the owners happened to be there cutting some hydrangeas from the yard and she told is that it burned in October 2019 and they're still working on getting it opened back up! So sad, but I'm glad they're getting it back up and running.

We hit some traffic on the way home (as is expected) and we also stopped at the Norfolk outlets for a little break - Kenny surprised me with a new pair of Air Max 90's, which are my favorite shoes. We made it back home to our Roxy girl around 7:00, and it was so nice to be reunited with her! She makes leaving the beach so much easier. 😍

WHEW, that was a lot, huh? I hope you enjoyed my recap, and if you go to the Outer Banks, what are some of your favorite spots?? I'm always looking for somewhere to go or something new to try down there!

xoxx, Laura

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