Today I'm finally sharing a recap of my family beach trip last month! I am always SO sad to leave the Outer Banks, I've been a lot of amazing places but it will always be my favorite place to go! Luckily for me, my dad has been very gung-ho about getting our next trip scheduled, to we're tentatively booked again for next year and I'm already counting down the days. 😍 (I literally am, I have a countdown app that I load all of my exciting events to. 😂)
🌴 SATURDAY
We headed to the beach on Saturday! Kenny and I drove together, and my brother rode down with my parents. We left around 8:00am and got there around 2:30 which felt early because it can take a lot longer than that depending on traffic.
We stopped at the border station on the way and it was a lot nicer than last year, they had no electricity and some sort of flooding going on. They've actually made some updates there since last year, too!
Kenny and I got to the house a little ahead of my parents and my brother, so we got unpacked and waited for them. Once they got there and got their stuff unloaded, we all headed down to walk on the beach except for Kenny, who stayed back to rest after driving down.
At some point in the evening, I whipped up a batch of the juice mix I use to make my favorite beach cocktail - the Sea Breeze!
After the beach, my dad and Kenny and I went to the grocery store to stock up on everything we'd need for the next few days. We joked that we'd probably have to come back every day for something else, and that's pretty much what ended up happening. 😂 We also stopped at Austin Fish Company to get some fresh shrimp because my mom wanted to do a shrimp boil for dinner the next night. They mainly sell seafood but they also had fresh pies for sale, including Key lime which is one of my FAVORITES!
Despite getting groceries, we didn't plan for dinner the first night so we ended up getting a couple of pizzas from Nags Head Pizza Company. Kenny and I just had cheese, and it was pretty good but not my favorite! I'm picky about pizza because we have a few AMAZING places at home that I always compare other pizza to. 😂
After dinner we just hung around and then after dark we went on a night beach walk. I always love walking the beach at night, and there were a few different groups of people out there with bonfires - I've never seen anyone doing that in Nags Head before but I wanted to join them so much!! We also saw a fire juggler performing on the beach all along (?!) which was super random but cool.
The pier near our house has a restaurant with live music every night and a cover band was playing some really fun songs! We stood under the pier for a while to dance around and enjoy the music.
☀️ SUNDAY
For our first full day, we had a beach day! The weather forecast was looking iffy later in the week, so we made sure to get the most out of the beach whenever we could! My brother definitely did - he went down to the beach at sunrise to fish and caught a skate! He said it was kinda scary because he didn't know if it could sting or not so he was very careful releasing it. 😂
Kenny brought his bocce ball set which he got for the beach last year. and my dad and I played against Kenny and my brother - they always beat us but luckily my dad and I are good sports. 😂
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| My dress |
After the beach we all came back to the house and showered and my dad and brother made another grocery store run, as expected. My mom and I sat on the deck and enjoyed some slushy prosecco, because I had stuck it in the freezer to try to get it cold and forgot about it and it froze... causing it to EXPLODE when I popped thee cork so we lost about half of it. 😂
My mom made a shrimp boil for dinner and I actually have some breaking news... I haven't eaten any type of meat in almost six years and Kenny's not far behind me, but he decided to eat some shrimp so I joined him by eating one and a half shrimp. 😂 It was fine but honestly the corn in the shrimp boil was the best part!
The house we stay in is close to Nags Head Fishing Pier which has a bar and restaurant called Fish Heads - my parents and Kenny and I walked there after dinner for some drinks!
The bartender gave me a random drink because he only had a little bit of mixer left before his shift was ending and didn't want to throw it away, and I don't know what it was but it was good. 😂 It tasted like coconut and pineapple!
The pier has a live cam, and since my brother didn't come down with us I told him to catch us on the livestream and sent him screenshots of us. 😂
The pier has live music every night which is so much fun - this night it was a band called MVP and they were SO much fun - the bass player played a 6 string bass and he was so talented and fascinating to watch - my dad plays bass so he was especially interested. We went over to talk to him after their set was over and he was such a nice guy, he even gave my dad his business card!
After the music was over, we walked down the pier. I always love to see what the fishermen are catching, but we didn't see anything!
🎣 MONDAY
On Monday I got up BRIGHT and early to go down to the beach and do some sunrise fishing with my dad and brother. I wasn't fishing, I was just there for the sunrise. 😍 They didn't catch anything, but we had fun! I LOVE this picture I got of them.
After the sunrise we went back up to the house and I slept a little more, and then we had a solid beach day!
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| I brought my disposable camera - photos to come! |
We wanted to go out for dinner that night so we tried Tortuga's Lie first which is Kenny's and my favorite, but they had over a two hour wait so we defaulted to Goombays which is another classic spot. I got the rasta pasta which is my go-to, and Kenny got a seafood sampler since we were being CRAZY and eating a little seafood on the trip. 😂 My pasta was vegetarian, but I tried my mom's tuna steak which was PHENOMENAL and I wished I had gotten that since I had been CRAZY the night before and eaten shrimp!
After dinner we walked around the Kitty Hawk Kites store - it's right across from Jockey's Ridge but we never ended up going there during this trip, which is a bummer because it's one of my favorite things to do in the Outer Banks!
On the way home, Kenny and my brother wanted ice cream so we drove by a bunch of different places but they were all PACKED, so we settled for a trip to Food Lion for some grocery store ice cream. 😂
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| Top | Shorts | Hat |
👙 TUESDAY
On Tuesday it was supposed to rain so we didn't plan a beach day, but Kenny and my parents and I went down to the beach in the morning to walk. We ended up staying down there for a good while, and my brother met us down there to fish. On our walk, Kenny and I saw this cool Nags Head 2023 piece that a man was just finishing up, so we had to get a picture of it!
In the afternoon we rode down to Oregon Inlet to see the boats come in, which is one of our favorite things to do! Around 3:00, all of the fishing charters come in and they toss their catches up onto the deck and it's always fun to see what everyone gets. People will buy fish right off the dock, and one time we saw a lady ask for a sample of tuna - the fisherman sliced it right off the fish and she ate it! We were guessing she was buying fish for sushi or tartare.
I wanted a picture with the boats - we were taking a photo with the boat next to this one when the guy in the background was like "Why not the Little Shell? Deadliest Catch??" Apparently his boat had been in a season of Deadliest Catch and a lot of people are excited to see it! We took photos after he said that but told him he had to pose too. 😂
Lots of the fishermen at Oregon Inlet had gotten tilefish, which I don't think I had ever heard of, but they said it was a really tasty fish so we ended up buying some at Austin Fish Company that evening to make fish tacos with. I also got my Key lime pie this time. 😎
While we were out and about, we also stopped by TW's Bait and Tackle so my dad could stock up on some more fishing supplies. We also went to the hardware store so he could get something to fix the spout on the outdoor shower at our house - always fixing something. 😂
My mom made tilefish tacos for dinner - I tasted some and it was good! I made Kenny and myself some vegetarian sausage quesadillas which were SO good, we got vegan chroizo and I spiced it up with some extra seasonings and even my dad and brother said it was good!
After dinner, Kenny and my brother and my dad and I played several rounds of rummy, which is our go-to card game. Kenny or my dad usually win when we play, but I think my brother won this time! I don't always get very lucky with my cards, but I'm a good sport. 😂
🌊 WEDNESDAY
Wednesday was calling for rain again, and we weren't sure what we wanted to do! A few weeks prior I had planned a sunset sail for that evening because it was the first day of summer (my favorite day of the year!) and I thought it would be a fun day to celebrate, but I had called the day before and moved it to Thursday because the weather looked was calling for rain again. It was gloomy for a good chunk of the day but didn't rain too terribly much, which was nice!
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| Baby ducks in Duck! |
We ended up driving up to Duck to walk around and go into some of the shops because my mom had gotten an ad for Finest Flotsam and wanted to check it out. We walked around a bunch of adorable shops and it was so much fun! I hadn't spent any time in Duck in over 10 years, and we'll definitely be back. On the way home we got stuck in some gnarly traffic and I don't even know what caused it - we concluded that it was all of the pedestrians walking across the main road between shops which sounds crazy but it backed us up for over 30 minutes!
When we got back from Duck the weather started clearing up, so my mom and I took some wine down to the beach and went on a walk - it was SO much fun, that's my absolute dream activity! Like seriously, I wish I could do that every day. 😭 I love my mom so much! And summer, and the beach! And wine...
The water was a lot choppier Tuesday and Wednesday - they had the no swimming flags up!
After our beach walk, my mom and I came back to the house and everyone got ready for dinner. Kenny wore my favorite floral shirt of his that one of our best friend's (Hawaiian) dad brought back for him from Hawaii!
Wednesday evening my brother's girlfriend was meeting us, and I was kind of bummed that I had postponed the sunset sail because the weather ended up being super beautiful - we even got a pretty rainbow! I called the sail company back to see if I could switch our tickets back to that evening but they had gotten booked up since then. That disappointed me, but we still had tons of fun that night!
We went to dinner at Tortuga's Lie and Kenny and I went early to put our names in because we were expecting a long wait again.
There's a beautiful beach access across from the restaurant, so we walked around there while we waited for our table and it was so nice!
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| My dress is from Holly Shae Designs - seriously my dream summer dress! Similar sandals | Similar bag |
My family came to meet us and we had a photo shoot, which doesn't happen often. 😎
I love the black bean burger at Tortuga's Lie so that's what I ordered - their fries are SO good and I also highly recommend the white garlic pizza. Kenny got the grilled fish and black bean burrito which he really liked!
After dinner we wanted to go mini golfing, but my brother wanted to take out his contacts first and my eyes started hurting really badly (waterline eyeliner malfunction) and I faded pretty fast once we stopped back at the house, so we ended up just playing a couple of short rounds of rummy and going to bed. 😂 When Kenny and I first went to the Outer Banks together in 2020 we ended each night watching Family Feud on TV which is not a show we ever watched before, but now we watch it after dinner at least once a week, and we especially like watching it in bed at the beach since that's where we started watching it!
🌴 THURSDAY
On Thursday it was rainy... ahem, AGAIN... Kenny and my brother and his girlfriend and I sat down on the beach in the morning for probably about 30 minutes or so before it started raining and we had to rush back to the house, but it was still worth it! My parents had showed up for MAYBE 10 minutes of that time before we got run off by the rain, so at least we got more time than they did. 😂
After that, my parents headed out to ride down to some landmarks. They went to the Currituck lighthouse, and also happened upon the Black Pearl which is a house that used to be available to rent but has gotten overtaken by the ocean and is super creepy now!!
Kenny and I went to Mom's Sweet Shop which is one of my favorite spots to visit at the beach - one side serves smoothies, açaí bowls, and milkshakes, and the other side is a cool store that sells all kinds of stuff from clothes to skate gear to beauty products. They were PACKED which I wasn't expecting, but I love seeing them get lots of business!
After Mom's, Kenny and I headed to the Nags Head outlets - my parents had gone there too so we met up with them. We went through Outer Banks Olive Oil Co. which I wouldn't have normally gone into, but my mom said it was cute and OMG it was SO cool in there - they have so much more than olive oil! They have tons of cute decor and gifts, along with TONS of wine and beer and some cool chocolate and cheese and other foods.
I had rescheduled our sunset sail for Thursday, so after the outlets we all went home and got ready and fixed up some snacky dinner food because the sunset sail is BYOB (and food!) Kenny and I have done the same sunset sail through Downeast Rover two other times before and I HIGHLY recommend it - it's such a fun experience and Kim the captain is such a cool guy to talk to. They also have afternoon sails and private charters.
I was SO nervous we weren't going to have a good sunset sail because it was raining off and on all day up until 5:30 when we left - I was kicking myself because the day before when I had originally scheduled it it got nice a lot earlier in the afternoon so we would've been fine to go as scheduled!
The sail leaves from Manteo which isn't very far from Nags Head, but traffic was kind of crazy getting down there which we later found out was because of a music festival happening on Roanoke Island that night (how fun??) Kenny dropped me off at the dock where the boat leaves from and everyone else went to park - which ended up being kind of a nightmare because everything was packed because of the music festival! They had to park kind of far away but met up with me just in time for the sail to depart.
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| My mom made a giant sandwich for us to eat on the boat. 😂 |
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| My dad got to help the first mate adjust the sails! |
MIRACULOUSLY the clouds dissipated and we got the most beautiful evening for a sunset sail - I felt so so lucky, the captain and the first mate said they hadn't really had a good sunset in a couple of weeks, so that made me even more grateful and I was glad that I had rescheduled it after all. We even got to see some dolphins which is always a treat!
After the sail, we went to look for our beloved Shamus, a neighborhood cat in Manteo who we've seen for the last four years. We found him right around the area that we usually do and it was so good to see him! He even jumped right up into my brother and his girlfriend's laps when they sat down on a giant Adirondack chair. 😍
Once we got home, we played Apples to Apples which is a family favorite game. We also put Pirates of the Caribbean on in the background, which is the ultimate beach movie in my opinion!
☀️ FRIDAY
Friday was our last full day - sadly! We went down to the beach again for two seconds before getting run off again by stormy weather. After that, we went to the cutest souvenir shop that we'd been meaning to visit - Shipwreck! It's SUCH a cool place and it's been in business for upwards of 60 years - they sell all kinds of seashells which is the coolest part, but they have endless other fun gifts and souvenirs!
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| My favorite fishing shirts (mens, womens - I have both!) |
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| Kenny's cup | My cup |
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| The BEST beach chairs |
Once we got back, the SUN WAS COMING OUT so we rushed back down to the beach! We ended up getting the most glorious beach day, which I was SO grateful for because we hadn't gotten to spend much time on the beach since Monday. It was pure bliss and I enjoyed every last second of it.
Side note, this is the book I read while we were at the beach! I know Elin Hilderbrand is a super popular beach read author, but this is the first book of hers I've read! I really enjoyed it and plan to read more of her books, but I have to say I hated the way it ended!! Definitely still worth the read, though!
After leaving the beach (tears!) I made vodka pasta for dinner, which has become a two-years-running beach tradition and it was SO yummy.
After dinner we weren't ready to wind down, so we headed back to Fish Heads to see what was going on. It was raining again (surprise surprise 😂) but my brother's girlfriend had brought some sparklers so we did those on the way anyway!
There weren't many people at the bar since it was yucky out, but we still got some drinks and had a good time - we played hangman. 😂 There was a cover artist playing music and he had a guitar and a steel drum. He played some... questionable things, including the Weird Al song "Amish Paradise." 😂 My brother asked him to play "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid since he had a steel drum and he said "Again??" so he must have played it earlier in the night before we got there - but he obliged nonetheless!
When we got home we apparently STILL weren't ready to wind down, so we sang some karaoke which is a first for our family. 😂 My brother and his girlfriend brought down this huge Bluetooth speaker that has a mic, so we had great fun with that throughout the week but especially that night. I sang "Dirty Little Secret" by the All American Rejects which is the ideal karaoke song in my opinion.
🐬 SATURDAY
Saturday was our go-home day, but Kenny and my brother and his girlfriend and I headed down to the beach to watch the sunrise one last time before leaving! It's always so bittersweet to leave, I could live in the Outer Banks and never get sick of it, so a week is never enough!
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| Sweatshirt | Sweatshorts | Sneakers |
After our sunrise, we manically packed and headed out! Kenny and I made
one last stop at the beach at the access across from Tortuga's Lie and
it was SO SAD - I swear nothing breaks my heart more than having to
leave the beach, but knowing we get to come home to Roxy girl makes it
not hurt so much. 😍
xoxx, Laura
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