OBX

Ahhh, the beach. We just returned from vacation to the Outer Banks, NC (specifically Southern Shores area) where we spent a week with my parents, my sister and my brother and his wife and my 2 nieces.

I love the beach and pretty much any beach will do, but there is some appeal of the North Carolina shore that has topped my other beach experiences and I still think nothing beats the smell of the Carolina coast. Maybe part of it is familiarity and nostalgia- we’ve been vacationing on the Outer Banks since I was 2 years old, which is 1978/79 people-- before it was OBX, before it was a major destination and when the road north stopped just past Bob’s Bait and Tackle in Duck, there was one shopping strip and one grocery store. Even with the years of development, the allure is still there.

With my parents’ move to Florida and their since move back to Ohio, this is our first OBX vacation in 6 years. Obviously our vacation time has been spent on the Florida shores, so this was Meredith’s first venture to ‘our’ beach- and I would have to say, she loved it!

We had gorgeous weather- sunny every day but our last one- a wonderful beach house and essentially spent most of the days on the beach.

We built sand castles, with my brother taking the lead,

flied kites,

fished ,

swam in the ocean ,

Hit the hot tub (don’t worry, we cooled it off for the kids- the house we stayed at did have a pool, but not heated, so it was chilly)

And had a little craft time provided by yours truly
(mermaid crowns)

(the foamanator)
We did venture out a little bit and Frank and I took Meredith up to the Currituck Lighthouse, mostly because she was getting so tired from playing so hard all day at the beach and with her cousins that we were going for a little nap in the car time on the drive up. (You can see from the picture, the nap worked)

And did a little shopping- being the end of the season Meredith’s swim suits were getting a little small so we purchased some new ones. Oh, to have the confidence that she had while strutting her stuff in this bikini!

We also all went to see the fish come in at Oregon Inlet to see what people were catching that day- lots of tuna. Amazingly, one of the guys from one of the boats called us over to see this-

Yes, a manatee! A little far north I would say but according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manatee) they usually don’t go much north of Georgia, but can stray to the northern Atlantic coast in summer. Time to start heading south there buddy!

Overall it was a good, relaxing vacation! I think I finally have the sand out of Meredith’s hair, fingernails and other crevices in preparation for next time!