On the Banks of OBX
It seems the fun times never stop in the land of America as I was away again last weekend to the East Coast of North Carolina, to the Outer Banks. As is true of touristy towns, peak season is always raging and off season is always dead but, everyone imagines that sweet time in between where there are no crowds and yet all the attractions are open. Unbeknownst to me, I managed to book my holiday for the perfect weekend in between. No crowds; low prices; all the restaurants and stores were open.
It was an 8am start, driving the 4 hours to the Outer Banks via Windsor, NC where Lyndy’s Parent’s house is located. (Lyndy, my lab manager and friend, joined me on this trip to my excitement). On the way we were struck with a massive thunderstorm. There was a torrential downpour for a whole 5 minutes and then the skies cleared again. The weather for the rest of the weekend was phenomenal. When we arrived we checked into the Air BnB, which was amazing and had the perfect hosts, before going out to get some dinner and walk on the Kitty Hawk beach and underneath the pier. I tried Clam Chowder, which was really good and then took a bunch of pictures with my new camera at the beach. We followed this food with ice cream and a visit to a local brewery-restaurant where I tried crab claws and we looked in magazines for other things to do for the weekend. The day ended with us at the Treehouse hanging with the hosts of the Airbnband their beautiful dog.
Saturday we decided to go to the Dare Day Festival which was in Manteo. Manteo also has a beautiful high street and leads directly to the dock. We spent all morning there, eating Italian ice and looking at the stalls and performances. Most notably there was an 1800s re-enactment going on with pirate shows and historical doctor practices and the like. We also walked around festival park in that area and saw the amphitheatre where people put on ‘The Lost Colony’ performances. From here you could also see the Elizabeth II. This ship was modelled after the ship that was commandeered by Sir Walter Raleigh (Yes the person that Raleigh,NC was named after) and used to sail a community to the banks of Roanoke Island. Although this wasn’t there target destination they managed to settle before running into troubles with food and the Native people and when the second expedition arrived the new colony had disappeared. Many know this as ‘Roanoke’s Lost Colony’ and that is where much of the tourism plays into that narrative in and around the Outer Banks. That and pirates!
We met up with a friend of Lyndy’s for lunch and got shown around Manteo and Wanchese. It was notable that there was a huge rich – poor divide in these areas. After having lunch, we drove out to Pea Island and looked at the visitor centre before chilling on the beach which was practically on the side of the road. The sea was too rough to swim in but the weather was nice enough to sit on the sand and relax. After that we went and got dinner and watched the sun set over the water. It was really beautiful, and the evening was really mild.
The penultimate day we went out on a boat with Lyndy’s friend and her family. This turned into about 20 people turning up to what was descriptively called Sand Island.
The Island is only accessible by boat by travelling up to one of the grassland islands in the centre of the sound. We spent all day there and I spent at minimum 80% of my time in the water. There was sandy floor and marshy floor and the marshy ground felt really weird underfoot. We had a cooler filled with food and drink as well as floaties for swimming over the marshes.
The whole day was really fun although the biting flies were bad so I walked away with a few bites. In the evening we went to the food truck festival where I got honey Chicken and Waffles. They were amazing. We went and got drinks in the evening before sitting out and chatting with our Air BnB hosts again and getting eaten alive by bugs.
On the last day, we decided to do a bunch of touristy things before driving back to Raleigh in the afternoon. We started off with breakfast at the Jolly Rodger an exceptionally dodgy but absolutely amazing breakfast place. After that we went to the Wright Brother’s Memorial which was fascinating. We went on a little tour and then walked up the huge hill that the actual memorial stood on.
The view was gorgeous and the weather was perfect. I got to see where the Wright Brothers took their first flight as well as a little bit of history on their family in the visitor centre. It was crazy to me that the Wright Brothers’ first controlled flight was in 1903 and then a few decades later there were fighter jets and carrier flights being used regularly. In any case the visitor centre was freshly re-designed, so the experience was a good one.
Next, we went to Jockey’s Ridge where we got to see the largest sand dune on the East Coast of America and the Second largest in the country. It is home to a hand gliding school as well as a great tourist spot for hiking and sand boarding. We finished off with a brief stop at Jennette’s Pier. It had been recently bought by the local aquarium and was renovated to have solar panels and wind turbines. After this stop we hit the road back to Raleigh.
It was really fun to experience the impressions of the ‘first settlers’ that surrounds the Outer Banks, especially because we rarely talk about how we colonised America. It was fun to talk about pirates and to be by the ocean. Mostly it was fun to be outside and seeing an area of North Carolina that I haven’t seen in the 10 months since I arrived. It was so different from Raleigh, you could hardly believe it was part of the same State.
