Virtual Vacation - OBX

Well, I'm off work for a week. Which, in itself, is awesome...
However. Generally, when I'm off in May, I'm really off. As in outta here.

Usually the hubby and I take off for a week of "chillaxin" on Hatteras Island a.k.a. The Outer Banks of North Carolina (which is the little tampon string of a line over there on the map, and where we stay is the furthest point away from the coast of NC).

But the hubby has a new job and no vacation time till next year so I'm home vegging out for a week while he works his tail off. No, not fair - but at the same time, I do believe I worked my tail off for an entire year while he sat home collecting (his much deserved) unemployment pay (for losing his job of 20 years to outsourcing). God Bless America, right? Hmpf.

ANYWAY!
While I would love to be hanging out at the beach, sipping a few Coronas or what have you, I'm stuck here in the anti-weather-friendly western Pennsylvania. Porchville. No, not even - because today it was only 39 frickin' degrees out!!!

So I'm going on a vacation - a virtual one. Like James Taylor said - Goin' to Carolina in my mind.
But I'm taking pictures and bringing them here for all to see.
My imagination is vivid (considering I've taken like a ka-zillion pictures of the Outer Banks in the last decade) so here goes>

Sunday is the long-ass drive down. Eleven hours in a car with stops only to pee and eat. (Quickly on both counts!) We generally arrive around 3pm. (And yes, that does mean we leave before the ass-crack of dawn!)
Once we've finally made it to the literal Outer Banks (we cross over up in Kitty Hawk and make our way 55 miles southward to Avon), we cross from Bodie Island to Hatteras Island by way of the most lovely Bonner Bridge, which is a pretty freaky-deaky bridge - at least the first time you cross it. Once you've been over it a few times, you can enjoy the beauty that surrounds it. But until then, you're basically terrified.

Okay, so we've finally made it the long drive to Avon (after several "are we there yets") and hobble into the realtor office. Eleven hours in a car is not conducive to walking.

We always use the same realtor - Outer Beaches Realty - and this year (because I can afford a really nice virtual house) we're staying here.
This cottage (named "One") is in the very far end of Avon.
It's beautiful, huge, and completely accessible to ocean front beaches, with another cottage on only one side. The hubby & I have stayed across the street on the sound side several times because the area is so quiet, and have admired "One" for years. So this year...we're virtually there.

After unpacking and relaxing for an hour or so, we head off to the Food Lion grocery store. The very best thing about buying groceries in North Carolina?
Wine and beer...sold right in the grocery stores - right off the shelves. Here in western PA it just doesn't happen, so with a huge selection of readily available alcohol, we generally buy enough for several weeks and end up taking some home - not on purpose, our eyes are always bigger than our capacity to put away the booze.


After collecting sundries, it's back to the cottage and down to the beach for a stroll. One of my favorite things about the beaches of the southern Outer Banks is that they are never as crowded or congested as up north. Granted, we always go in the marvelously un-busy off-season. Sometimes, there is literally no one else on the beach, as is evident from the picture at right.

When hunger takes over, we head back to the cottage (after having carefully taken notice of exactly where the roofline of our cottage is before even starting out on a walk- because one can get quite lost looking for one's cottage when they all look the same from down on the beach!)

At this point, we're too beat to actually go out to a restaurant, and always end up getting pizza, usually from the mom & pop pizza joint, Nino's. Just a little cottage but well worth it.
Pizza and italian specialties, but like I said - nothing fancy.
In all reality, on Hatteras Island there are no chain restaurants except a Dairy Queen and a Subway. Most places are all privately owned by families - some of which have lived here for generations, others who have moved here and intend on spending the rest of their time on this special island.
Names like "The Fish House" and "Diamond Shoals" abound, and all have really great, fresh seafood.
But the first night - damn, we're way too tired for anything but pizza.

An hour or so on the deck, under the protective beam from the Cape Hatteras lighthouse just down the road about three miles away in Buxton, we watch the waves lap onto shore until it lulls us into an exhausted stupor and it's off to bed.

Tomorrow.... a check on the weather and decisions to make on what to do first.... Will it be Ocracoke Island if the weather permits, or perhaps a drive up north to Manteo?
Only time, and Mother Nature, will tell.