obx

We celebrated America's 233rd birthday in the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We left Friday morning and made relatively good time, at least for a holiday weekend. After checking in at one of the lovely Days Inns in Kill Devil Hills, we spent the afternoon on the beach.

Friday night we went to the Blue Moon Beach Grill in Nags Head. The food was good and they had Fat Tire on tap (the New Belgium Brewery doesn't distribute to the DMV [District, Murland, or Virginny] so this was a rare chance to have my favorite amber ale). Lelaine had the "Truckstop", which was a fried egg on top of gravy on top of a pork chop on top of fried potatoes, and I had chicken with pineapple and coconut rice. After finishing dinner it was too early to go to bed, even though this oldtimer wanted to, so we went to see Transformers 2. Lelaine enjoyed it. I wasn't a big fan.

Saturday morning we woke up and the sun was shining. A good sign for the day. We had to hunt for a breakfast spot without a massive line, but we found Bob's Grill, whose motto is "eat and get the hell out", which probably explains the lack of a long wait. We then packed a cooler with water and snacks and set out for the beach.

What seems to separate the Outer Banks from other east coast beach vacation spots is...the beach. While some parts of the beach and towns look similar to places in Maryland, Delaware, or New Jersey, the OBX has the advantage of 100+ miles of beach. There is a 50 mile stretch between Nags Head and Hatteras that is relatively undeveloped, including a national seashore. There are areas along the only road running down the coast where you can legally park on the side of the road, climb a dune, and share miles and miles of beach with only a few other people. We were at a "busy" area and there were maybe 30 other people within sight. We saw nearly as many sand crabs as people. The water wasn't too cold and the waves were big enough for some good bodysurfing. It was a wonderful day.

After dinner at a pretty good restaurant on Collington Ave in Kill Devil Hills we drove down to a nice bar/bistro in Kitty Hawk for a drink outside as we watched several municipal-run and amateur fireworks shows. Apparently there was a horrible accident at a public fireworks display further south when a fireworks truck exploded and killed at least three people, but we weren't close to that.

Sunday morning we woke up early, had breakfast, and planned on some beach time. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trying to find a public beach in tony Duck. We couldn't locate public parking and most of the walkways through the dunes were labeled private. After getting stuck in traffic we ended up at a beach in Kitty Hawk. It was overcast and after an hour we decided to pack up and begin the drive home. Although it only took us a little over five hours to make the drive on Friday, which included a couple of areas of somewhat heavy traffic, the trip back took over 9.5 hours. We ended up avoiding the interstate and taking back roads from Williamsburg until just a few miles south of the district. I-64 between Norfolk and Richmond and I-95 between Richmond and Northern VA were ridiculously slow. But at least we made it.

On the long car ride home we talked about how great it would be to one day own a house down there. While I don't think that that will be in our immediate plans - unless someone is dying to give us a million dollars - the waiter at the bar on Saturday night told us that the water and air stay warm into November. Maybe we will be able to go back down for Columbus Day weekend.