Outer Banks: Day One

We had a fantastic long weekend at the Outer Banks. It had been years since we took our own little family vacation (that didn't involve a work trip or a family reunion) and it was so fun to relax and spend time together in such a beautiful place. We took the girls out of school for a few days and headed to the coast Wednesday afternoon. We stopped at the Bodie Lighthouse which was beautiful. We stayed in a beach house in Salvo which is on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. We had views of both the ocean and the sound from our house. The beach was only a short walk from our house through beautiful grassy sand dunes. The beach dropped down a bit from the road so you couldn't see any houses from the beach which made it feel very secluded. And we always had the entire beach to ourselves which was fun. Things got a little crazy with the threat of a hurricane approaching. Evacuation looked possible for awhile but in the end, the hurricane moved further off shore. We ended up with lots of rain and not quite the vacation we had imagined, but we still managed plenty of time at the beach and made lots of fun memories. The temperatures were still quite warm (and very humid) and the water was warm. I love North Carolina beaches.

Our first evening the weather and sunset were beautiful. We lingered at the beach as long as possible, knowing the storm was coming. The kids loved finding crabs, which were everywhere.