This summer we decided to take a vacation to a place we’ve never visited before. It had been at least 10 years since Tara and I had been to the beach so we decided to spend a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I’ve stated several times in past columns that I’m not too fond of the beach but I take that all back now.
Growing up, my grandparents had a beach house in Bethany Beach, Delaware and that’s where we went to the beach. It wasn’t too crowded then, and we had some great times there, but the older I got the more crowded it became. On our last trip there I spent more time in the beach house than I did on the beach and said the heck with this.
It was to the point where you walked to the beach and tried to find a hole to put your chair. You could hear everyone else’s conversations all around you and it was noisy. The water was cold and always rough and it just wasn’t my idea of rest and relaxation. The beach house later sold and I was pretty much done with going to the beach.
That all changed a couple weeks ago when we took Kelsey to see the ocean for her first time. It made me happy to see the excitement on Kelsey’s face as we walked towards the beach. I’ll admit I was a little bit excited also as it had been over 10 years since I last heard the waves crashing.
We took our flip flops off and started walking through the quick sand as Kelsey was calling it. We topped over the dune and Kelsey said “Oh I see a wave” as she pointed to the ocean. I immediately noticed the lack of people and wide open beach in both directions.
As we walked to put our feet in the ocean a whole pod of dolphins were feeding out in front of us and some of them were close. They were close enough to notice that two of them were a momma and a little one. It was a wonderful sight and so peaceful.
I couldn’t help but smile as I stood there admiring god’s beauty while holding Kelsey’s hand. “This is how the beach is supposed to be” I said to Tara as we all 3 stood there taking it all in. As darkness approached ghost crabs began scurrying around on the sand and provided some entertainment catching them, then letting them go. Needless to say we had a blast that evening and couldn’t wait for the next day.
After breakfast Kelsey couldn’t wait to get back down on the beach and once again I was impressed with the lack of people. There was no problem finding a section of beach to look for any seashells we could find. We found several but they were mainly pieces of shells. After a couple of hours of fun in the sun we decided to do some sight-seeing.
We hit up a put-put golf course that I eyed on the way in. You can’t go to the beach without playing put-put. Kelsey had never played before and we had fun until hole number 13 when Tara and her both lost their golf balls in the water. We took turns and played the last 5 holes with my golf ball. She’s still a little bit too young but she knows what put-put is now.
After that we went to the Wright Brothers museum and monument where the first flight took place. I thought it was interesting but Kelsey wasn’t too impressed. We didn’t stay long as it was hot and time to go eat some seafood.
That evening we went back down to the beach to catch some more ghost crabs. There was an absolutely gorgeous sunset and we took some good pictures of the moment. Tara said, “I wish we could get a family picture with this backdrop”. Not long after she said that a couple walked by and the friendly lady was nice enough to take our picture.
She handed me back my phone and as I was looking at the pictures I hear someone say “Well I would’ve taken your picture if you asked me”. I looked up and it was John that I’ve known all of my life. He lived 3 houses down in the neighborhood I grew up in. We talked for a while and come to find out he and his family were staying in a rental that we could see from where we were staying.
Kristina, his sister, was there as well and we went through school and graduated high school together. We hung out with them on the beach and caught some more ghost crabs. It was great spending time with them and their families.
John, Timmy, and Liam took a trip out to the ocean one day and came back with 6 tuna. John said that “it was like reeling in a tailgate sideways” as he described the fight. I thought that was really cool that they got into some fish.
Our next day’s adventure took us up to Corolla where the wild horses roam the beach. The road actually ends on the beach and you can drive for 12 miles up the sand to the Virginia border. We didn’t venture off the paved road as I talked Tara into climbing up the Currituck Beach Lighthouse instead.
At first I thought it was a good idea until we made it to the second flight of spiral stairs. There was a girl freaking out and Kelsey started to second guess my decision. I’m not too fond of heights either but I was determined to say we climbed a lighthouse. I grabbed Kelsey’s hand and we made our way slowly 158 feet to the top.
It’s funny now, but not then, as we finally made it to the top. I stepped out on the landing and literally stuck my back to the wall and didn’t move. Tara and Kelsey did the same. My hand was shaking as I got my phone out and snapped a few real quick pictures before heading back down. I was a nervous wreck up there and had a death grip on Kelsey. I doubt we’ll do that again but we can say we climbed to the top of a lighthouse.
After that excitement we walked over to the sound. There was a family of four with 3 crab lines out. I was wanting to take Kelsey crabbing as I’ve been before and liked it. I noticed that the back line was bouncing like crazy so we walked down to tell them. “Hey buddy I think you have one on” I said to the boy as he rushed over to see. Sure enough there was a nice blue crab on the other end when his sister slowly pulled the line up and he slid the net under it. Kelsey wants to go crabbing on our next trip and I know where we can go.
On our last day we went down to Hatteras Island and walked over a dune and literally had the entire beach to ourselves. There was one couple that I could see above us and no one in sight as far down as you could see. The pelicans were dive bombing fish in front of us as we looked for seashells. It was wonderful!
Everywhere we went down there I saw West Virginia license plates and even ran into fellow West Virginians. The Outer Banks by far past my expectations on the whole beach experience. I take back all the negative comments about going to the beach as the OBX is a fantastic place to visit.
