Outer Banks, NC (OBX as they call it)

I’ve been to quite a few beaches in my time, several of which were on the coast of the Carolinas, but never had the opportunity to go to the Outer Banks before. The first thing I’ll say about traveling there is this: If you fly, fly into Norfolk, VA instead of Raleigh. I flew in to Raleigh only to realize that I still had another four hours of driving ahead of me. The traffic on Saturday is also bumper to bumper once you get onto the island, as everyone is checking in and out. My advice would be to arrive in the morning instead of the afternoon.

The beaches are standard fare for the South East Atlantic coast. Long flat sandy beaches as far as the eye can see extend along the Banks and are great for walking on or just relaxing. If swimming is your thing don’t stay anywhere on the north banks. The Atlantic current meets up with the Labrador current around Hatteras Island and pushes all the warm water out to sea. I’m definitely not a fan of cold water and where we stayed, in Corolla, the water was far too cold for me to enjoy swimming (even with the air temperatures in the 90s). With the water too cold to enjoy and the air pretty hot, that left me plenty of time to explore the area’s other various attractions.

The northern part of the banks, Nags Head, Duck, and Corolla specifically, are covered in various beach oriented shops, sea food restaurants, and other fun places to stick your head in (don’t get me started about the horrible tourist shop called “Wings” though). I’m not much of a shopper (and by that I mean I hate shopping with a burning passion) so I went out to see the sights with my Dad and Step-mom to make the most of our limited time on the island.

First up was the Lost Colony. This was the first English colony in what is now the United States and as the name says, it wasn’t exactly a roaring success. All that’s left of this colony on Roanoke Island is a restored mound of dirt and some archeological sites. Apparently the best way to establish yourself in a new country isn’t by initiating a cycle of insulting and pillaging the native population. As it turns out, when you eat the island out of food and then leave 15 soldiers behind when you go back to England for food, your 15 soldiers may magically disappear. I guess they never saw Avatar…

Next stop was the Wright Brothers museum. As a current student of aviation this was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. Well, it was the next best activity other than the family tradition of drinking our house out of red wine before feasting on large meals and then switching to liquor. Although the original Wright Flier rests in the National Air and Space museum in Washington D.C., the museum has a full working replica that you can get a lot closer to. The field outside the museum has stone markers showing the first point of powered take-off and the first four landing points. It was a great feeling to be able to walk along that path and take in the surroundings. The entire park was extremely well maintained and is a definite must see for anyone with any interest in aviation (or science) whatsoever.

Full working replica of the original plane

Starting from that stone, each of those successive stone markers indicates the landing point of the first four flights, each longer than the last.

The memorial to the Wright Brothers on top of Kill Devil Hill

All in all it was a great trip. If I was to do it over again I might recommend that we stay a little further south or bring wet suits (although the water did seem to warm up later in the trip). There was a lot to do that I still didn’t get to partake in so I’d definitely go back if given the chance. I might wait for them to recover from the damage the family did to their supply of wine though…