The Outer Banks

Before our family trip to the Outer Banks, I was having some reservations.  Serious reservations that went something like this: "An eight and a half hour road trip with an infant and a toddler, to a destination that we've never traveled to before, without any help? What are we CRAZY?"  I am happy to report, though, that we had a wonderful time, thanks to a lot of preplanning and team work! 

Sometimes it really takes a vacation to bring to mind just what great partners Monte and I are.  Monte did all of the researching on the best area to stay and the best hotels in the Outer Banks.  My job was packing, scheduling and covering the basics (I swear, my family would go on vacation without clothes or food were it not for my crazy organizing and planning skills!)

Most of my energy in the week before vacation went to ensuring that the kids were occupied during the long ride.  Let me just say, thank goodness for Pinterest! I found a wealth of ideas for keeping kids entertained on long car rides.  There was one amazing blog that I would like to credit for many of the ideas that I found, but I can't find it at the moment. 

Layla and Dylan each had a bin of toys within arm's reach.  I made Layla a binder of cloth pencil cases, each with individual activities (crayons and coloring books, dry erase board and markers, car Bingo, wiki sticks, pipe cleaners, little people, stickers, etc.)  She also had Leapfrog audio books and chapter audio books, which she didn't get around to using.  I also hung a ribbon with a picture of a car on it, which we moved every hour as a visual of how much further we had to travel. 

We had a beautiful ride down along the coast, a welcomed change to our usual route of I-95. Coastal Delaware and Virginia were absolutely beautiful, and we all enjoyed driving by farmland, beaches and crossing the Chesapeake Bay during a thunderstorm!

We arrived at the Hampton Inn in Corolla, NC on Wednesday afternoon.  The last hour was a rough ride, as there is only one main road into Corolla.  Needless to say, the kids were happy to have a large hotel room to run around! We soon found out that dining out would not be part of our vacation experience, as the majority of the restaurants in the Outer Banks served seafood and we could not find a place that could safely make Layla a meal.  I cannot speak for the entire OBX community, but from my personal experience, the restaurants that we made inquiries in were not able to avoid cross-contamination issues and ran the gamut from apologetic to rude.  We were very lucky to have a kitchenette and grocery store nearby!

We spent Thursday morning playing pirates in the lazy river pool.  After a much needed nap and lunch, we ventured into the town of Duck to the Scarborough Faire shopping area where we did some window shopping and explored their toy store. 

We were at the pool bright and early Friday morning, but then left on an adventure to Currituck Heritage Park, where Layla and I climbed the Currituck Beach lighthouse.  Daddy and Dylan played in the grass while they waited for us.  We arrived only ten minutes before closing, so we had to hurry! It was a good thing that I was well-rested because I carried Layla most of the way to the top.  It was worth it, though.  What a wonderful view of the park, the sound and the ocean! I was thankful that there was another visitor at the top to take our picture. 

 

Saturday morning was spent on the Northern beach of the Outer Banks.  Driving on the sand was very different from our experiences on the flat sands of Florida!  The sand dunes made for a very bumpy ride.  Although we didn't see any of the wild ponies native to the area (and opted out of the three hour long Jeep tour), we did see crabs, fish and many dolphins playing in the waves.

In the evening, we packed up dinner for the kids, picked up some takeout for the adults, and headed back to Currituck Park for a picnic dinner.  After we ate, we took a relaxing walk on the grounds of the Whalehead Club Historic House and Museum and enjoyed reading the many markers, describing the wildlife found in the surrounding marshes and sound.

 Sunday was our last day on the Outer Banks.  We expended a lot of energy in the pool in the morning in order to tucker out our kids before heading home.  Both Layla and Dylan took nice long naps during the drive north, and fell asleep again after dinner.  We are very thankful to have been granted the opportunity to take not one, but two vacations this summer and really enjoyed the quality time with Dad! I would love to visit the Outer Banks again in the future, probably when the kids are a bit older.

To see the rest of our vacation pictures, click here.