Visit to the Outer Banks - Day One

The last weekend in October Yvonne and I went to the Outer Banks with Joan and Larry Kerns. Had Joan not initiated the idea and planned the trip I'm not sure we would ever have gone there on our own. But Joan grew up going to the Outer Banks as a little girl, so it became an opportunity for her to share some childhood memories with us. It also gave both Joan and Larry a chance to see the Outer Banks through the eyes of someone who had never seen them before, and was enjoying them for the first time.

The trip was absolutely fantastic! The weather couldn't have been better with the sun shining, and the sky a bright blue after several days of rain in Virginia Beach. The morning air had a bit of a bite to it as fall was just making itself felt. But the temperature soon warmed comfortably and our jackets were shed.


After a leisurely breakfast at the Cracker Barrel we made our way to our first destination - Corolla and the Currituck Beach Lighthouse, the most stunning red brick lighthouse I've ever seen (we saved actually going up into it for another visit).

On the way to Corolla we drove through the little town of Duck and "ducked" into one of the stores to do some shopping and take some pictures by the water.



On the way back I almost "quacked up" when, in a scene reminiscent of "Honey I Shrunk The Kids", Yvonne got swallowed up by a huge Adirondack deck chair!


From there we drove south to Roanoke Island and went to the Christmas Shop and Island Gallery. I warned Joan that getting Yvonne out of there would be an impossible task! The shop seemed to go on forever with room after room after room of Christmas ornaments, island art work and photographs, and finally, a candy shop. Uh oh! My downfall. An hour and a half later we emerged - and the sun was still shining!


By then we were all hungry and ate dinner at Darrell's Seafood Restaurant. We were fifteen minutes too early for the evening baked potatoes and couldn't sweet talk the watiress into fudging, so we had mashed potatoes instead. As you can see, we survived!




The Roanoke Island Marshes Lighthouse was our next stop after dinner. A beautiful little gem on the end of a pier that was highlighted by the sun just perfectly for a great photo opportunity.


We ended the day, after checking into our motel in Nags Head, with a trip to Belk's Department Store. Now, you have to understand, I'm not much of a shopper. But it turned out that I was the only one who found anything, two pair of dress slacks. Yea!