One place I visit more than any other is the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  I’ve been going since I was 6 years old about every other year (often more often than that) and it’s my happy place as well as the place I feel most “at home” when traveling.  It’s no surprise that when we got married, this was where we said I do (someday I probably should finish blogging all the pics…lol).  It’d been a couple years since our last visit to the Outer Banks and we were excited to return to Duck with my brother in law and his family.  We stayed in Duck again this year in a house called The Nut House.  While it wasn’t anything fancy, it was a fine house for a somewhat last minute trip and the pool was lovely.  I just wish the weather had been a bit better but that’s how the cookie crumbles when you go to the coast!

Our trip was last July and we missed Hurricane Arthur, which made landfall in the Outer Banks (Cape Lookout) by a week.  Ever since my first trip to Nags Head, I’ve made an apparent habit of missing hurricanes by a week or two and this continued that trend.  While all was OK on the “main” part of the island, Hatteras and Ocracoke were still cleaning up from the flooding.  The side effect we felt most in Duck was rough and cold seas.  The water temp was in the 50’s the entire week – making it impossible for me to go in the ocean for very long due to my allergy to cold temperatures.  I did brave it one day that it was particularly rough because I think it’s a hoot to body surf when the ocean is angry and darn near lost my suit!!  Between the rough seas and the storms we didn’t get as much beach time as I’d like in but it was still a relaxing stay.  I made the best of it and spent one entire rainy day in the hot tub reading – I highly recommend it!

The images below are taken with either a D4 or my iPhone.

By far the best part about staying in Duck is being near the original location of Duck Donuts (which is, in my opinion, the best of all the locations).  On our first morning we woke up bright and early to take our place in line for one of the most delicious treats: custom order donuts. I’d never had a fresh baked donut until I had one here and they are divine.  I think it also helps that I’m a plain kind of girl so the fact that they aren’t all Voodoo Donuts crazy is a-ok with me.  Yum.

The following day we headed down to Promenade Watersports and rented jet skiis.  It’d been years since I’d done it and I forgot just how much FUN it is but it was defintiely a workout as the waves were unusually large so you had to fight them going west but coming back east was a BLAST. Two of us came back early while my husband and brother in law stayed out for a bit longer with my niece and nephew.  We all had an absolute blast.

Of course since we were in the area, we went to the best lunch spot on the beach, Capt’n Franks.  I probably mention them with every Outer Banks post but they make a damn fine hot dog.  I’m craving them already!

That night there were a lot of storms at sea so I wandered out onto the beach with my tripod and tried my hand at some astrophotography.  Nothing earth shattering but I was happy with this picture since it also included some cloud lightning as well as the starry sky.  The pier to the right of this image is the Duck Research Pier.

The next day the storms caught up with us so we spent the day hanging around the house and shopping.  We ended up stopping for lunch at another favorite, Cosmo’s Pizzeria.  I’ve been going here since they opened!  They were slammed but we were able to get squeezed in a table and we may have devoured this pizza.  I’ll confess: I’m a bit boring when it comes to my pizza.

The next day we headed down to Manteo to take a sunset cruise tour with Captain Johnny Dolphin Tours.  While we were waiting for everyone to arrive we wandered around the waterfront which we hadn’t been to since 2011.

We were last here a few days before Hurricane Irene flooded downtown Manteo – seeing the high water mark was kind of wild!

You know I had to sneak in a picture of the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse while I was there right?  I still keep thinking of this one as “fake” since it’s a replica and new to me since it wasn’t here when I was growing up but I’ve come to love this charming and unique lighthouse. However, I still think it would be awesome to scuba dive and see the original lighthouse (it fell off a barge when being transported to private property.

We saw a ton of dolphin during the tour – as we did before.  It was fun to watch them playing in the waters!

The clouds though rolled in and I worried that the sunset would be mediocre at best and this would be all that would come of our sunset cruise.

The clouds began to part just at the horizon at the right time – making for a really cool sunset unlike any other I’d seen before!  I love how the sun is striped by the clouds.

This is called “kissing” – when the sun hits the waterline and it appears like it is kissing the water.  If you are wondering what is to the right of the sun it is osprey nests.

A well timed boat moving through the area meant I got another fun picture of the sunset from the tour!  Yay!

I’m so glad we were able to enjoy this beautiful sunset on the water – by far one of the most beautiful I’ve seen!

When we got back to our rental house I decided to take a picture of the skies above the house while everyone else packed up to head to the beach to play with the crabs.  Here’s “The Nut House” with the starry sky!

It wasn’t a clear enough night for this shot to be amazing but it’s OK I guess.  I had fun capturing it so there’s that at least!

The following day we decided we’d had enough of super cold ocean temps and headed south for the warm waters of Ocracoke where the ocean temps were in the 70’s!  Along the way we passed one of my favorite things to look for: the bridge to nowhere.  This bridge was built in the 50’s when a hurricane created an inlet here but ended up only being used for about a year as the inlet closed back up quickly.

There was still a lot of hints that the area was still recovering from Hurricane Arthur – especially in Rodanthe.  Piles of trash and huge pools of water were alongside the road.

We had a bit of a wait for the ferry to Ocracoke so we wandered the shopping center adjacent to the ferry docks and I stumbled upon this wonderful bar called The Wreck and enjoyed a few mimosas while waiting for our turn in line.  I give them two HUGE thumbs up as they were not only super lovely but the drinks (and food!) were tasty!

We made it to the fabulous shores of Ocracoke and got setup on the beach.  It’s always so crazy how much different the ocean is here.  Up in Duck the waters were cold and the waves were rough, on Ocracoke the waters were warm and the seas were calm.  We enjoyed our long day on the beach and I’m glad we decided to go despite the haul it is to get there.

After a delicious dinner at Jason’s Restaurant (one of the few restaurants that were open for dinner, many had closed since our stay here a few years ago) we headed down to Ocracoke Lighthouse just after sunset.  It is one of the oldest lighthouses left in the United States.

The sunset colors as we waited for the ferry to depart.