We went to the beach!
After years of hearing friends and family rave about the Outer Banks of North Carolina, our family finally had a chance to see what the hype was all about. My mom rented a house in Duck, NC for the week, and our family got to enjoy a whole lot of R&R together for seven days.
Finding summer adventures with kids is pretty easy when you’re on the beach. And even easier in Duck, where you can almost touch the ocean and bay at the same time if you can stretch your arms out wide enough. Almost.
So, here’s a rundown of this week’s summer adventures with kids (and an aunt, uncle, and Mimi) in Duck, NC AND on our travels to and from.
Saltwater Fun.
Our boys love the ocean. Our visit to the Outer Banks was perfect for ocean fun. Aside from a pretty intense thunder storm early in the week (that washed up SO many jellyfish!) the weather was beautiful and the sea was relatively calm.
We spent hours at the beach every day, and whether it was high noon, or 8 pm, the boys were in the water.
Boogie boarding was definitely the crowd favorite, though a lot of time was also spent diving under waves only to come up on the other side unscathed.
Our 9 yo asked if he could try jet skiing, and Mike was more than happy to take him. They rented a jet ski in the sound on a really choppy morning. They had a great time despite the wild waves, and our oldest says it was his favorite part of the trip!
Surf Fishing.
Our 6 yo LOVES to fish, and his number one “must do” on this trip was to get to Bob’s Bait and Tackle, get hooked up with a surf fishing rod and gear, and get fishing.
We loved Bob’s Bait and Tackle (we were in three separate times throughout the week!) Our youngest picked up a new Sea Stryker rod and reel as his Outer Banks souvenir, and the shop set us up with a double hook with a weight and a nice supply of blood worms to get us surf fishing. I was really pleasantly surprised that Bob’s Bait and Tackle got us out the door for under $100 – rod, reel, two hook line (x 2) with weight, bait, a pair of gloves (in case mom had to help get whatever came out of the ocean back into the ocean – though they weren’t necessary in the end!). And most valuable, but completely free, was their advice and guidance. I highly recommend a stop, and would love to book a fishing charter or surf fishing clinic with them if we’re ever back in the Outer Banks.
The littlest in our party caught 11 fish (mostly Spot with a couple of sea mullet or croaker – I’m not sure I can tell them apart, sorry – too). Fishing right off the beach and taking occasional boogie boarding breaks? He was in his glory.
Mini Golfing.
Of course we mini golfed. We’ve reached a point where no family vacation would be complete without at least one round.
And this last week, we played two.
Our first game was played at Professor Hacker’s Lost Treasure Golf in Kitty Hawk. There was a train ride to the start of the course – it reminded me a little bit of mini golfing in Gatlinburg, TN. I have decided that I love mini golf courses that begin with some kind of ride.
We played again Corolla Adventure Gold later in the week after a visit to the Currituck Lighthouse. It was midday, full sun, and roughly a billion degrees fahrenheit outside. I don’t know what we were thinking.
But…we had fun. The course was made up of three separate nine-hole courses. We played the first nine holes keeping score, and then just decided to play the second for fun – no score keeping.
We all decided we were done before we finished the second set of nine holes, walked off the course smiling and happy, and headed across the street for Dairy Queen!
Biking.
We used the pedestrian/bike path that runs parallel to Duck Rd for lots of runs, walks, and bike rides throughout the week.
Mike and the boys rode from our rental house into town one morning (3 1/2 miles) and met the rest of us for Duck Donuts and some boardwalk window shopping.
Countless times throughout the trip, our youngest would ask to go out and ride his bike up and down the street we were renting on. He especially liked the speed bump in the road just before our driveway.
I can’t imagine traveling without bikes.
New Things.
The beach near our rental house was crawling with ghost crabs. Their little eyes up on top of their heads reminds me of Mr. Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants. They were adorable and we loved watching them dart around in the sand.
We saw pelicans and clear jellyfish and picked up a surf fishing guide to help us identify what kind of fish we caught.
We had a seafood boil for dinner one night. Our youngest already knew that he loved crab, but also tried clams and muscles and sea scallops. And our oldest tried crab for the first time.
Even dinner time can be an adventure!
Adventures on the Road.
We pride ourselves on being great travelers, but oh my – the trip down was a rough one. The trip was supposed to take 9 1/2 hours. With stops and a lot of traffic, it ended up taking us 11 1/2 hours.
We broke up the trip home with an overnight stay in Maryland to visit Mike’s sister and her family. But travel home was even slower than our trip there.
Once we adopted an attitude of adventure, things turned around quickly. I begged for a lunch stop in Port Royal, Virginia. There was a roadside restaurant called Horne’s. We enjoyed our sit down lunch – my BLT was delicious, our 9 yo had one of the best milkshakes I’ve ever tasted, and our server was wonderful!
Mike wasn’t so sure about a sit down lunch stop, but he warmed up quickly, and even asked us all if we could stop at the Port Royal Trading Post down the road. We had a blast looking through treasures. Our 9 yo even scored a 2×2 rubik’s cube to add to his growing collection.
With our newly reclaimed spirit of road trip adventure, we even made a mid afternoon stop at the Harrisburg Bass Pro Shop on our way home from Maryland the next day. The boys loved the fish in the aquarium, and the huge display of wild animal mounts. They played a shooting range game for 50 cents, we window shopped new fishing gear and boats, and we picked up a new set of needle nose pliers for the tackle box, new hooks, and a few new plastic swim baits.
It was a fantastic week at the beach with family, but we’re all happy to be home and looking forward to the adventures we’ll find around here for the rest of July.
What have you been up to this summer? We’d love to hear about your adventures, too!
