OBX

it's not a new place to me, but a 7 hour roadtrip, 4 bedroom house, and 14 friends definitely deserves its own post.

we went to the Outer Banks this weekend for Memorial Day - took Friday off, and drove down in the morning. It's normally a 5 hour drive, but this time it took about 7 hours due to all the stops we made (how can you resist a sign that says 'fresh corn' and 'fresh peaches'??). we even stopped at Sonic on the way there - love those fried cheese balls and wait staff on rollerskates. Finally we made it to the beach - I put my foot down, and said we would not grocery stop first - first stop should always be the water. What can you even say about afternoons and evenings at the Outer Banks? Every day is hotter than the one before. Every sunset is more beautiful. We were staying in Corolla (pronounced ka rah la, not like the Toyota brand - if you say it that way, people will know you're a n00b).

The first night, our whole group arrived at various times - we were the first bunch, so we went to dinner at this place called Tomato Patch Pizza - it was delish! Then, as people arrived we hit the beach for some late night star gazing - and yes, I saw a shooting star. It was so beautiful. Next day involved a quick run, and then off to the beach. The water was like ice - but I swam anyway. Must have an extra layer of blubber that allows me to do that, because I love the cold water!

That night we went to dinner at this place called Duck Deli, which had the most amazing BBQ I've had in a really long time - it was finger lickin good, for sure! Then we rustled up some of our own fun, by telling the live band that it was somebody's birthday - and they got to perform a version of Joan Jett's I Love Rock n Roll, ha! Inspired, we headed over to the local karaoke bar and sang the night away. Most people were terrible, but my roomie Victoria can really belt it out. Girlfriend always found the right key, even when the crowd was crazy. Love singing duets with you, chica!
The next day we did a little home-church, which was nice - singing & praying & reading the Bible on the porch. Then afternoon was all beach time - never enough for me, but definitely enough to get some people sunburned! Then Sunday evening we watched an incredible sunset - the Outer Banks is a group of islands off the coast of North Carolina, so one side of the island is called 'sound side' and the other is 'surf side' - so you get to watch the sunrise on the surf side, and sunset on the sound side. Sunset was incredible - I can't say that I was ever awake in time for sunrise!

Monday was departure day - but we still got some wonderful beach time in the morning (and a delicious breakfast at Breakfast & Burgers, which I highly recommend if you are willing to wait about 40 minutes for food). Amazingly, we hit almost no traffic either direction - I would say overall, a highly successful beach weekend.