Tim and I have been on vacation since last Saturday. We drove from Davenport to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We’ve been on Ocracoke Island since Monday.
A few comments about Ocracoke. The beach is super beautiful. Super beautiful. Up until this point, I thought Nantucket was the prettiest beach, but I’ve changed my mind. Ocracoke is the best. And part of what makes it the best is the people here. The people in Nantucket are too rich. This is a more blue-collar kind of place – lots of families and retired folk.
What’s also nice is that Ocracoke is tiny. You can bike the whole village in about 30 minutes. No restaurant is more than a 15-30 minute walk away. The town is clean and pretty pristine. Biking/walking/golf-carting is encouraged. It’s an easy place to stay active.
If you are looking for lots of night life and crazy parties, I don’t think Ocracoke would be your place, but for people like Tim and me, it’s perfect. We’re early risers (especially here, where one whole side of our hotel suite is windows, so our room is bright with sunshine at 5;30AM), and early sleepers. Ocracoke suits us.
Hmm… what else do we like… Dogs are allowed on the beach here, which is awesome (sorry Lucent!). There are funny surfer dudes working at this great local coffee shop. Yesterday one said to a customer, “I’m slighly bipolar, but in the good way.”
What don’t we like? Well, two main things. 1. It’s SUPER hard to find a place that serves whiskey. According to our server at a local restuarant, serving hard liquor just recently became legal in the county. Beer and wine are the order of the day. We finally found a place last night that serves whiskey. My single whiskey and soda cost EIGHT DOLLARS. No good.
Number 2 – the mosquitoes on this island are a thing of legend. Actually, I think they are a problem all along the Outer Banks, due to the marshes that line the ocean. We tried to do a marsh hike on Pea Island on the way down here, but the mosquitoes were literally trying to eat Tim alive. For some reason, they really love him. I’ve been hit maybe 2 or 3 times, but Tim has been bitten dozens of times. We have to spray him head-to-toe with bug spray any time we leave the house. They are insane. We ran yesterday along Highway 12, and they were tailing him as he ran. Crazy. They are so intense that I don’t know if we would vacation here again. We planned on doing some hikes while we are here, but changed our tune after the Pea Island experience.
All-in-all, it’s been a fantastic trip – lots of beach time, lots of biking, lots of walking, lots of relaxing. Tomorrow we head out to visit my cousin on the mainland, and then it’s back to Iowa for us. At least we have a trip in July to look forward to; otherwise, I would be mucho depressed.
I am looking forward to getting home for one big reason, though. I’ve been eating totally non-paleo this trip – lots of tasty fried food and carbs. My shorts are getting tight, and my energy is waning. I can’t wait to start eating my avocado and eggs and veggies and grass-fed meat again. I need to CLEANSE.
In a nutshell, Ocracoke = good times
