The Outer Banks

This week I’m going back to beach vacations and memories. If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know that the last time I went to the beach was 1995. I got married in 1996 and moved to Kentucky where my husband was stationed at the time. The beach was non-existent in my life during this time as any time we had off was used to come home to Virginia to visit family during the holidays. Land locked living was not for me!

My husband was going to be getting out of the Army in February of 2000 so I had moved back to Virginia before him in September of 1999 to try and get settled, find a job, babysitter, etc. I found a job and began working. In 2000 I got a call from my dad asking if we wanted to go to the beach with him. His brother and sister-in-law had built a beach house in Southern Shores, North Carolina. I didn’t even know where that was but it was a beach and I was in!

I didn’t even know there were beaches in North Carolina! The only beaches I ever knew about were in Delaware and Maryland. Apparently there were a whole bunch of beaches in North Carolina! So in August of 2000 we piled up in our cars and headed South. As soon as we hit the Wright Memorial Bridge I was a little skeptical because of course I was used to crossing a massive bridge like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to get to beaches.

But I was in for a pleasant surprise. First of all my Uncle and Aunt’s house was not like any beach house I had ever seen before. It was named Penn Station after their last name. Apparently this was a thing, giving your house a name. I had never heard of that, lol! Seriously the house was amazing and still is. It was more than enough room for our whole group which was me, husband, kid, my mother in law, my dad, my sister and her kids and a family friend.

The beach didn’t disappoint either but then again when does the beach EVER disappoint. Where we stayed we actually had to have parking passes to park and go to the beach, another first for us. These beaches were not as crowded as the beaches that I was used to but it was a nice change of pace.

Of course this being a new place for us we had to find all new things to do. Putt putt was a must, finding a local ice cream spot and of course a place to get crabs!

The pic above is all of us minus my mother in law taking the picture. The first of many vacations to the Outer Banks!

Although the Outer Banks was different from the beaches I had grown up on (no boardwalk) I learned that the beach is still the beach and it doesn’t matter which one it is as long as you make memories with your loved ones! This was the year we had officially become Outer Banks vacationers! Stay tuned for many more beach memories made on the Outer Banks of North Carolina…

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