DID I TELL YOU I'VE BEEN TO THE OUTER BANKS?

It was one of the best vacations I've had, what with Judy and Katie Bug doing all the driving! I only had to drive the last 100 miles home, and that was a pure pleasure. It did me a world of good too. I'm feeling so much better and stronger now, and hopefully I'll keep up a more active daily routine.

Katie drives like Judy and me. When she first got her license I taught her how to drive East Tennessee mountain curves - "...go in low and slow and come out high and fast!" She really smooth at it too and barely lets the car scrub off speed.

She's got quite a sense of humor and confidence too! She shocked me once when she came around a curve where a man was mowing his yard close to the road with his back to traffic. She blew the horn loud and long - the man jumped and I jumped and could hardly believe what she had done! She's always blowing at passing cars and waving like she knows them! She is not bashful.

Anyway, after a 9 or 10 hour drive Judy rolled us off Hwy. 64 and onto Hwy. 12 and headed north to Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks. The "banks" is just a narrow strip of land in the Atlantic about 200 miles long at the tip end of North Carolina. It is broken down into several small towns or villages, each unique, with a plethora of seafood restaurants and fresh fish markets. Naturally, there are too many Wings souvenir shops! Who needs that many t-shirts and towels anyway?

Katie couldn't get over the three or four "Brew Thru's" (link is slow) located in the Kill Devil Hills/Nags Head area!

The first couple of days were chilly, with frequent periods of light rain. We, me particularly, kept our jackets on outside, and I even wore mine inside the condo. Judy kept the AC too darn cold for this old boy and I sat watching TV shivering! Who's the boss? I guess she is!

Katie did a lot of texting and calling while in the room, but on our outings she would leave the phone in the room or put it securely out of sight in the glove box.

The first night on OBX (short abbreviation the locals use for "Outer Banks North Carolina") we patronized "Awful Arthur's Oyster Bar". I got "Arthur's Oysters" with bacon, and Judy and Katie got the crab dip and sweet tater chips! Delicious with Fat Tire!

This was just the beginning, we also visited "The Dunes Restaurant" twice, once for lunch and once for breakfast, "Stack'em High" for breakfast, "Sugar Creek Seafood Restaurant" for dinner, "Miller's Waterfront Restaurant" for dinner, Judy and Katie at at "Dirty Dick's Crab House" one evening and brought something back for me (not feeling well that night), and we even got great tasting seafood at "Crabby Fries" one evening when we were too tired to go out! We did not have a bad meal and the seafood all tasted fresh, with the sweetest tasting scallops I've ever eaten! If we had stayed 2 weeks, we could have found a new restaurant each night!


































We walked the beach one evening, sat in the sun (me under an umbrella) another day, and the other days we spent either at a lighthouse, on the dunes at Jockey's Ridge, at the Wright Brothers Memorial, or searching for wild mustangs on Carova Beach! There is plenty to do, and it you want to see what we did CLICK HERE and go to my Flickr page for Outer Banks photos. Click on "slideshow" and sit back for all 141 shots!

The trip was made even more enjoyable by having Katie along...and not just to drive either. She was always making funny remarks and forcing us old folks up dunes and onward in her search for something special to do. Oh yeah, we also had to watch scary movies one evening! It was great!

The sad part of it all is that this may have been our last time to have her by herself. She graduated from high school this year, which was part of the reason for the trip, and soon she will be off to college, having even more boy problems, getting married, having babies, and forgetting about us (to some extent). Gone are the days of overnight stays and one-on-one conversations. Life changes, people grow up, and we must move on...sadly.

I just hope she remembers the good times, the laughs, and the love we shared enough to come visit once in a while and bring the grand-babies to visit!

We love you Katie Bug!