I started planning this two-week trip last fall when I decided I wanted to go somewhere “beachy” without getting on an airplane. I booked dog-friendly Airbnbs in Duck, Manteo, and Ocracoke. My good friend, Angie, lives in Chesapeake, VA, so we arranged to stay with her at the start and end of the trip. To follow are notes and photos from my most favorite vacation!

DAY ONE – Saturday, May 4th – Fair Haven, VT to Chesapeake, VA

We left Vermont at around 6:45am. The drive was not bad at all – no major construction or traffic jams, and the worst of the weather was just some light rain. The sketchiest of the driving was in NY and NJ, but it was nice to see taller grasses and full leaves on the trees at least. That’s the nicest thing I can say about driving thru NJ! Joel was irritated to have to stop there for gas because there is no self-service. At one point it was a 5- or 6-lane highway that we had to cross over in a hurry to get onto another miserable highway. We messed that up a little but only lost a couple minutes! The driving was much more pleasant once we got to Delaware. I don’t know how I never knew this, but Joel does not like big bridges. Crossing the Delaware Memorial Bridge was not a pleasant experience for him. When we stopped at a rest area in Maryland, I picked up a brochure about the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to show him what was up next!

Here are some pics from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel…

We arrived at Angie & Aaron’s house at around 5:15pm. Not bad! El Dog was perfect for the whole ride too. Her car-riding skills have improved dramatically! Of course, unfortunately, she was not very polite to their dog, Monty. He is a very sweet dog, and he decided right off to just keep his distance from her. They made us pizza for dinner, and we just spent the evening relaxing on their back deck. Here are some Saturday evening pics…

DAY TWO – Sunday, May 5th – Chesapeake, VA to Duck, NC

It was such a delight on this morning to step outside into warmer temperatures! I got right up around 7:00am and listened to birds on the back deck while enjoying a cup of coffee. Angie recalled that it was Cinco de Mayo and tortured El Dog with this hat!

It was raining pretty hard when we arrived at the Outer Banks around noon. We drove up to Duck and, since we couldn’t check into our rental yet, we kept driving on up to Corolla. We didn’t go as far as the lighthouse since the weather was unpleasant and we had a “Corolla Day” planned for later anyway.

We were driving around the Timbuck II shopping plaza in Corolla when I spotted a dog-friendly restaurant from my list, First Light. It had finally stopped raining at that point, so we were able to enjoy a nice lunch on the deck. Our server asked if Lizzie could have some bacon, so this was probably the moment when she realized that she was going to have a very good time here! I also recalled that I liked Bloody Mary’s when I noticed two on the drink menu. I believe it was at this moment that I decided a fun vacation goal might be to have a Bloody every day. Anyway, here are a couple photos from our lunch at First Light, Lizzie’s second-favorite restaurant in the Outer Banks!

The sun was coming out by the time we finished lunch, so we drove back down to Duck. It was still too early to check into our rental, so we popped into another shopping plaza. I probably chose this one because I had the Outer Barks store written down on one of my many lists! All of the shops are connected by a beautiful boardwalk, which I did not realize at the time was part of the Duck Town Boardwalk. Lizzie really enjoyed Outer Barks because she got to sample treats, and of course I could not leave without buying a couple t-shirts. Here are some pics…

There were beautiful horses all about this shopping plaza, so I had Joel take my photo at several of them. Ha, I believe it was later this evening that Joel & Aaron discussed how they are the “Reluctant Paparazzi!”

We finished shopping and walking around here by 4:00pm, so we were able to check into our rental. We stayed in Duck for three nights. This was the largest of the three properties that we rented, so Angie & Aaron were able to stay here with us. Angie dropped Monty off at her parents’ house, so we met them at check-in time. The property was right on NC12/Duck Road, on the sound side. Here are a few photos of the property and some Sunday night foolishness…

DAY THREE – Monday, May 6th – Duck & Corolla, NC

We decided that Tuesday would be the best weather day and should therefore be reserved for “Corolla Day.” We started the day with a walk around the Duck Town Boardwalk. It got very warm in a hurry! Here are some photos!

After walking around, we got a late morning breakfast at Duck Donuts. I’m not really interested in sweet things, but they really have something for everyone!

We went back up to Corolla for drinks at Off The Wall Tap House. This is a fun little establishment where you can just pour your own beer thanks to their “innovative beer wall technology.” I tried a couple beers until Angie ordered a mixed drink. It was at this point that I realized I could get a Bloody Mary. They had covered outdoor seating, so El was able to just chill in the shade here.

After this, we decided to go to the beach. The beaches in Duck are private for residents/renters, and dogs are allowed off leash there; it was a big factor in choosing Duck for one of our homes! I’m glad we didn’t pay extra for a property on the ocean side because the walk over to the beach was the shortest walk ever! Maybe if you were lugging a lot of crap it would be a bother, but that’s not how we roll, so…

As far as I know this was Lizzie’s first time seeing the ocean. She did great! As soon as we popped over the sand dunes and she heard how loud the crashing waves were, there was a moment of hesitation – but she will follow me almost anywhere, and she did. I didn’t push her to do anything crazy, as I didn’t want to do anything crazy myself. The water was… cool! It felt like the ocean in Maine in peak summer, from what I can recall! I collected a small bag of shells. Here are some pics from our first trip to the beach!

DAY FOUR – Tuesday, May 7th – Corolla, NC

This was our chosen day to go up to Corolla for a beach drive to see the wild horses! We had some serious concerns about it the evening before, as the forecast was calling for thunder and hail. Fortunately, that didn’t turn out to be true – not at all! Lizzie got to take a ride in Angie’s Jeep, and we headed up to Corolla again.

We stopped by the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. It was open for climbing, but we did not do that. For one thing, the dog cannot go up. For another, I would be too chicken anyway. Here it is!

After this brief stop, Angie grabbed her permit to drive and park on the beach – and off we went!

We had so many amazing experiences on this trip to OBX, but this was absolutely one of my most favorite days. I was determined that we were going to see the wild horses on the beach, even if we had to pay for one of those ridiculous guided tours. Joel’s Ridgeline is 4WD, but he was hesitant to try it out for the first time with this beat-up old truck that had to get us back to Vermont. Angie has driven on the beach before and offered to take us out.

We saw a few horses right after the beach entrance, but we drove along for a bit until we came upon another big group of them. Several vehicles were parked here, so we got out to take some photos. Then we moved along again down the beach where we could be by ourselves. We could see more horses off in the distance as we drank a few beers and I collected many shells. To follow are photos taken from our cell phones. I took some better pictures of the horses with my “real camera” which I will put in a different blog post soon.

We had a quick spell of rain which caused us to have to leave the beach. We stopped at The Shack’s beer garden for a couple drinks while we waited for that to pass. I didn’t have this place in my notes as a dog-friendly establishment, but I think that perhaps they were bending the rules because of the off-season. I’m glad we were able to hang out here – what a fun spot!

This was our last night in Duck. We were all tired from the beach so just had a quiet night in. Angie was a good food planner so took charge of most of our dinners here. It was fun to have Angie & Aaron here with us for this leg of the trip, and I am especially grateful to them for taking us out for a beach drive!

DAY FIVE – Wednesday, May 8th – Duck to Manteo, NC

We checked out a little early at 9:00am and made our way down towards Roanoke Island. We stopped for breakfast in Kill Devil Hills at another dog-friendly restaurant which was on my list – Ten O Six. Very yummy; would eat there again! We decided to drive over to Roanoke Island to find our rental property in Manteo, even though it was way too early to check in.

We then headed back over to the Nags Head area to check out the Bodie Island Lighthouse. There was a boardwalk trail with beautiful views. This lighthouse was also open for climbing, but we walked the boardwalk instead. Here are some pics!

We did see a couple snakes swimming around when we were up on that overlook. They did not look like they’d be friendly. Fortunately, the only snake sightings were from a very safe distance! After the lighthouse we drove back to Manteo to check out the downtown area.

We drove over to the Roanoke Island Festival Park area first. There wasn’t anything going on event-wise, and I’m sure El Dog would not be allowed onto The Elizabeth II replica ship exhibit that was there, so we ended up walking another boardwalk trail that goes around the festival grounds. I almost forgot about this until I was going thru my photos, as we went on so many beautiful walks on this trip!

The downtown Manteo area is just fantastic! There are lawns and gazebos and benches (and even a clean public restroom!) all scattered about the shops and restaurants. It was ridiculously hot when we arrived here at lunchtime, so this dog store, Poodles and Bob, was our first stop.

Of course, Lizzie got free treat samples! I also bought her a cute bandana even though she is more of a flower gal; it’s good to try new things. We went over to Ortega’z for lunch. It was on my dog-friendly list and was also featured once on that Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show.

If Joel looks unhappy in the photo below, it’s because we didn’t get the best service. The food was very good. I didn’t think to ask if they did Bloody’s (it wasn’t on the cocktail menu), but it made sense to get a margarita at this place anyway.

Since I did want to have my daily Bloody at that point, we decided to wander over to Lost Colony Tavern. It was fun to go here even though I knew I wouldn’t be eating here. Their British cuisine is not really my thing! The folks at the table next to us were here from Scotland! I wish we had talked with them more, but I think it was a woman around our age with her parents. I think her father was getting pretty lit. They had the coolest accents ever, and it was awesome to listen to her sing along to some 80s rock that was playing on the radio. Anyway… this place makes a highly decorated Bloody Mary, complete with a weird pickled egg. I most certainly did not eat mine! Joel ate his entire egg even though he said it was horrible and it probably took five bites to finish it. It was hilarious!

It was at Lost Colony Tavern that we learned we could get drinks to go from participating stores and restaurants! I know it sounds like we’ve been boozing a lot on this day, but there was no way we were walking out of there without beers!

We wandered around the downtown and waterfront; Joel did some sitting with the dog while I did some shopping! There were all sorts of interesting things to see…

By this time we were able to check into our rental in Manteo where we will spend our next three nights. This property was a guest home tucked out behind the owner’s home. It was much different that our place in Duck. It was in a little neighborhood away from the main road, completely shaded by trees. It was much larger than I had expected from the Airbnb photos, and I think we enjoyed this home the most of the three. We briefly met the host, Connie, and she suggested a good beach in Nags Heads when I mentioned that we wanted to hit the beach at some point. We weren’t really ready for dinner yet at that point, so we decided we would make sure we could find the suggested beach.

We didn’t do any driving on the beach here (or any beach driving with Joel’s truck). I don’t recall if we saw any vehicles or people on this beach trip. Unfortunately, we did not see any sea turtles either.

See how there’s no people?! I love this so, so much. I collected a few shells here even though it was near high tide. It was a good, quick beach trip – and confirmation that Nags Head beaches are very much to our liking! We were pretty tired after this, so we just got a take-out pizza for dinner when we returned to Manteo. Here are a few photos I snapped that evening of our Airbnb. Like the photos in the listing, these do not do it justice! We loved the covered patio; I think Joel was dreaming of coming back here for dinner as soon as we checked in.

DAY SIX – Thursday, May 9th – Manteo & Nags Head, NC

Joel did an amazing job of getting up early this morning! We were able to get to The Elizabethan Gardens right when it opened because we skipped going out for breakfast (our host left us yogurts and muffins)! This was some dog-friendly walking around that I was very much looking forward to. I wrote down several ideas for every town in the Outer Banks, but going here wasn’t optional. It really exceeded my expectations even though there were some factors playing against us. For one, it got really hot in a hurry again. For another, it started raining. Finally, there were not a whole ton of flowers in bloom at this time – mainly roses. But… the trees are just incredible! They provided sufficient shelter from the rain when it was necessary. Most of the paths were some fabulous combination of pebbles and moss. Well, you’ll see. Here are several photos! This was another favorite thing on this trip for all three of us!

After all this walking about it was definitely time to eat! We went back downtown to check out another dog-friendly eatery that was on my list – Olives, A Greek Kitchen.

I think we had one of our best meals of the whole trip here! They said we could even bring Lizzie right inside, but we decided to sit outside since the rain had passed.

We walked around the downtown for a bit after lunch. I grabbed us some to-go glasses of a coconut lime wine when I popped into a wine shop. Joel said he didn’t want any wine, but that was before he knew about the coconut lime feature, so…

It was time to go to the beach again in the afternoon, so we drove back over to Nags Head. We picked another beach access that was a little nearer up the road than the last one. The tide was on its way out, so the shelling was a little better than previously.

We returned to our rental to wash the salt off. I had a plan for a short trail walk before dinner, so we set off to one of the nearby visitor centers which I knew had a few different trails. Unfortunately, we had to abort this mission, as this place was closing at 4:00pm and threatening to lock us in! The ranger guy asked Joel if we knew the other person there with FL plates. I hope that person didn’t have to spend the night there! When we were at the Elizabethan Gardens earlier in the day, I had noticed a trail head across the parking lot, so we decided to drive back over there (it was very close). The gardens were closed, but the lot was open and had no gate. So, we walked this Freedom Trail shown below! It was a little longer than we were looking for after all the day’s activities, but we charged on anyway!

I don’t know that I needed that sign to warn me that this was a potentially snaky area. We fortunately did not see any though. It was pretty here and I probably would have enjoyed it more (as you see Joel doing!) if I was not on the constant look-out. I collected a little bag of treasures (leaves, pine cones, beach pepples) on this trail. We saw several butterflies on the return trip through the woods; they seem to use the trail as a fast flying zone! We also spotted a cool lizard up a tree after it made quite a big ruckus. I have a photo from my real camera that I’ll add here later.

It was a quiet night after this hike, as we were all exhausted and also had left-over food to eat. I did a lot of hemming and hawing about the fact that the next day would be our last full day on Roanoke Island before setting off for Ocracoke. There is much on my lists that we will never get to.

DAY SEVEN – Friday, May 10th – Manteo & Nags Head, NC

I had determined late last night that we couldn’t leave this part of the Outer Banks without going to Jockey’s Ridge State Park, so we headed out for Nags Head first thing. We grabbed breakfast there at another dog-friendly food spot on my lists, Waveriders. When we got there we realized we made the error of forgetting Lizzie’s leash and collar! She is such a good girl, she often just follows along and hops into the truck. Fortunately, our breakfast spot was inside a plaza with a Super Wings tourist store. I went over there and got her OBX gear! Now the dog officially looks like a tourist, but it was a better idea than driving back. We were then able to carry on with breakfast. Mimosa flights are an acceptable alternative to a Bloody Mary.

It was a very quick drive over to Jockey’s Ridge. Being a weekday morning in the off-season, it was relatively quiet there. It was shaping up to be another warm weather day, so I was a little nervous about what we were getting into.

Just kidding, we didn’t really use the Dog Parking! I just popped into the visitor center to grab a few brochures and we went on our way. There was a boardwalk with an overlook, but we went out to the trail first.

That little incline there… that was a serious work-out! Once we got to the top of that ridge, the sand wasn’t so smushy.

Ha, I checked my weather app because I was just curious to know! There was such a nice constant breeze, it did not feel that hot at all. It wasn’t really whipping the sand around either. It was a perfect day!

I am so glad we went to Jockey’s Ridge before we left town! I was actually a little concerned that it would be boring. It wasn’t!! Oh… There weren’t many people around – until a 5th grade class showed up! We both thought that would be a nuisance, but it wasn’t hard to get right away from them. I can imagine that in peak season with kids running around everywhere, this wouldn’t have been quite so magical.

Our lunch on this day was the highlight of the trip for Lizzie! All of the restaurants I checked into ahead of time were dog-friendly, but I knew having lunch at Mulligan’s would be special.

El Dog received all sorts of pets the minute she walked in the door!!

Ha, Joel said, “I think just the Dog Rice will be fine.” But she is also on vacation, so she chose the Chicken With Rice!!

I have never seen her wolf down any food so fast! I’m sure she was all “I better eat this immediately before this man realizes he made a mistake!” We were both a little afraid she was going to throw up, either at the restaurant or in the truck. She did good though!

Since Mulligan’s was so close to the beach, we decided to quickly check out another Nags Head beach access point. I collected more shells.

We decided to go for a sound side hike after the beach. We ended up at some YMCA trail that wasn’t on my list. I think I just did a Google search for trails near us or something.

There were no snake warning signs, and we did not see any snakes – but this seemed like a snaky area for sure, so I was on high alert the whole time. When we were starting our way back, we heard something that must’ve been huge thrashing around in those tall grasses. We didn’t run out of there (that is how you’ll step on a snake and die!), but we made haste. It was a fun little hike though.

It was clouding up fast when we got back to the truck. We still hadn’t been to Lost Colony Brewery (this is not to be confused with Lost Colony Tavern, which is the place with the weird pickled eggs!), so we decided to go there before it started raining.

We did not get a slice of 28″ pizza from the place next door. Next time! I got a kick out of their Bring Your Own Salad sign!

The bartender at this place was something else! He looked like some bad-ass biker type, and he was very loud and enthusiastic. When I asked if they did flights, he was all “FIRST IN FLIGHT, BABY!!!” Fortunately, this was another very dog-friendly establishment. He said El could go inside and that they had a “dog room” in the back. We ended up back there once it started sprinkling. The place was busy and full when Joel went back to the bar to get another round, but I could clearly hear “JOEL!!!” So fun…

As you can see, Lizzie made herself right at home back there! Just about every person who went back there to use the restroom stopped by to give her pets. I got her a leash and bandana combo set here – much better than the OBX tourist ones I had to pick up in that emergency! I got a bag of “Brew Chew” dog treats for Duncan. (Lindsay and Duncan are being so kind as to pop into the warehome this weekend while we are away, to water the plants and feed the fish!)

There was a full-on downpour and thunder when we left the brewery. We once again had left-overs back at home, so we called it a day early.

DAY EIGHT – Saturday, May 11th – Manteo to Ocracoke, NC

This was a big travel day, so we checked out before we were required to and got right on the road. I had big ideas about making some stops on Hatteras Island before getting on the ferry, but that didn’t really pan out. It was a beautiful drive anyway! It was also a good day to just be in the car. We parted with the warm weather on this day too; it was the coldest day we had while we were down there.

The bridge across the Oregon Inlet was not actually terrifying even though it is a very long one. It was very beautiful, but I could not get any good pictures from the car. This, above, is it.

When we got into Rodanthe there seemed to be sand all over the place!

We passed through a couple towns quickly. In between towns there are several beach and sound access points. I thought we better just go onto one of the beaches here on Hatteras, so we randomly chose to stop in Avon. It was very cold and windy. I grabbed only one shell!

When we got onto Hatteras Island we also started noticing these beautiful flowers all along the roadside. Several days later in Ocracoke, I learned that they are called Joe Bells. They are all over the place on Hatteras and Ocracoke. Sorry the picture quality isn’t that great; I hope I took one with my real camera.

It didn’t take us long to get to the ferry dock in Hatteras. All of the sudden it’s just right there! We turned back to hit up a store for provisions. This store with the bigfoot in the parking lot reminded us of Whitehall, NY! Weird, this doesn’t seem like the kind of place one would be spotting a sasquatch – unless it was here on vacation, I guess.

For some dumb reason I wasn’t paying any attention to what the ferry schedule might be, but luck was completely on our side when we only had to wait maybe 5-10 minutes to board the noon ferry. This was fortunate because there was not another until 1:00pm. The schedule is strange with some departures every half hour but also some larger gaps. It was a full ferry – probably because it’s Saturday? We ended up with a front row view:

One other crazy thing – this ferry is free! Who ever heard of such a thing?! There is also a walk-on ferry; I think that may have a fee, and it probably goes to the village ferry dock instead. This was a one-hour ferry ride that neither of us enjoyed! I didn’t even get out of the car or take any pictures. It was cold and choppy. I don’t usually have sea-sickness issues, but this was a bit much. Ha, also, I briefly freaked out that I got us on the wrong ferry. You can see Ocracoke from the Hatteras ferry dock, but the ferry goes way up and around. I assume there must be extremely shallow and extremely choppy waters between the two islands.

Angie & Aaron booked a two-night stay at a Bed & Breakfast down here so they could spend a couple more nights with us. Oddly, they have never been to Ocracoke before. They drove down from VA in the morning and somehow beat us to an earlier ferry.

When you get off the ferry, there is nothing but a continuation of NC12 down this narrow strip of the island towards the village. I could not believe these giant sand bags! The ocean is literally on the other side of them. This is the “16 uninhabited miles” of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore that I planned this vacation around! There is nothing else out here but a few beach and sound access points.

Joel was extremely hangry when we got off the ferry, so food was the first order of business! I screwed this up because I accidentally started looking at restaurants that were nearest to the other ferry dock. Oops. We’re not from around here!

When you get into town, the speed limit changes from 55 to 20 mph in a flash. The first establishment we drove by was Howard’s Pub. I saw Angie’s Jeep in the parking lot, but we kept on going due to my miscalculations. That was fine; we got to take our first ride through the village to check out where we’d be spending the next five nights! When we were completely across town – ha ha – we parked in a big lot (visitor center, museum, ferry stuff) and walked over to SmacNally’s! There was a short wait, so we walked around the Silver Lake harbor area for a few minutes.

This place doesn’t have a full liquor license, so mimosas are their signature thing! Angie & Aaron caught up with us there before we even ordered food. I was communicating with our Airbnb host, so I knew we were ready for an early check-in by the time we had finished eating. We did our check-in and then walked back into town to get our golf cart.

Fortunately, Lizzie has been on a golf cart before at Emily’s house. She is a very good girl while still managing to be as annoying as possible. She likes to sit on the gas pedal, things like that. Anyway, after we got carted up, we picked up Angie and Aaron to tour around the town!

1718 Brewing was one of the first stops. We would be back here many times.

After this, we went to Dajio. This is another place we would be back to many times. Joel eventually declared it his favorite hang-out spot. There is an outdoor area for dining. There is a huge covered porch bar area for dining or drinking. There is also an outdoor drinking area without service, which was our favorite spot of all.

One funny thing happened here. It was a little busy when we got there, and there were a group of “kids” hanging out on the patio. One of the guys passed by us on the way to the bar. He asked if he could pet the dog, and we talked to him for a minute. He was very lovey with Lizzie and said he missed his dog. When they left on bicycles one of them was singing Elton John, “Bennie! Bennie!” Angie said, “I want to go where you’re going.” He said, “I don’t know, but these mushrooms are smackin’!! That’s why I was talking to your dog like that.” We laughed about it all night until we had something else to laugh about.

After all this, we went to Zillie’s. I am starting to sound like a broken record here, but this is a place we would be back to several times. If I had to pick, this might be my favorite hang-out spot. It was not on the main drag (rather, on Back Road, so y’know, one road over – it makes a difference!!) and quite close to our rental. They have a few beers on taps, but it’s otherwise drinks in the cooler and gourmet snacks. You can pick a fun beer from the cooler and just go drink it out on the deck. I bought a Zillie’s hooded sweatshirt here (forever in a VT frame of mind!), probably on this first night. It is so big and soft and I love it!

Another funny thing happened here. It was close to closing time when a guy pulled up. He looked like fun – long hair under a trucker cap, futon in the back of his pick-up! He said, “Can I just get a beer real quick?” and then he was in there for many several minutes. When he was leaving, Angie asked him if he was a local. He hesitated for a second before saying yes. She asked him what was open that we could go to next. He said there was live music at The Oyster. Angie asked him if it was dog-friendly. He glanced down at Lizzie and said, “Depends, how much has she had to drink?” It was the funniest thing ever, really.

So… we went to The Oyster! (Ocracoke Oyster Company) We sat outside and ended up getting dinner here too. It was alright. Later Angie would be advised by somebody that there are much better places to eat. However, they had a kitchen that was open very late, and that was what we needed at the moment. I got a late night Bloody Mary here, but I don’t seem to have a photo. We had a fun time here together, as evidenced by this photo:

This place didn’t seem to get too crazy on a shoulder-season Saturday night. One very loud-mouthed girl came outside with a few guys. She was saying things like, “I’m a local!” and “This chair isn’t functioning properly” when she tried to sit down. She was mildly amusing until she got bitchy. Angie said something about being from Virginia, and she said, “Oooooooh, Virginia!!!” Not long after this, three bikers arrived. It was weird, but she just shut up after that. I don’t think the guys she was with were especially comfortable at that point, and they finally went away. Lizzie was so cute. There was nobody else out there on the patio at that point, so she just walked away from us and right up to this big biker guy. He started petting her. When he stopped, she just started doing her push-push thing, like “you will pet me more!!” It was quite adorable. We decided to call it a night not long after all this…

DAY NINE – Sunday, May 12th – Ocracoke, NC

We had breakfast this morning at Ocracoke Coffee Co. This is very close to our rental (also on Back Rd!), and I was very excited for it. The line on this day was ridiculously long! I got to a sign, “If you’re reading this, you are about 10 minutes away from ordering.” Ugh. But I was not leaving. It took well more than 10 minutes because people were ordering a whole bunch of obnoxious things. I recall hoping very much that these people were all leaving the island on this day. They had several picnic tables, so we sat outside. Ha, I got a text from Aaron saying he was in the long line, asking if we wanted anything! So we caught up with him there and then went back to pick up Angie.

We decided to spend the morning checking out the Ocracoke Lighthouse and Springers Point Nature Preserve. This lighthouse was not open for climbing, but it was the only one that I went inside. There was a park manager there rattling off fun facts.

The Springer Point nature trail was just a very short walk from the lighthouse…

When we got out to the point, a crazy thing happened to me. I had an allergic reaction of some sorts! The first thing I noticed was my ears swelling up, and then my head and neck got all itchy. I advised my peeps we needed to go back, and it was a very uncomfortable walk back to the cart. I started to feel like I could not breathe. We drove back to A&A’s B&B, and I threw up in the driveway. We went to a store for Benadryl and then back to our house. I was completely covered in hives. I took a shower and took a nap. When I woke up about 1 & 1/2 hours later, the hives were nearly all gone. My eyes and ears were still puffy, but I felt much better. I have no idea what caused this!! I had a chai smoothie and an everything bagel for breakfast. I don’t know if I was bitten by something (I’ve been bitten by several things actually, by now). I don’t know if there was some plant on that hike that didn’t agree with me. I read that food-allergy related hives go away quickly – but only 2% of hives are food-allergy related. I was petrified that this was going to ruin the rest of my vacation, so you can imagine my relief when I woke up feeling mostly back to normal!!

At some point during my napping, Angie had texted that they were back at 1718 Brewery. I asked Joel to take me there. They have a great outdoor seating area, and I figured I should eat something. There is a cafe there in conjunction with the brewery. I wasn’t expecting that A&A would still be there, but there were their smiling faces to see right when we pulled in!

I ate a little something and suggested that we should go to the beach. I was anxious to get onto an Ocracoke beach for a couple reasons. For one, I heard that the water is warmer here because the gulf stream waters get up here to Ocracoke and the south end of Hatteras. For another, I read that these beaches have some of the best shelling on the east coast! I don’t think anybody wanted to argue with the lady who made an incredible recovery from vomiting and hives just a few hours prior, so off to the beach we went!!

I could not decide on this day if the water was really any warmer. It was still a relatively cool day, although not as bad as the day we arrived. I wrote in my notes that it was some of the best shelling yet, but I have only a very small bag of shells from this trip. It was very windy though, so I think I suggested we could just move on rather than just torture my friends. The tide was going out, but it was not the low tide time that I wanted to look for shells – and I knew we’d have a few more days to do this!

We kept things pretty low-key after this. We went back to Zillie’s. We got a take-out pizza (no dine-in option at that place) and went back to our rental.

DAY TEN – Monday, May 13th – Ocracoke, NC

When I got to the coffee shop this morning, things were moving right along! It seems that most of those annoying people did leave yesterday. I just got a simple iced coffee this morning – not taking any chances after yesterday’s incident! We met up with A&A to get breakfast at Eduardo’s. It is a taco truck place that serves breakfast and lunch. Joel loved this place. We only made it here once, so, next time! I would like to try lunch here.

Angie & Aaron were checking out on this morning, so we went over to their B&B to check it out. It isn’t a dog-friendly place, so we just had a quick tour while El Dog stayed with Aaron outside. Angie took us up to the rooftop deck, but I could not make it all the way to the top. I DO think I could have made it up there, but I didn’t want to have to go down on my hands & knees in a skirts. Joel took a few pictures…

We went back to SmackNally’s for mimosa pitchers before A&A departed for the ferry…

We did some shopping before and after they left. There are a fun variety of stores here ranging from the cheap touristy stuff to the more pricey local artisan things. I had some book stores on my list but never made it into one until we got to Books To Be Red (see below). I bought a number of things here!!

Oh, here are two funny things we saw in our travels. The weird license plate was seen a few days back in Nags Head. The dog with the green hair was seen here in Ocracoke on this day.

After the shopping, we went to Dajio for lunch. How strange we’ve been here a couple times already, but this was our first meal! 🙂

El Dog has really come out of her shell here on this vacation! She has been pretty chill the whole time, but people really started giving her attention back when we were in Manteo and Nags Head. And she is embracing it! This has very much continued here in Ocracoke. Look at this here how she is all ready to settle in with this other family seated near us!!

Is she looking for a new family?! I can’t blame her if she wants to stay here, but I believe these are just other tourists. We stopped at Zillie’s on the way back from here to our rental – because Zillie’s is the best! Then we decided to go to the beach…

The beach we went to previously with A&A was just past the village city limits – the first beach access. We decided to go to one that our Airbnb host suggested that was “past the pony pens.” There are wild horses on Ocracoke too, but they are fenced off. This is on NC12 North going back towards the ferry dock. There was a busy beach access across from the ponies; I think this might be a life-guarded swimming beach during regular season. A few miles past this is a beach access lot which is just incredible! I think there was maybe one other car here on this afternoon. In later days we were the only ones there in the morning!

I had my best afternoon yet of shell collecting! Getting more excited to get out on the beach in the morning around low tide, especially now that we know this is a great spot!

We got more pizza take-out tonight for a lazy evening at home.

DAY ELEVEN – Tuesday, May 14th – Ocracoke, NC

The line at the coffee shop was the shortest yet this morning!

Joel also made great efforts to get up early so we could be at the beach for this 8:37am low tide! This was the best day for shelling by far! I ended up bringing two big bags of shells back to our rental.

It was still very early when we returned from the beach. We went back to a few gift shops that opened at 9 and 10:00am, as I was always thinking of some other thing I needed to have! On this day I bought Joel a perfect sweatshirt at the pirate themed gift shop.

We went back to Dajio – before they opened at 11:00am! But the bartender was already there working, so he just let us in early. It turns out you can get a very good Bloody Mary here too even though it’s not on the cocktail menu! We talked with the bartender for awhile; it turns out he was stationed up at Fort Drum (near Joel’s hometown) for a time. He also informed us that his girlfriend would be working the next day when we come back for another Bloody.

For lunch on this day we went to Helio’s Hideaway for Mediterranean fare! We would have ended up here sooner if not for their hours. I think they were 11-2 when we got here on the weekend? This was definitely my favorite food spot on the island, so I was sad we did not find the time to make it here sooner!

While we were waiting for the food to come out, I stopped into a tea store. There was nobody in there but the owner(?) and one customer who was talking her ear off! I said I’d be back after eating. She asked me if she could brew us anything in the meantime and I said no. This was a mistake.

This place got crazy busy by the time I went back in. I grabbed a tea and hurried to get in the line. There were two older women in line ahead of me, and they bought every single tea in town, I swear! It took forever. Some people who were waiting in line just left! I wanted to do the same, but I couldn’t be that rude to this nice woman working there! When I finally got up there with my jar of Island Coconut tea, I was just like, Fuck it, I’ve waited this long!! I ordered two hot teas along with a gift bag of it. Then I grabbed some other items (mostly flavored sea salts) that I had looked at earlier while she was making our teas. Joel read an entire friggin’ local newspaper while I was in there!!! It’s a good thing we’re on vacation!

We went to walk the Hammock Hills Nature Trail after lunch. It was sprinkling a little, but this hardly mattered because we were under the trees most of the time.

We went back to 1718 Brewery after the hiking…

Yes, El Dog is once again making friends with other people! It was raining when we left here, so we ended up calling it a night early again.

DAY TWELVE – Wednesday, May 15th – Ocracoke, NC

Our last day on Ocracoke! 😦 I was up early to be at the coffee shop at 7:00am when they opened. It was such fun with no line!

Once again, I suggested we should go to the beach! I figured it could be our last time. We all had such a nice time walking the beach in the mornings! It was just a perfect temperature! It was a little windy but perfectly fine in a light sweatshirt. There was never more than one or maybe two other people around, just passing by. I have never had a beach experience like this. I was hoping for an amazing shelling day since there were likely no people on the beach last night (rain). When we got down to the water, there were some amazing shells there, including a Scotch Bonnet, which I had been hoping to find. (We have seen several but all broken up.) I believe that some nice local left them there for tourists like us to find. We didn’t find a great bunch of shells that day. The beach was just all sand after that storm. It was a great last beach day nonetheless.

We went to the Ocracoke Preservation Society Museum after we wrapped up at the beach. There was once a pirate museum on the island, but it was permanently closed. Our Airbnb host informed us that they gave everything to the Preservation Society when they closed, so I was interested to see that. Unfortunately, I did just run thru the museum very quickly since I had left Joel & El sitting outside. After I got out of the gift shop, he took a turn looking around.

We did a little final shopping after we left the museum. Joel finally went into the pirate store while I sat in the cart with the dog!

Lizzie really had a great time riding around on the golf cart. She just rode on the back when we didn’t have passengers, and she seemed to really enjoy this!

After the museum and shopping, we went back to Dajio for our final 11:00am Bloody Mary. We once again had the whole back patio to ourselves. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day, sun popping out. I will always have fond memories of this.

We went to the Hot Dog Hut for lunch, mostly out of curiosity! I would certainly never eat a hot dog! It was a dog-friendly place, so why not.

I think maybe that place is more fun during the regular season. Or maybe not, who knows!

Anyway, we went back to 1718 Brewery one last time after we had lunch. We ended up staying there for quite some time because a big thunder storm came on through. Lizzie didn’t like that of course, but she was a really good girl. Once again, she made all sorts of friends while we were hanging around!

Funny thing, two of these women were the ones who held up the line at the tea place!! I guess all was forgiven for that though after they loved on our dog so much. They were really nice folks.

The sun came out again after the storm, so I had a crazy idea that we should go back to the ocean one last time. I had definitely had too much to drink at this point, and I got knocked right over by a giant wave when I wasn’t paying attention! I was lucky I didn’t get dragged right out to sea. Joel and El just sat their watching. I guess my dog won’t follow me everywhere after all. I can’t call it swimming, but I got completely covered in ocean. It was not cold! The water really is warmer here!

We decided to have our last dinner in Ocracoke at Dajio. I think we can safely say that this is our favorite spot, if we were really being forced to choose!

DAY THIRTEEN – Thursday, May 16th – Ocracoke, NC to Chesapeake, VA

We got up early and got right out of town. Once again I wasn’t considering the ferry times, but we timed it perfectly to get right on the 8:30am to Hatteras. It was a weekday, so there was construction going on. I would imagine they are just out here fixing this road every single day!

This ferry ride was much more pleasant – none of that choppy water! When we got off, there was a huge line of dump trucks waiting to get on the ferry to work on that construction project. What a crazy life it must be living on an island!

We stopped in Frisco to get something to eat.

I knew that the Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton was under reno, but we drove over there anyway to take a look at it. There were some people wandering about, but we didn’t get out of the car. We’ll come see this one again later when the work is done. I believe it was just moved to a new location.

These photos don’t show how huge it is. It looks so crazy with that scaffolding all around it, like a rocket or something.

We once again basically blew thru Hatteras Island, but it was a very nice drive. It was a beautiful day to be passing over the Oregon Inlet. I got some better pictures out the truck window this time…

We decided to stop in Nags Head to get coffees. We just picked a place at random that looked acceptable. Joel went in while I got situated with the dog at a picnic table. He came out all, “They’ve got Bloody’s!” So, we had our last Bloody Mary’s in the OBX and then got iced coffee to go. Don’t tell Lizzie this, but we were just a stone’s throw away from Mulligan’s! We didn’t even realize until we were leaving. It was meant to be a quick stop anyway.

After this we made right for Angie’s house!

We got to Chesapeake around 2:15pm for our final evening of relaxation before making the big drive back to Vermont.

Angie’s parents were leaving for a vacation, so they dropped off their Chihuahua, Milo. Fortunately, Lizzie likes little dogs, so she got along with him alright. She following him and herded him all around like a little mother hen, it was hilarious!

It was so nice to catch up with my old friend on this trip!

DAY FOURTEEN – Friday, May 17th – Chesapeake, VA to Fair Haven, VT

This was a long day of driving. We had a couple traffic jams and got turned around a couple times – again at the same horrible merging of two big highways. We left VA around 7:30am and got home at 7:15pm.