Week in Corolla on the Outer Banks, May, 2014

I spent last week in Corolla on the Outer Banks with my sister Kim and brother-in-law Don…

Kim hooked us up w/ a great house that was one row of houses back from the beach. Since there was no house in front of us, we had an ocean view from the top floor which conveniently was the main living area w/ kitchen. The house was well configured with five bedrooms, private baths, separate den, pool, hot tub, etc. We could walk to the beach in about three minutes.

Grocery shopping was only about a mile away. The Timbuck II shopping area, where there was all kinds of shopping including clothes, beach gear, arts and crafts, and such, was about three miles up the road toward downtown Corolla. We got some great deals on what I assume was merchandise left over from the previous season. There were a number of eateries there also. We had a good lunch at the First Light Breakfast and Burgers and I enjoyed a beer at the Mike Dianna’s Grillroom where I sat on the patio and watched the resident Ospreys in a nest on a light pole about fifty feet way. There also I proceeded to irreparably damage my binoculars when they fell off the roof of my car right on the adjustable eyepiece.

Downtown Corolla was about six miles away. We were there a few times at the Currituck Heritage Park checking out the Whalehead complex, the Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, and the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. Kim overcame her fear of heights and braved the climb to the top of the lighthouse from where the views were incredible! Don’s mother came down on Thursday so we headed off to Duck about ten miles south where we did more window shopping at Timbuck I, Nag’s Head Hammocks (great place), and the Scarborough Lane Shoppes. We had a good lunch at the Sunset Grille and Raw Bar on the patio with a view of the sound.

I got a good paddle in launching from the Currituck Heritage Park which appears to be the only public launch site on the Sound north of Duck. That surprised me. I had a few good bird sightings but mostly paddled in the marshes staying out of the open where the chop was at about 1 to 1.5 feet. Thank God for my touring kayak. I also got a couple of good bike rides in, one with Don, on a road through a private community. We had to crash the gate but there was a nice bike path and on the roads traffic was minimal.

The weather for the trip was gorgeous. We hardly needed any AC and were able to enjoy the cool breezes and the crashing of the waves with windows open. However, the cooler weather meant that the pool and the ocean weren’t quite up to tolerable temperatures. We did however get in the pool and I ventured into the ocean as the week went on and the temperatures went up. Overall the weather meant for great relaxing at the pool, on the beach, and on the patios. There we got in some good birdwatching and lots of picture taking. See below for some sample pictures. I’ll post some more up on my photo album shortly.

Don, lucky devil that he is, saw a Gray Fox and a Bobcat in our yard. I saw a massive Raccoon prowling on the edge of the marsh in Duck. We also had numerous dolphin sightings from the beach and saw turtles everywhere.

Last but not least, we took a tour of the 4 x 4 only part of the OBX where we had numerous Mustang sightings and got a feel for life up there. It is definitely isolated and hard to get there. Due to the high water table, the “roads” are half submerged in many places and the Humvees, from Wild Horse Adventure Tours, were much needed. As wild and beautiful as the area, centered around the town of Carova, is, I am not sure I could live there year round as some of the owners of the 112 houses there do.

The week was great but as always went by way to fast. Many thanks to Kim and Don for including me on the trip!

New beers I enjoyed: