Back from the OBX

Hello dear friends!

I am back again!

Back from the beach that I love so much.

Back from Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks in the state of North Carolina.

Oh my how much I love this area of the world. It is probably my second favorite place on this earth (my summer house in Närpes takes the first spot).

But the OBX is an extra kind of wonderful.

I need my OBX fix every year. I am already looking forward to next June.

Peter, Keith (slept over at our place since we had to leave so early) and I jumped into our PACKED Subaru Forester early Saturday morning to pick up Karolina and Mike at Dulles Airport.

Their flight landed at 06:15. From there, we all settled into the the Forester and continued our trek southeast. We stopped for breakfast and lunch along the way. I believe the drive took us about 6 hours door to door.

 

Here we are on the long bridge that is taking us to The Outer Banks.  A very special and super good kind of feeling!  The name of the bridge, Wright Memorial Bridge.
And now we are in the OBX.  Time to race for your destination on the banks.  For us, it is Cape Hatteras National Seashore!

A short stop in the grocery store before we headed for our destination.  We found this hard seltzer.  We did not buy it, but I think it is kinda funny.  By the way, I am not a fan of hard seltzer, but the younger ones are.

And here we are on the long bridge over Oregon Inlet.  We are about to reach Hatteras Island.

When you are driving out to the more remote areas of the OBX, the road looks like this.  You are surrounded by sand dunes.  The Atlantic Ocean is on your left side and the Pamlico Sound on you right.  You can not see land at all from the Pamlico Sound.  You are, literally, in the middle of the ocean.

Our rental house was good.

I have zero complaints. It had good, friendly vibes (Karolina and I can sense these things easily as we enter a new place).

It had the regular, classic beach house layout.

Laundry room and storage on the first floor.   The second floor had four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The upper level is, as always on the beach, the social area. Here you can find the big living room, dining room, kitchen and a half bathroom. Open layouts (except the loo, haha).

On the top level there was a big deck, we had happy hours there every night. On the second level you also had two decks.

The house came with its own private pool and jacuzzi. Very important, yes it is. It is so beyond nice to have a private pool. It is a must for us, spoiled brats, to have a pool when we rent a beach house.

A big huge shout out goes to Keith for renting yet another fab house in Salvo.

Our house in Salvo.

The living room.

The dining room table.

NO we did not use the fireplace :-)

The kitchen, very functional.

The pool was in the back of the house.

The deck outside our bedroom.  Yes, I hung out in the hammock at times.

We love the area that consists of the three villages Rodanthe-Waves-Salvo.

It is remote and it is simple. Therefore, it is the best!

We all settled in. 

Peter, Keith and I went to pick up three BIG pizzas from the VERY popular island establishment, Lisa’s Pizza. And yes, we had to wait an hour and a half to get them!! Sure, this place is PACKED on arrival days. In the meantime, the young couple took a nap.

It was so lovely to hang out on the upper deck with the gang. 

The pizzas tasted extra good. The company was fantastic and the drinks were so very good in the hot and humid evening.

 

The following morning I started my walk at 5:30.

I did NOT want to miss the sunrise on the beach.

And no, I did NOT miss it. I caught it!

As I walk from our house over the sand dunes to the beach.

The sky and ocean, so very lovely.

And just as always, I get emotional as the sun rises.

It gets me every damn time.

It is so special, first you just see the light in the east, then you start seeing a sliver of the rising sun and then it goes so fast. All of sudden the sun is rising over the horizon.

This never, ever, ever, ever gets old. I do not live by the ocean, maybe if I did I would feel different.

The sunsets have the same effect on me.

Can you ever get tired of sunrises and sunsets? I do not think so.

 

The light before the sun is rising.

It is starting ...

It goes so fast ...

And it takes my breath away.

This is what I am here for!

All right, my dears, I’ll be back tomorrow again with more from Salvo, OBX, North Carolina.

I hope ALL is good with ALL of you!