Our Road Trip to the Outer Banks 2017 – Part 5

With Saturday and Sunday, our big summer vacation was coming to a close.

Saturday consisted of much lounging around for most people, with some time on the beach before it started to rain again..

Last dinner in OBX (or was it?)

Last dinner in OBX (or was it?)

I decided to squeeze one more bike ride in and make it over the 100-mile mark for the week. I went south one more time, and rode about 1:15 towards Roanoke Island. I was sorely tempted to ride all the way to Roanoke Island itself, but the bridge across the channel had no sidewalk or shoulder, and cars were zooming by at 60 MPH. I wouldn’t say I was sacred, but I had a bad feeling that this was “a bridge to far” (if I am allowed to reference that classic WWII film), and I was taking a large risk trying to make it across. So, I erred on the side of caution and turned around. I rode 20.08 miles that day in a little over an hour, and my total for the week was 110 miles. Pretty awesome.

While everyone else ordered out dinner, the Ipes decided to strike out on our own for a family dinner at the Outer Banks Brewing Station. After a week of being with everyone, it was nice to get a little change. After we came back, we finished washing the laundry, packed up our luggage, and loaded most of our stuff in the car.

I woke up early Sunday morning and went out to check out the sunrise and the beach. It was beautiful. Just beautiful. How come we had to wait a whole week for this? I mean, look at it!

OBX 2017 (131 of 141)

What to do? We were leaving in a few hours. We finished loading the car, made sure the house was clean, said our good byes, and then we were off. The plan was a quick breakfast and coffee nearby, visit the Wright Brothers National Memorial, then get on the road. We unexpectedly met the Fernandez family briefly at the same coffee shop, then went to the the Wright Brothers National Memorial. First we listened to a park ranger give a rousing background on the Wright Brothers, then we took a walk to the actual memorial on the top of Kill Devil Hill (A ha! That’s the name of the town.) It was a beautiful day — all sun, warm breeze. Where was this weather all week? And we’re going home?

OBX 2017 (139 of 141)Well, on the way back down the hill, Namita pulls me aside and asks, “What if we stayed another day?” It wasn’t a crazy idea. A quick check found available rooms at the Holiday Inn in Nags Head right on the beach for a reasonable fee. So made a non-refundable reservation, refueled the car, hit the hotel, got a parking pass, changed in the hotel lobby restroom, got our stuff, and walked onto the beach. We spend an amazing day at the beach. We had lunch on the beach. The kids used their boogie boards. I joined the kids in the water for a long while.

Best $249 we’ve ever spent.

We checked in officially around 5 pm, and then freshened up for dinner. We had dinner at Tortuga’s Lie, then came back to watch a little TV, chill out, and sleep. In the morning, we grabbed a quick hot breakfast downstairs, then we got on the road for home. We did hit some traffic driving through Maryland and Delaware, but got home in the late afternoon to find two cats mildly happy to see us.

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