** please excuse the quality of the pictures, these were taken on older cameras **
One of the first vacations Jarrett and I took together was to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Jarrett’s parents were both born and raised in Virginia and the majority of his extended family still lives there. While Jarrett did grow up in New Hampshire, his whole family had a tradition of doing big getaways together in OBX. It had been years since the family had done one of those trips, so in 2012 his parents planned one, and luckily, I was invited! We left southern New Hampshire in the early morning hours, way before the sun had risen, around 3 AM. It was a pretty uneventful drive and took about 14 hours after factoring in bathroom and food breaks. The road trip was so exciting for me because prior to this, I hadn’t been south of New York!
The house we rented was in Nags Head, right on the beach next to Jeannette’s Pier. There were 12 of us staying there, plus Maverick, Jarrett’s family’s dog. The trip was in mid-May so the weather wasn’t the warmest – we probably only had about one good beach day – but it was still so nice taking Maverick for walks on the beach each evening. It’s crazy to think the trip was more than 10 years ago! I don’t remember all the things we did, but there were two activities that stuck with me.
About an hour north of Nags Head is the town of Corolla. One of the highlights of the town is to see the wild horses that live freely along the beach and the dunes. About 8 of us did a wild horse tour – we used Wild Horse Adventure Tours and our guide Willey was great. He was very knowledgeable about the horses and the land. Everyone piled into a big sand-buggy type vehicle and he drove us along the beach, through the dunes in hopes of finding a horse. There are a lot of people who live right near the dunes and they live harmoniously with the wild horses. There are a lot of rules surrounding the horses though. For instance, you need to stay a specific distance away from the animals, so if they are standing right outside your front door…well, then you can’t go out the door! It’s pretty incredible to see the horses grazing casually in people’s yards. I’d definitely recommend doing a tour if you go to OBX.
Another day of our trip, Jarrett and I went kayaking through the Kitty Hawk Woods Coastal Reserve. It was so peaceful and beautiful. When we got back to the rental booth, the woman working asked if we had seen any water snakes while we were kayaking. Luckily, we did NOT! I would’ve probably freaked out and flipped the kayak.
I really enjoyed our trip – honestly most of it was spent relaxing at the house, shopping and eating – but there were variety of activities available if we wanted to do more. I will say, in my twenties, my vacations were more about relaxing, drinking and eating. As I’ve gotten older, I appreciate exploring more than anything. As my blog progresses, my posts will be much more detailed, I promise!
Have you ever been to the Outer banks? If so, what did you think?
📍I acknowledge the lands mentioned in this post are the ancestral lands of the Lumbee and Roanoke people.
The Adventures of Suze 
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