March 10-12, 2017
My sister's spring break coincided with an old friend's spring break, and together with a third friend, the four of us set off for the Outer Banks - specifically Nag's Head - for a weekend trip. The four of us don't get to see each other often though we've all known each other since we were young, so we were excited to get a full weekend in.
The weeks leading up to our trip were unseasonably warm and I had mentally prepared myself to return with my skin turned several shades pinker. Instead, the weekend was bitingly cold and we woke up to snow flurries Sunday morning.
Saturday was our most active day, as the Airbnb we booked was conveniently located on the island and we were at most 5 miles from each of the sights. We tried walking on the beach but between the 40 degree temperature and the ferocious ocean wind we only made it down one short stretch before giving up. One of my favorite places in OBX is Jockey's Ridge, the largest natural sand dune on the East Coast. We visited twice - once in the afternoon to get a good view of the whole island and once in the evening to watch the sun set over the sound. The view of the sunset was breathtaking and wholly worth the difficult run through the loose sand up the steep side of the dune.
We tried visiting Bodie Island Lighthouse, but as the interior doesn't open until April we instead opted to hike around the marshes surrounding it and make our way to the sound side. The dunes on the ocean side muffle the noise of the waves and the path we took was far enough from the highway that we couldn't hear any cars, and the area was wholly, blissfully silent. We took a few minutes to embrace the silence, enjoying the lack of noise that comes with living in the city.
The weekend was a refreshing break from the usual day-in-day-out routine, and combined with some good, old (introverted) friends, didn't leave me running for a break from humanity the way travel usually does. Many of the restaurants and tourist activities were closed as it was technically off-season, but we were still able to enjoy ourselves and the area.
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