North Carolina Beach Photography : Kill Devil Hills Beach House Trip

Thursday, August 27, 2015

I love traveling... trying new foods, seeing new places, experiencing different cultures, and I have a lot of those experiences to share! So I will be sharing more of my travels as it as influenced and inspired me as an artist and I hope it will in some way inspire you too, whether you are looking for some fun new places to take a vacation or are already planning one.

In May we had the opportunity to travel with the LDSSA (which stands for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Student Association) of my husbands school to the Outerbanks in North Carolina. It was a blast. Perfect temperature and a reasonable rate for the large group that we were for renting a large beach house. It was one of the largest in Kill Devil Hills available. Who came up with the name "Kill Devils Hills" anyway? My husband and I joked that we might not want to go there as we are coming from Duke, and their mascot is the Blue Devil, so whoever came up with the name must really be a UNC fan. Haha. Anyway, it use to be called Kitty Hawk... the town where the Wright Brothers created the first airplane. But we learned that the title of the town was due to the high winds that could "kill" a devil they were so strong. So ok... I guess they thought the phrase "kitty" in their name didn't put them on the "taken seriously" spectrum enough so they had to come up with something crazy opposite to get attention.

I think we had the pinkest house on the street! PLENTY of room. Really I don't know the next time we will stay in this size of a place until we go back again in May that is... anyway, but after that, unless we have a family reunion or school reunion there really was so much room. A mini theater room, 2 kitchens, several nooks and such for the kids to play in, a game room, a pool and the best part was there was a private boardwalk right out to the beach so we could take morning or evening strolls at our fancy. And the price... manageable. It was just pre-season so warm enough to hop in the pool most of the days but still chilly so we didn't really jump in the ocean at all, which was fine with having our little ones who were more interested in the sand and only dipping toes anyway.

Some of the things that I liked about this beach:
1. It was clean 2. Not very crowded for the time we went 3. A lot of fun little finds for the kids to collect 4. Medium sized waves that I wasn't stressing about the kids being swept away. 5. The time of year we went, the sand wasn't crazy hot! My little ones were content playing in it for hours (btw, I have found that taking a old shower curtain does wonders for making a quick pool that you aren't having to constant refill for the kiddos moats and such. We just bury that into the sand as the base) 6. Picturesque views. Especially with the wood fences lining the beach.

And as many people who know me, one way to my heart is good food! All the girls did an outing and we went to a place called Food Dudes for lunch followed by a little outlet shopping. AMAZING fish tacos. This is been added to my bucket list of domestic goals in the kitchen. Savory. Perfect textures and vibrant flavor. I will try to go again our next visit.

One of the unique stops about Kill Devil Hills is the Sand Dunes. Earlier in the morning before it gets too hot it the best time to go as you want to be able to walk the sand barefoot. After parking and making our way out on the boardwalk to the entrance on the sand, we removed our shoes and step onto the finest sand. I mean, it feels amazing on your feet! So soft and soothing almost. The dunes acquire that fine tune with all the time they spend on land just being rolled about with the wind over the years. We didn't know what to plan for going but brought our boogie board with the hope of doing some kind of sledding down the sand dunes. After a little experimentation we figured the best way was to have a child ride with an adult quickly guiding them down the hill backwards holding the rope.

If you were more adventurous then we were you could go hang gliding off Jockey's Ridge. Maybe someday. I think having kids is adventurous enough for me for now.

A little dream house shopping. I am all for the Pickett fence look.

Nag's head was a quiant stop that I really enjoyed. I would have loved to go a bit earlier in the day to do some antique shopping but what was sweet about window shopping is that several stores had little signs saying that they would send someone over if you wanted to shop and to just call a number. We all stopped at Ortegaz for dinner there. I loved the mango salsa on my Ahi Steak with a crabcake and russet mashed potatoes with grilled vegetables.