From Manteo to Dirty Dicks

Wednesday, we spent the entire day in Manteo.
After breakfast at the beach house, and stopping by Dunkin Donuts for a coffee, we hit up the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse.  I have to admit it wasn't much to see, but it was cool to read the story of how it was moved inland from it's position way out in the sound.  The fact that it was actually used as a lighthouse for the marshes made up for the fact that it was little and not so exciting.  And it was crazy to think that someone lived in it way out in the middle of the sound, only reachable by boat.

As we were walking along the waterfront, a pirate ship filled with little kids moved by and we spotted the Elizabeth II, a ship replica over across the water.  We decided to walk over to Roanoke Island and the Festival Park to check out the Elizabeth II.  However, when we got over there and realized you had to pay just to enter the area, and it looked geared towards kids, we turned around and walked back across the bridge and straight on over to our lunch spot.

Poor Richard's is a spot I visited as a child.  We decided to try it for lunch along with every other person hanging out in Manteo that day.  Kevin got a crab-cake sandwich and I decided on the BLT with vegetable chicken soup (which I have to admit, I was a little scared to try).  Well, it was AMAZING!  We stuffed ourselves to the brim and headed out on adventure again.

It was hot and after a bit of wandering around and checking out the shops downtown, we decided to head back over to Fort Raleigh (where we had seen the Lost Colony the night before), because we knew we'd be able to explore in the shade.

Well, we found the fort and then started walking the trails.  It was peaceful in the woods!  One path lead down to the water's edge, while another had a water view with a bench.  We took our time and read the placards along the way-although most were annoyingly written in olde English and we couldn't understand them.

The last thing I was interested in before we headed back to Nags Head was the Christmas Shop...so we started driving in that direction, but had to take a pit stop at the Duke of Dare.  Now closed forever, it's a spot my mom stayed with my dad way back in the day (maybe on their honeymoon).  When we were little, mama took my sister and me down to Manteo and we stayed at the Duke of Dare, but not for long.  It was run down by this point and there was water dripping from the ceiling onto our bed.  I don't know if we even lasted one night, before changing hotels.  We both laughed back then because we couldn't imagine it being anything magnificent.  So, a bit of nostalgia ran through me and it was a little sad to see that it's officially closed.  I decided I needed some pictures for old times sake.  So, there was that, and the Christmas Shop (which did nothing for us) and then we headed back over the bridge.

We decided to check out Jeanette's Pier.  We didn't want to pay just to walk on the pier, so we sat in the shade on the side and watched the waves and people on the beach for awhile.  It was super relaxing.  We went in and got ice cream cones and I rode the turtle before heading back to the beach house.

Sometime between getting back to the house and leaving for dinner, there was a rain shower and this lovely rainbow greeted us on the deck of the Pier House Restaurant before we sat down for dinner.

Oh the seafood was so good!  We had hot crab dip and fried shrimp with slaw and hushpuppies for dinner.  Yum!  Dinner came with a free walk on the pier, so we took our walk before heading out towards Jockey's Ridge.

In the many times I've been down to the Outer Banks, I've never actually been to Jockey's Ridge.  We always just drove by "the huge sand dune on the wrong side of the road".  So, I was really excited to get out and have the chance to hike to the top.  We went right at sunset and found a park ranger at the top, who we chatted with until the sun sunk below the sound.  It was gorgeous and a perfect way to end a very busy, but relaxing day!

I had to add these two photos separately because they are some of my favorite that I've ever taken!  It was a beautiful night!

 

Thursday morning we got up and headed over to Sam & Omies for breakfast.  Another "staple" that been in Nags Head forever.  My mama enjoyed a good meal at Sam & Omies back in the day and took us there for dinner one night when we were a little older (a separate trip from the Duke of Dare) only to find it taken over by bikers.  We were quickly loaded back up in the car and ate dinner somewhere else.  Hard to believe based on the breakfast clientele we found.  The food was AMAZING and we enjoyed just sitting, talking and savoring each bite!

We left breakfast and went back to the beach house ready for a day on the beach.  However, that's when the rain started.  It poured and poured and poured.  Thank goodness for CMT and a show called Party Down South (a trashy mix between Jersey Shore and The Real World, with some redneck thrown in there).  As it rained, we proceeded to watch about 8 episodes of Party Down South until we were both addicted!  It was horribly delightful and made the day perfect!

Our view for at least 8 hours that day!

Our friends and parts of the wedding party started arriving Thursday night, so we pried ourselves away from the tv to join them for dinner at Dirty Dicks.  The service was great and the food was enough for an army!  Seriously, Billy's burger was as big as his head.

After dinner we went back to their condo and hung out until it was time to go catch some z's.

I'll wrap up our trip in the next post, so check back soon!