This summer is a strange one for sure….  We had major plans – my kids were going to a sleep-away camp in New Hampshire for 4 weeks, my husband and I were going to do short get-aways while they were away and then there was an Alaskan cruise and a visit to Vancouver… Needless to say, none of these plans came to life and as we were looking at more and more things being cancelled I told my husband that it was either going to be one LOOONG and very BOOOOORING summer or we could try to make this summer as fun as we possibly could with many ‘local-ish’ trips.

I know we are so fortunate that we are able to make this summer fun and travel locally: my husband is working remotely these days so as long as there is WiFi he could work anywhere.  And I have a pretty great boss so needless to say my schedule is flexible:)  So we decided to make lemonade out of all lemons this summer thrown us and scheduled a few family vacations.

First one was a trip to Corolla in the Outer Banks in North Carolina.   Outer Banks is a place we’ve heard a lot about and wanted to visit for a while but what made that trip even more awesome was the fact that we rented a house with my sister’s family so it was not just a trip to a beautiful beach town but we also got to spend a whole week with people we LOVE and have not seen since Christmas!  My girls were so excited about seeing their cousins and I could not wait to give my sister a big big hug.  And let me tell you, after not being able to get close to people outside of my immediate family of 4, it was SOOO GOOD to be able to give someone else a hug!  My girls said it was one of the best trips EVER and I have to say I agree – it was so wonderful to be in a place that was almost ‘normal’.  Sure, there was limited capacity in restaurants (not that we went to a lot of them) and yes we had to place a takeout order for dinner at 3 PM to make sure they did not ‘run out’ of spots and yes we wore masks everywhere and did not do anything that required us to be close to strangers.  But we ate delicious foods, we swam at the pool, we went to the beach, we checked out national parks, had ice cream and donuts and a wonderful time!

We packed a lot of fun in a week – here is a glance into what we did – and if you scroll below you can get practical info such as tour companies we used and restaurants we checked out.

We spent time at the beach – it was private (so pretty empty)  and just 5 houses down from the place we stayed at!:

We took a private tour and saw wild horses (and a rainbow over the ocean):

We had a lobster boil and solved princess puzzles:

we rented a pontoon, got caught in a crazy storm about 15 minutes after we took it out and ended out doing a repeat the following morning, which went much smoother:

we climbed dunes of super awesome Jockey Ridge state park:

we checked out Elizabethan Gardens 

we even did a mini cousins photoshoot at the beach:

we saw amazing sunrises and did early morning beach walks:

and we just enjoyed being together!

Practical Info
Restaurants

Outer Banks Boil Company  – it was the top rated restaurant for Corolla so I knew we had to try it – besides who does not love a lobster boil?!!  The food was really good (even though it took forever to boil!) and we really enjoyed it – highly recommend

Duck Donuts – we’ve heard about this made-to-order donuts even before we came to OBX so we knew we had to try it.  And then we found it that one of their locations was literally less than a 5 minute walk from the house we rented.  So needless to say we had a lot of these donuts:)  My ‘expert’ advice to you is NOT to go first thing in the morning – they open at 7 AM and I thought it would be wise to get there at that time, which was a mistake – it took me over an HOUR to get our donuts!  Next time we went there a bit later – around 8:30 or 9 and the line was much shorter.

Agave Roja – we did a takeout from this place and it was AWESOME!

Uncle Ike’s – did a takeout from this place – meh – would not recommend – way too salty and none of the people who worked there wore masks!

Tour Companies

We rented our pontoon from Corolla Watersports–  the boats were great and the guys who worked there were super helpful.  AND if that was not enough, they have two very cute dogs walking around!

Wild Horse Adventure  – they did a good job with social distancing – there were 9 of us and we were able to get our own private humvee, which was pretty great.  Did not love the tour guide and did not see that many wild horses but the sceanery was spectacular and it was a nice activity to do while in the Outer Banks

Places to Visit

Jockey Ridge’ State Park – desert is my favorite landscape so of course I LOVED this park.  If you have time I highly recommend checking it out – it is pretty small – we were in and out in about 1.5 hours but very different from everything else we’ve seen in the OBX.

Elizabethan Gardens – my husband ‘discovered’ this place and at first the girls and I were not too thrilled about going but I am so glad we did because it was pretty awesome!  We were tired by the time we go there (it was after our hike through Jockey Ridge) and hungry so only spent about an hour there but you can definitely spend a lot more time there – beautiful landscaped gardens with cool plants and interesting statues sprinkled in everywhere.

Just two days before we were supposed to go back home, New Jersey announced that all visitors from North Carolina should quarantine for two weeks upon returning to New Jersey.  To be super safe, in addition to quarantine we also took covid tests (negative).  But despite having to stay home for two weeks and get our nose swab tests, this trip was still SO WORTH IT!