For our annual beach trip we returned to the Outer Banks.
This time, though, it felt different. What we like about OBX is that it’s not as crowded as the the other locations that tend to draw a college crowd. Virginia Beach, Rehoboth Beach, Ocean City. OBX is definitely a touristy area, but it’s still mostly a small community of locals with an easy-going atmosphere. And not that it was blatant, this is Trump country and it felt, well, different this time.
No one was rude and a few people really went all out to make us feel welcome. For instance, we looked up popular BBQ joints and found Carolina BBQ & Seafood Company. When we first went inside, we were greeted with a mass of flags all over the walls, and these flags screamed Southern pride. From Dixie flags to christian flags to, well, I’m not sure what they all were, but it was obvious we were in the south. I have no issues with taking pride in your heritage and if it’s the confederate south, so be it.
We got stares, but maybe it was curiosity. As in how did we find this local joint. Perhaps we were being cynical, but I’m not going to get into the conversations I had with others I talked to during this trip who proudly defended and explained why Trump was such a great leader. I just held my tongue. I have no issues with people having their opinions.
Back to Carolina BBQ & Seafood Company. When we went to order our food, the server, well, she was very friendly. Very welcoming. All was good, until we found out that this BBQ joint didn’t have ribs. The funny part was Nduku decided to give the famous pulled pork a try but had no idea what pulled pork was. I forgot she’s not from the south like me.
But whatever, the food was good. But it was when we were leaving that stood out the most. There apparently was at least one person who was watching us. The owner. And as we were leaving, he came running up to us and I must say, this dude really wanted to make sure we enjoyed our visit. He asked about our meals, though Nduku didn’t go into details of how pulled pork isn’t her thing. He reminded me of what I miss about the south that simply doesn’t exist in DC. That southern hospitality. He wasn’t concerned if we had a bad experience; he wanted to make sure that we knew that what made the place so great was that the owner appreciates everyone who steps foot into his small establishment. And we did.
Just wanted to give him a little shout out before reminiscing about our trip. Go eat there.
Around the corner from Carolina BBQ & Seafood Company is the NC Aquarium. We had time to kill since the rain made a trip to the beach pointless.
At the entrance of the North Carolina Aquarium, there’s a big screen that superimposes animals on the screen. When watching the people in the lobby, you have no idea why they’re behaving the way they are. But you get it when you see what they see when looking at the screen.
The rain did let up after a while but the sun still wasn’t poking its head out so we did a round of miniature golf. Usually Najwa and I will do miniature golf around midnight when in Virginia Beach. It’s kind of our thing. But mommy doesn’t stay up that late and she hadn’t played miniature golf before, so it was good having her come out with us this time.
I was going to bring my bike, but we just got the bike rack and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to test out how well I put it on driving 70 miles an hour on the highway for six hours. So, I left it in DC. Fortunately, I found Outer Banks Bicycles that rented them for the weekend. Road bikes. Carbon.
The plan was to take rides when the sun went down after the beach trips. And I did, once at least. Only issue was that it didn’t come with a light and unlike DC which is well lit at night, there are some pockets where it’s pitch black. I literally couldn’t see the road beneath my feet. I didn’t go very far that first night.
But when the sun finally did come out and the ladies spent the day at the beach, I made up for the lost night. I took the wheels about 15 miles down the road to Bodie Island Lighthouse. Definitely experienced headwinds and patches of sand that made the thin wheels of a road bike feel unstable, but never having ridden a carbon bike, it was like riding on a cloud.
The ride out there was pretty straightforward. But the day after it rained, there were some massive puddles I had to navigate around. Eventually I made it though.
Good trip. Not sure if we’ll come back to OBX. Nothing to do with it being Trump country. If anything some of the conversations I had were quite entertaining. But Najwa is getting older and always wants to do more and more and more and there isn’t as much to do on the tiny sliver of land as there is in those places designed to attract as many people as possible.
But one thing OBX has that we’ll probably not find anywhere else was this gem of a place Nduku found for a quick lunch on our way out. I mean, how can you resist a place called Biscuits & Porn? The food was absolutely delicious. The way they make the biscuits, the butteriness if that’s a word. The hash browns put all hash browns I ever had to shame. The line was wrapped around the store and when I say store, it’s basically a food counter inside gas station. Literally. If we ever do decide to come back to OBX, this will be the reason why.
Of course, as we hit the highway to head home, Najwa asked, “what’s porn?”
contrails 