Skookum Traveler: Outer Banks (NC)

In late May, Kris and I cobbled together most of a week away from work for a trip to Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, Norfolk and the Outer Banks, which had been high on the list for some time. We moteled it in Williamsburg and walked around the historic town late in the day and early the next. After a quick visit to Jamestown (America’s first settlement), I lost Kris in a big bookstore and stepped outside to watch a rather spectacular thunderhead sidle by. In the morning (May 23^rd), we drove the historic parkway to Yorktown and enjoyed a very nice talk by a volunteer about the battle—and the serendipity—that saved America.

From there, we booked on down to Norfolk in time for a bus tour of the Navy base there. My dad served at Norfolk in 1949-50. Mom had given me some letters from back then and we used them to track down their old address. The house was no longer there, but an old dive bar was on the corner next door. I called Mom to tell her where we were and she was quite upended to hear. The memories came back and she recalled that they paid their rent to the owner of the bar. The beach was just a block away.

We continued over to First Landing State Park to nab our campsite for the night, and enjoyed a colorful sunset on the beach. The next day we continued the drive to the Outer Banks and found a campsite near Cape Hatteras in time to enjoy some therapeutic beach time with wading, lounging, eating and shell hunting.

We decided to spend the next day in Okracoke and caught the little car ferry early for the circuitous cruise among the shifting sand bars over to the namesake island. I had friends, Gary and Julie, who once lived in Okracoke, and after asking about them over breakfast, found that Julie was actually there in town. We tracked her down and enjoyed a great visit, as well as meeting her ex, who gave us a personalized historic tour of his grandpappy’s cottage. The town grew on us big time and it was tough to leave. We missed our ferry and caught another at sunset for the magical cruise back to Hatteras. By then, a certain spousal representative was lobbying for a motel room. Despite being in the midst of a holiday weekend, we found a room and retrieved our tent the next day.

Our final day was action-packed, with a hike up the stairs of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (whoa, what a view), an enjoyable stop at the Wright Brothers Memorial near Kitty Hawk, and some brief dawdling in Norfolk and Newport News. It was a long drive home, but the Wilcoxes were fully recharged for another week of work.