October Banks

I don’t know about you, but hands down, my favorite time to visit the ocean is during the autumn season. I can’t be sure when it happened, but my love of the hot summer months has definitely waned during adulthood, and given that I don’t really swim in the ocean anyway (I’ll blame an unnatural fear/fascination of sharks and other seemingly menacing salt water creatures) there doesn’t seem to be much point of sitting there in the scorching heat for eight hours at a time. But give me mild weather, a bathing suit/sweatshirt combo, an Amstel Light and the most recent copy of Martha Stewart Living and it’s a whole different story.

This past weekend, I got to indulge in that exact scenario, along with some of my favorite people. Robert, his good friend Robbie, Brigid and I spent a few days down in North Carolina, and we had the best time. We spent a few hours sitting on the beach each day, ate a lot of delicious seafood, spent some late nights playing cards and hanging out by the hot tub, and recovered in the mornings with Duck Donuts and coffee. Below are a few photos, if you’d like to see!

[We had gorgeous weather -- literally, blue sky with not a cloud in sight on Friday and Saturday.]

[Brig was brave and actually took a quick dip in the ocean!]

[me and my guy<3]

[By this point in time, there are probably about two million pictures of me and Brigid on the Internet. But I sort of love this one because we have laugh lines around our eyes. Is that weird?]

[We got hush puppies at Awful Arthurs on Friday night and they were so darn good. Every time I eat one I'm reminded of the way my cousin, Brett, described them to me over ten years ago: as "breaded funk."]

[So beautiful.]

[coconut shrimp]

[fish tacos]

[wine]

[On Saturday night we hit The Rundown Cafe for mixed drinks and some light fare. If I was going to make recommendations, I'd say go with the two dishes above, and add the hummus.]

[best friend selfie. I can't get over how annoying I look here. haha]

[I used to love loaded up donuts, but I have to say, the "sand" donut (cinnamon/sugar) has taken over as my favorite. That being said, there was a delicious pumpkin donut that I wish I was eating right now.]

Thanks for the great weather, Outer Banks! Until next time. :)