Beach Weekend

Friday was my last day of school for two months.  Hee-Haw!  To celebrate we headed to the beach for the weekend.  My principal kindly let us leave on Friday as soon as our work was complete, so for the first time since last summer, it was light when we crossed the bridge to enter the OBX.

Our very favorite restaurant on the Outer Banks is Tortugas Lie, so we quickly unpacked and headed to mile-post eleven hoping that it wouldn’t be too crowded.  The place was rocking and rolling with Friday night excitement.  After a short wait, we snagged two seats at the bar.  The people watching was great and it’s always fun to read the license plates from all over nailed to the ceiling.  (They have really good iced tea if you are picky about your tea like I am.)

Saturday could not have been a more beautiful day. In the morning we drove to Duck to the Sanderling’s Pine Island Racquet Club for a tennis clinic with a pro we met last winter.  It’s a long drive there from my mom’s beach house but was well worth it as the instruction was great.  We both liked that many parts of the clinic were filmed.   We both got some great pointers for improving our serves, although Mr. SP has a great one already.  Seeing myself on film made it much easier for me to visualize what the pro wanted me to do as he explained technique.

When we go to the beach, we like to EAT!  After tennis we headed to another favorite restaurant, Rundown Café.  There aren’t too many places to eat with a view of the ocean but this place has both good food and a nice view.

It’s soft shell crab season and I couldn’t get them enough this weekend.  (I also had them in Baltimore a few weekends ago.)

Mr. SP’s favorite at Rundown is the fish burrito.  I love that he’s now trained to photograph his food.  Doesn’t this look good?

We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach.  Ahhh!

I love to watch Pelicans.  Thank goodness this species was saved from near extinction.  Every year there seems to be more and more of them.  What I would really like to see is a turtle nest, especially if I could watch the babies hatch out and make their way to the ocean.

We went for a walk and just missed a wedding.  I couldn’t resist getting a few pictures of the bride and groom.  Note that her hair is adorned with starfish. 

One of the best things about my mom’s house is her covered porch.  Post beach we relaxed with our books.  If I had a place at home, I’d have a swing like this one.

Mr. SP made all of these Adirondack chairs for Mama when she first bought the house.

Soon it was time to eat again.   We’ve been wanting to try a local favorite, Blue Moon Beach Grill, for a long time and finally got our chance this weekend.  The wait for a table was 45 minutes but we snagged two seats at the bar pretty quickly.  We’d both rather sit at the bar anyway because we like to talk.  We met a really nice local couple who we saw again later that night at the new, fabulous Jennette’s Pier.  To all of the North Carolina tax payers, thanks for building such a great pier for tourists like us to enjoy.  The food at Blue Moon is incredible.  We shared some Calamari and then I had fish tacos and Mr. SP had Shrimp and Grits.  We both agreed that it would be hard for any restaurant to be much better than Blue Moon.

Look carefully at the bar.  It’s brand new, made of copper than was somehow burned to make a pattern.

Sunday we intended to ride our bikes but it started raining so we washed Mama’s windows and did some cleaning and repairs.  The rain stopped by early afternoon giving us an opportunity to play some tennis at Kilmarlic.  The bikes made a long trip for no use!  Next time!

Outer Banks Brewing Station was our dinner stop for Sunday.  Soft shell crabs were the special and we both had them.  Mr. SP likes their beer and their iced tea is on my approved list.

We will head home on Monday after we spend the day at Busch Gardens.  We both love roller roasters and haven’t been to an amusement park in several years.

This weekend was a great start to my summer!