OBX, May 2021

Salt Box Cafe, hidden in the Colington section of Kill Devil Hills has been our take-out option for the last year. This trip we dined in person. The restaurant is small, so reservations fill quickly, but the screened in patio takes walk-ins.

We followed our serene upscale dining experience with a stop at the tourist trap, Sugar Kingdom.

Corolla is on the northern tip of the drivable OBX. To travel past Corolla, you’ll need a ORV, as Highway 12 turns into a beach road. From the beach entrance across from Corolla lighthouse, I walked south 8 miles to Currituck beach. In between walks, we checked out the bookstore and crafts shop in historic Corolla Village.

It is important to note that this is the point where I added the pink hat to my “Walking OBX” endeavor.

I attempted to walk a four-mile stretch from Rodanthe to Avon, but was once again thwarted by the mating behavior of some type of OBX avian. This time, Alex and I could wave at each other across the football field size stretch of sanctuary temporarily reserved for bird courtship. This stretch of OBX isn’t inhabited (by humans), but is open to ORVs, so luckily the next entrance with parking for Alex only required backtracking for two miles.

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in Manteo is the archeological site of the “Lost Colony” of English men and women in the late 16th century. The museum tells the story of the purpose of the expedition, and about the early encounters with the Algonquin people who lived on the land where the colonists built their settlement. Finally, studying artifacts recovered and the site and reading the documented history, guests are asked which theory for the disappearance of the colonists is the most realistic.

The Outer Banks of North Carolina was one of the first areas in the South to come under control of Northern troops, and Roanoke Island was settled by people who were formerly enslaved. In front of the visitor center is a marker that commemorates the island as a “Freedmen’s Colony.”

The Elizabethan Gardens in Manteo were created in 1951 adjacent to the site of Fort Raleigh. The Garden is easy to see in just an hour or two, with both traditional European-style gardens and sections of forest with native plants. The Butterfly House was open and filled with mostly tropical plants, but I didn’t see any residents. Discovery Cottage children’s garden, has a koi pond, fossil dig, and playhouses.