How do you handle the holidays and spending time with extended family? Do you find it tricky to balance and plan? With family spread out in all parts of the country, we try to be pretty intentional with holiday planning.  As a general rule, Slaed and I trade off spending the Christmas holiday with our respective “sides” every year.  One year we host or visit his family, the next year it’s my family’s turn, with a few exceptions in there for births and whatnot.  

This year however the stars were not aligning well in our Christmas planning world for a holiday visit with my family.  Thus, instead of December, we opted for September! Instead of flying all over the place during one of the busiest travel times of the year, we all met in North Carolina’s Outer Banks earlier this month.

If you read our post from last year’s vacation to the Outer Banks, you’ll recall that this area is extremely special to us.  My family has a beach cottage in the town of Duck, and we’ve been traveling there since I was a young kid.  A lot has changed, but so many lovely things have stayed the same: The beach is still the beach with warm water to swim in and miles of sand to explore, and the town is still quaint and free of high rises, chains, and big box stores.

To give you more of an idea of the area, and what we were up to for our 4-day trip, I put together a quick photo journey and trip report.  I hesitated even creating this blog post because it’s really just a lot of beach time, but the photos capturing the beauty of the island are too good not to share.  Plus, we’ve got some great restaurant recommendations in case you find yourself visiting the north end of the Outer Banks sometime soon!

4-Day Itinerary: NC’s Outer Banks

Day 1:

• Morning Beach Time
• Nap time “date” to OBX Arts and Craft Festival
• Family seafood night with shrimp from Carawan Seafood Co.
• Sunset at the Currituck Sound

Day 2:

• Mini Golf at Professor Hacker’s Lost Treasure (Kill Devil Hills, NC)
• Lunch at Art’s Place (Kitty Hawk, NC)
• Afternoon Beach Time
• Pizza and Sunset at the Currituck Sound

Day 3:

• Sunrise Beach Walk before the kids woke up!
• Morning Beach Time
• Afternoon shopping and exploring in town (Duck, NC)
  • Favorite shops: Zen & Zip & Untucked
  • Dinner: Coastal Cantina
  • Walk on Duck’s Town Park and Boardwalk
  • Sunset on the Currituck Sound

Day 4:

• Breakfast at Pierhouse Restaurant at Nags Head Pier (Nags Head, NC)
• Exploring on Jeannette’s Pier (part of the NC Aquarium, Nags Head, NC)
• Afternoon Beach Time/Sunset
• Dinner: Take out from Coastal Provisions
• Late Night Crab Walk on the Beach

*Bonus Day 5! 

• One more sunrise beach walk before the kids woke up and before leaving town!

How do you plan the holidays with extended family? Have you been to North Carolina’s Outer Banks? Tell us about your trip!

P.S. You can read our trip report from last year’s Outer Banks adventure here, and we’ve got tips for visiting Jockey’s Ridge State Park here! 

Come join the conversation! You can keep up to date with each and every post by subscribing to the blog via email. We’d also love to have you join us on all of our adventures by “liking” our facebook page, following us on twitter, and exploring with us on Instagram! If you enjoyed this post, please “like it”, “tweet it” or “pin it”!