Lately Michael’s schedule has slowed down so we’ve been trying to explore the local area more. I heard a saying once about making the most of military moves and it goes something like this: instead of dreading every PCS to some place you’d never voluntarily choose to move to… instead view the situation like a grand adventure, a chance to visit and explore all kinds of places on the Navy’s dime. Granted, sometimes I throw myself a pity party but we really have been trying to live this motto. SO. We have a bucket list of places on the East Coast we want to visit before we move… and one of those places was the Outer Banks.

For us there are two main attractions to the Outer Banks: the wild horses and the chance to drive on the beach. The drive from Virginia Beach was about 2 hours because to get to the part of the beach you can drive on takes a while, it’s called Corolla Beach. We went on a very cold and blustery day, so we loaded the back of the jeep with blankets and pillows so we’d stay toasty during our picnic.

We have stock tires on our jeep so we definitely aired down before we hit the sand. As we were entering the sand a 4×4 truck was really stuck. On some parts of the beach the sand is super compact, and on other parts it gets super thick and hard to drive through. The beach was relatively empty, although there was a steady amount of trucks and jeeps on the beach just driving up and down.

We were constantly on the search for wild horses, but sadly didn’t see a single horse the entire day! Ahhh I was so sad. After a while we found a place to park and let Shadow run around. She is such a beach dog and she had a blast tearing up and down the sand. Michael and I cozied up in the back of the jeep with our blankets and pillows and had our picnic.

Our picnic essentials: sandwiches (with tomato basil cheese, turkey, tomatoes, spinach, honey dijon mustard), cheese + crackers, pretzels + hummus, popcorn, and dark sea salt chocolate.

Have any of you been to the Outer Banks? What are your favorite parts?
Wishing you all a great week! For daily posts you can find me on Instagram 🙂