Family Vacation: Outer Banks, North Carolina 2020
My family vacation situation is very unique in comparison to others. My dad has 5 best friends from college. Each of them got married and had kids, they started planning trips to the beach every summer. As the years wore on, the number of kids increased. The largest group we ever had I believe was 35 of us in one house. Through some convenient family planning, every kid had a group of other kids to play with. There were the older girls, the boys, and the little girls (which would be me).
I truly admire my dad and his friend’s dedication to this group. These people are my second family. They show up in the hard times and always have a laugh to share. It is truly a special situation that I am blessed to be a part of.
As the kids have grown up, moved out, and got married, the parents have taken to doing their own trips just like they did before any of us were born. However, now they go to places like Italy, France, and Ireland. This year, my mom suggested a beach reunion. She booked a house in the Outer Banks for one week, the first week in August.
No one knew if they would be able to attend. With crazy schedules, kids, and weddings, it seemed everyone was planning to “stop by” for one part of the week or another. I planned to go for a long weekend, but wanted to save my vacation days for a big trip to Costa Rica that I had been planning.
Then the pandemic hit. Suddenly – everyone was interested in going to the beach for the week. Anything to get out of the house.
My mom kept praying that it would happen. With travel restrictions and the pandemic changing daily, we didn’t know if it would be possible.
There were lots of signs pointing us towards not going. Aside from the pandemic, there was also a tropical storm heading straight towards the east coast. Hatteras (the bottom of the Outer Banks had already been evacuated)
And yet, we carried on anyways. Anything to get us to the sun, sand, and those white claws in hand!
When we arrived. The power was out. But not because of the tropical storm that was heading our way. It was just a random equipment failure. We had no electricity or air conditioning in the 90 degree humid beachy heat from 7pm until 6am the next morning. We cooked, ate, swam, worked on a puzzle all by the flashlight. A very adventurous start to a “relaxing” vacation.
The storm was scheduled to hit Monday night into Tuesday evening. So just so all of this is in perspective for you, here is a quick timeline: we get there sunday, the weather is beautiful. But the power goes out. We have no power until monday morning at about 6 AM.
So Monday night comes. We go to bed, about 1am until 4am I drift in and out of sleep as I listen to the wind creaking our house from side to side. A bit of rain, but the scariesst part was the wind. It sounded like the whole house was going to fly off into the sky.
When we woke on Tuesday morning, it was sunny and clear. A little bit of flooding on the road, a few shingles lay about. But quite literally, the storm had missed us.
After that, the week was great. The daily routine looked a little like this:
Wake up midmorning, put on a swimsuit, drink some coffee and head to the beach. On the beach, we would sit and read, go swimming, play bocce ball or ladder golf. Walks with family members or my girlfriend Katie, (yes the same best friend I went to Spain with! Read about it here!) were one of my favorite pastimes.
Around 5 or 6pm, we would start heading back to the house. This year, our house was in Nagshead, a short walk to the beach access, directly across Route 12 from jockey’s Ridge. We would have “happy hour” by the pool, then start to take turns getting showers. For reasons unknown to me, it’s always been a “thing” that we dress up for dinner. Ever since I can remember, I packed my favorite clothes of that summer to wear during dinnertime at the beach. Every family took a turn cooking a meal. Even the “kids” got a turn. I use the term “kids” lightly, because as the youngest we are 26 years old.
After dinner was my favorite part of the evening – circle time. Let me tell you about circle time.
Circle time originated in 2011 I believe. It started when a storm was heading towards the beach and we all huddled under the tailgate tent to ride out the rain. In our huddle during the storm, a natural circle was formed. A topic was introduced and a conversation began. Circle time can be held almost anytime and anywhere. Most times, delicious snacks are passed around, cold ones are cracked and a topic or question is proposed. The topic can be silly like “what is one thing you would eat for the rest of your life” or it could be serious, like “list 3 things you are grateful for at this time”. Circle time always includes “highs” and “lows”, meaning, what was your favorite thing about today and what was the worst.
This time is sacred. We are honest with each other, sometimes there are tears, but a lot of the time there is laughter. We rally around each other, celebrating the wins, supporting each other with words of encouragement and prayer.
Just like any other year, circle time was my favorite. This time, it was my favorite for a reason I have yet to share in this post. You see, this year unlike any other year of my beach attending, I brought my boyfriend. I got to show him off to all of these wonderful people who have known me my whole life. It was truly special to have him there and have him participate in these conversations.
Every day followed this pattern pretty closely. It wasn’t until Friday that we actually ventured out of the house. During the evening, right before sunset, we headed over to Jockey’s Ridge State Park and caught an incredible sunset that got better with every minute the sun sank lower.
If you don’t know, Jockey’s Ridge has the tallest living sand dunes on the Atlantic coast. It’s absolutely beautiful and also incredibly confusing because it looks like you are standing in the middle of the desert! It’s the perfect place to watch the sunset, fly a kite, or take kids to tire them out like our parents used to do. It is a great evening activity, especially if you are looking for something free. (Side note: I would not suggest going during the day, as it gets very very hot on top of the dunes).
As Saturday rolled around, some of the families began to pack and head out early. We started to clean up and sadly say our goodbyes.
Though this beach week did not include several meals eaten out, mini golf, movie theaters, or wineries, it did include a lot of really good stuff. Just like this pandemic has done for us every day, the beach week was no exception to slowing down and appreciating the simple things.
A sunset from Jockey’s Ridge.
A moonlit beach walk with my family.
The boy I love very much, sitting with me as the sun rose and reading the bible.
I have never marveled at God’s goodness more than I did on this trip. It was like he was showing off. The sunsets and sunrises were breathtaking; going from orange to bright pink, creating shapes in the clouds. The moon shifted through its phases the whole week we were there, radiating off the ocean as if a lighthouse for the atmosphere. And most importantly, the incredible people I was surrounded by all week.
As we left, I could see a light of hope in my parents eyes that I haven’t seen in awhile. These are the kind of friendships we all strive for; the kind that when you leave, your soul is a little lighter and life seems a little easier. I’m so blessed that my parents found amazing friends and that it has been shared with me.
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