Blogs from Nags Head, North Carolina, United States, North America

On our last day in the Outer Banks we stayed around Nags Head. In the morning, we went to the Outlets Nags Head. This is a smaller outlet mall than many, but it had a Carter's outlet, a bookstore, a Vera Bradley and a Pepper Palace. Then it was me for serious souvenir shopping at The Farmer's Daughter, Forbes and Wings. Forbes has a plaster statue of the Nag of Nags Head. Nags Head is named after the horses used by wreckers to lure ships to their doom on the Outer Banks. They would tie a lantern around the a horse's neck and the bobbing of the lantern would cause a ship to mistake the light for another ship The ship would draw too close to shore, and run aground. The wreckers would then go about ... read more

I had never visited the famous Outer Banks of North Carolina. Susan had, years ago, and we have been proposing a trip there for some time. Fall 2021 was the time to do it. It would be after the tourist season but with seasonable weather holding. The Outer Banks are a series of narrow barrier islands just off the North Carolina coast stretching some 200 miles (320 km) from the Virginia line to Wilmington, North Carolina. (The Barrier islands of Virginia and Maryland are a continuation of them.) The have been a popular beach vacation destination since the 1930s when roads and bridges to the mainland were built. Before then, they were an isolated and sparsely populated locale. We drove along the well-established route to Williamsburg, Virginia. There, we stopped for lunch at a long-time favorite, ... read more

I will always remember the happenings of that week in late October 2012. I remember following the hurricane as it skirted the coast and watching the path of the small ship that was sailing south with all of its might trying to avoid the hurricane’s wrath. I didn’t like how close the two were to each other on the map and each dispatch I read filled my heart with dread, and a little bit of excitement. The sensible part of me, along with most of the media, questioned the events and decisions that put the grand old tall ship in the path of such a formidable storm. The adventurer in me longed for the golden age of the tall ships and windjammers, before satellites and accurate weather forecasts, when the toughest mariners to sail the seas ... read more