What happens when you mix the excitement of beach inlets, the culinary delights of the Outer Banks, and some unexpected encounters with nature? This episode takes you on a journey through our latest adventure in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. From the joy of exploring new restaurants and savoring local cuisine to the thrill of a mini-golf tour, we recount how our active lifestyle shaped an unforgettable vacation.
Ever wondered how a skinny margarita could change your vacation vibe? Join us as we share our gastronomic experiences, including standout moments at Blue Water Grill and the ever-popular Duck Donuts. We also talk about our hilarious misadventure with espresso shots at a quaint coffee shop and our frequent Dunkin' stops. Whether it’s the fresh seafood or the scrumptious goat cheese cheesecake, our culinary escapades offer a blend of healthy choices and indulgent treats.
Our trip wasn’t just about food, though. Picture a moonlit farewell, a run-in with horseflies at the beach, and a cozy movie night watching Pixar's "Inside Out." The episode also highlights our serene visits to the Elizabethan Gardens and the local aquarium, where we learned about turtle conservation. As our journey comes to a close, we reflect on the beauty and challenges of beach life, leaving you with inspiration for your next Outer Banks adventure.
What happens when you mix the excitement of beach inlets, the culinary delights of the Outer Banks, and some unexpected encounters with nature? This episode takes you on a journey through our latest adventure in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. From the joy of exploring new restaurants and savoring local cuisine to the thrill of a mini-golf tour, we recount how our active lifestyle shaped an unforgettable vacation.
Ever wondered how a skinny margarita could change your vacation vibe? Join us as we share our gastronomic experiences, including standout moments at Blue Water Grill and the ever-popular Duck Donuts. We also talk about our hilarious misadventure with espresso shots at a quaint coffee shop and our frequent Dunkin' stops. Whether it’s the fresh seafood or the scrumptious goat cheese cheesecake, our culinary escapades offer a blend of healthy choices and indulgent treats.
Our trip wasn’t just about food, though. Picture a moonlit farewell, a run-in with horseflies at the beach, and a cozy movie night watching Pixar's "Inside Out." The episode also highlights our serene visits to the Elizabethan Gardens and the local aquarium, where we learned about turtle conservation. As our journey comes to a close, we reflect on the beauty and challenges of beach life, leaving you with inspiration for your next Outer Banks adventure.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Tea with Tina podcast. Today I'm going to give you a recap of my week in Outer Banks, north Carolina. This will be my fourth year there, which is rare. Me and my husband rarely go back to places. We truly only go back to places that we really enjoy, and the Outer Banks is definitely unique, in my opinion, I think one the stretch of the Outer Banks itself is so large we actually haven't touched the very northern tip and the very southern tip, which you have to reach by ferry or going inland and around. So it's quite a trip. It could be a separate trip itself, so we haven't explored all of it yet, but it habitat preservation, some of it's more casual living, some of it's a little bit more upscale. So it just depends on where you go on the island and you get a different vibe. So that's why I feel like it's never boring. There's just so much to do and we had new stuff to do this time. So I'm going to be just kind of like I said, dropping what we did, the food we ate and all that fun stuff. So, without further ado, let's dive in.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the tea with Tina, your favorite podcast where we talk all things health, fitness, lifestyle and maybe a little bit of tea gets spilled. We chat all about this in a super casual environment. So grab your beverage of choice, sit back, relax and enjoy. So you know, a lot of people actually do go to the Outer Banks. I was reading they said peak season it can get anywhere. I think the population can be around 20,000 people. That is a lot compared to I forget how many people actually live there. It's not a very large number, but you know, I'm hoping that I could share this stuff and maybe it'll give you some ideas on things to do, and I guess it depends on who you are as a person.
Speaker 1:
I will start off by saying that me and my husband are not lay on the beach type people. We don't go on vacation to just like chill. We did chill a good bit, which I'll get into in a little bit, but we do like to explore. We like to eat good food, try out different things in the area, even just drive around and look at stuff. You know it doesn't have to be anything crazy or labor intensive, but there are definitely different types of people. I feel like it's split into two camps the people who like to sit on the beach and read a book and just lay there for hours, and then the people who like to explore. So, for my explorers, this podcast will probably be for you.
Speaker 1:
I will say, as far as us chilling because I did say we chilled a lot we were generally more active in the morning and evening and we chilled and slept in the afternoon because it was so hot. Um, again, I I don't like the heat. The older that I get, the more I am disliking being out in the heat and that beach heat like the sun's beating on you. You don't really have a lot of shade. Um, and it was particularly warmer this year than when we've went previous years. We usually went a little bit earlier in June and even last year was actually chilly, like we wore sweatpants just because of the front that was in there and there was a storm that had just gone through. But this time it was, you know, hot, 80s, you know, and you know it was 70s and 80s, and I was like, oh, it's not gonna be that bad, but it felt a lot hotter. And you know it was 70s and 80s and I was like, oh, it's not going to be that bad, but it felt a lot hotter than the temperature it was, if that makes sense. And back home while we were gone it was in the 90s, so I'm kind of glad we avoided that. But somehow the temperature back home feels colder than it did at the beach, and you'd think the beach would feel colder because of the you know the front. You have the ocean there, you have the breeze, but it was very hot. So, yeah, we definitely were sleeping, watching TV, laying in bed middle of the day, I would say between I don't know 12 or 1 till about 4, and then usually we'd get active at night when things started to cool down, which is great.
Speaker 1:
Now, as far as food, that is probably the number one reason that me and my husband love to travel is trying out different food spots, all the fun food spots, and I don't know how to describe it, but for the most part, um, I would say that we like to try like middle, slightly upscale restaurants, if that makes sense, like you don't have to dress fancy and it's not super expensive, but it's not like a random you know dive bar or diner that's gonna serve greasy food. I like places that will have the option for healthy food. That's done well, um, but there's also maybe option for fried slash greasy food if you want it, but it usually tends to be a little bit more moderate, to upscale in restaurants and just different spots. Right, you might pay a couple extra dollars, but it is by far worth it and I will say, overall, I don't think we ate really bad.
Speaker 1:
You know, from a fitness perspective, I did get ice cream quite a bit. I didn't hold back on that. You know, it was one week out of the year I had a balance of good foods and even breakfast. A lot of the time we cooked in I used Kodiak pancakes, so it wasn't anything crazy, um, but I don't think I really ate that bad and I don't feel like I gained weight, although I will say, when you get older, something I've noticed is that you usually don't gain weight right away from a trip. You know, um, usually you'll feel it about a week after. At least, that's just me. I don't gain weight right away from a trip. You know, um, usually you'll feel it about a week after. At least, that's just me, I don't know, um, but overall I don't feel bad. Um, you know, we did a lot of steps. We got a lot of steps in from walking the beach and stuff. So I feel good, maybe slightly bloated. I also was on my period, like for the first couple of days down there. So you know how sometimes it's like when you're hungry on your period you don't really absorb those calories. They just kind of like count for the period and go away. I'm hoping that that worked in my favor.
Speaker 1:
But as far as the food, you can look up these restaurants if you want, if you're planning on going there or you're just curious. The two of our favorites that we hit up almost every day was Trio and Blue Water Grill. So Trio is kind of like a wine cracker barrel, if you will. So you go in and there's a little store in the front that sells, you know, different types of wine, champagne we even found, like this cool cider to try and then there's actually a restaurant and they do serve food. But their main focus is really like the wines and the drinks and they have charcuterie boards, which I get at least once. Their cheese is great, their meat selection, all that fun stuff. So we did get a charcuterie board there. Um, they do brunch there. I've tried their wine margarita, agave wine margarita and it was amazing. And there's another thing I drink like a margarita once a day.
Speaker 1:
I'm not a big drinker. I kind of felt like crap after drinking one drink every single day because I really I could probably count on one hand how many times I drink in a month. So that was different for me, for sure. But the food overall was really good. You know, I had crab cake sandwiches there. We did, you know, a buffalo brussel sprout appetizer. We've done like bread with like a goat cheese type dip I'm trying to think Salads. We had a goat cheese cheesecake which was fantastic. So they have a lot of great foods and, as you can see, like maybe they would be a little bit more calorie dense, but they're going to be using like whole ingredients. It's not super fried, it's pretty balanced. So I always like to think that we eat a little bit better quality on vacation so we don't feel like crap and you know you don't gain as much weight.
Speaker 1:
At Blue Water Grill they're right by like a boating dock, so it's cool because you get to see all the boats. They catch their fish for their menu fresh. I actually see them off of the water doing it um, and so it's very fresh and they are kind of like a more upscale pubby bar feel, I guess. Again, I got a skinny margarita for the first time, um, because I was so nervous to try it, but I finally tried the skinny margarita and I love it.
Speaker 1:
I've come to found that tequila is smooth. For me, it does not taste like really anything and I love it and I will just drink endless margaritas. And a fun fact tequila is actually the lowest calorie, quote unquote healthiest alcohol that you can have, um, unironically. So I'm glad that I love it, because I'm usually pretty, um, sensitive to alcohol. I don't like a lot of strong alcoholic tastes like vodka. I can't do anything with vodka. I love the idea of a lot of the mixed drinks that have vodka, but I can't because I instantly taste the vodka and it ruins it for me. But tequila, we're all good. No-transcript.
Speaker 1:
One point as well we didn't get any dessert from them. They were kind of limited with their dessert, but they're really good with, like, the fresh fish. They update, you know, their daily lunch and dinner specials along with their like normal menu and you could get like burgers and stuff there, chicken sandwiches, but I always go for the seafood because I'm at the beach right. So those were two of our favorites. That's mainly where we ate for dinner. There was a couple times, because we go down with family, that we went out to eat with family members, but for the most part we kind of ate there.
Speaker 1:
Two of the side places we stopped was Duck Donuts. If you don't know, duck Donuts originated in the Outer Banks. There's actually some, ironically, by where I live now they expanded. But most of their stores I think they have five or six in the Outer Banks and Duck Donuts is amazing. They do fresh made donuts. They're warm, they are fabulous. This year they had like a Twix themed donut. We got like six warm donuts. I ate two and then my husband ate two and then later on we ended up eating the other one. You know, that's kind of where me like not caring about what I ate came into play. I got some coffee there. It was kind of like run of the mill. But Duck Donuts is great. We always get it at least once every time we go. So worth it is great. We always get it at least once every time we go, so worth it. Um, we also tried inland a little bit more by Roanoke Island. There's like a little coffee shop that does like coffee and ice cream and it's a funny story. So I got coffee from them.
Speaker 1:
I'm not like a coffee aficionado. I like the americano espresso. Like I have no idea what any of that stuff means, I usually have to look it up. And they had all those and they had a lot of options. Like you can get anything iced or hot, a lot of mix-in options, so it was very versatile.
Speaker 1:
I had no idea what to get and I ordered an espresso and she goes, oh, okay, so like do you want a double shot? And she pulls out this like tiny cup and I was like, was like no, because like I was nervous and I didn't know how much caffeine was in an espresso shot. Just so you know, there's 60 milligrams in one shot, so that's not a lot. I usually have like 200 milligrams of caffeine a day. And I was like, okay, so I'll just do one. And she pulls out this tiny little cup okay, because I didn't realize espresso was a shot.
Speaker 1:
But now that that I think about it, when you go to coffee shops they're always like oh, do you want to add an espresso shot to your coffee? And it makes sense now, but I got the coffee. I think I got like marshmallow flavoring and a little bit of milk and I got it iced, okay, and let me tell you, even though it was small, the coffee taste was quite strong. It was delicious. I loved it. I just wish I had more. I felt stupid getting the little cup. Um, I think I also was at the door and it was like, um, I was trying to push on the door and it wouldn't open. It had a handle and I was just embarrassed to all ends. So that was my coffee story, but it was still good nonetheless. We didn't get a chance to go back, unfortunately, but it was really good. I did stop at Dunkin for coffee quite a few times. I love myself coffee, so that was fun. The coffee and margarita mix was very interesting on vacation, so we had that going.
Speaker 1:
The last food place that I absolutely love, that was new. They actually just opened, I believe june 1st of 2024, this year. Um, it's called keys ice cream. Okay, and it's um, the theme is kiwis, because they do new zealand style ice cream like kiwis, as in the bird kiwi. Okay, it was the most adorable ice cream shop. Okay, you go in. There is like monstera patterned ceilings, um, you have cute kiwis everywhere, the best decor, um, and it's cool.
Speaker 1:
I was a little stressed out because, like you have to pick. They give you like this four-step process, like first you pick your base, which is vanilla ice cream, you can do chocolate I think they had a special of chocolate as well and then you have to pick a fruit, because they mix fresh fruit with your ice cream. So they had like strawberry, banana, raspberry, all kinds of stuff. I did the strawberry and the banana. It was good and then you could pick your toppings. So I did like strawberry with Oreos and chocolate sauce, then I did like bananas with chocolate sauce and sprinkles, then I did like bananas with chocolate sauce and sprinkles, you know, kind of like a banana split, all fabulous. They had waffle cones there. You can get it in a cup. It was really good and it was again kind of like a healthier ice cream. So I felt good about it. I think that's the only type of ice cream we got.
Speaker 1:
We stopped at Dairy Queen once Because, like after 7 o'clock, 6 o'clock, like after seven o'clock, six o'clock, it's like all the ice cream places get slammed. So we tried to get ice cream earlier to beat the rush and it worked out pretty well. So that would be kind of the recap of all of our food. I hope I made you hungry. Lots of great uh food options in there.
Speaker 1:
Um, we also did go shopping at the grocery store because we were in a beach house. Um, there's a couple odds and ends things like I made sure to bring my body armor electrolytes that helped a lot from being out in the sun to replenish with those. I had like a green drink that I sipped on and just a couple odds and ends snacks. We don't we didn't really eat them a lot. You know, we tend to eat bigger meals out, usually twice a day when we travel. That way, we don't really need to snack or get all this extra stuff. Right, we keep it simple.
Speaker 1:
Now, as far as what we did, okay, I'm going to highlight some of the big things that we did while we were in the Outer Banks. So the first thing that we did was we walked in a woods preserve I forget the name of it because there's a couple different ones and that's kind of weird. Right, you're on an island, a beach island, and they actually have miles of wooded hiking trails, which I think is really, really cool. Another reason that I love the outer banks, um, and it was up by corolla where the wild horses are. So we did a nice little walk. There was a boardwalk trail and then there was a like hiking path and the boardwalk trail was a little busy. So we're like, let's do the hiking path. And, uh, you know, once we made it to the end, we did see some wild horses. We saw a lot of little geckos, which was cool, but we were attacked by bugs. My husband is a bug magnet and then I became a bug magnet and we ended up jogging the trail to evade the bugs. So we got a little bit of a jog in, unintentionally. The people who saw us jogging through the woods probably thought we were crazy, but yeah, it was still worth, worth it worth seeing the animals and the view. Needless to say, we didn't really hike again after that.
Speaker 1:
Um, there was another time we actually went to the inlet um of the beach and you have to kind of walk through some grass and stuff in the sand and some dunes. It's a little bit of a walk, maybe 15-20 minutes before you get to the actual beach. Beach, um, not a lot of people do it. That's why we do it, because we wanted to see, like you know, there'd probably be more shells, there'd be more wildlife, and on the way back, uh, when the sun was setting, uh, my husband got hit with a lot of horseflies and he started sprinting. Um, we also pick up trash. Usually when we're on the beach. We found, like, a lot of trash, like buckets filled with stuff, and it was funny to see him sprinting while holding the trash. And then, of course, nonetheless, as soon as he ran away, I started to get attacked by bugs. They're buzzing in your ear, flying around you, and I started sprinting as well. So that was, that was the theme for the outdoors running away from bugs, um, but that was fun.
Speaker 1:
Then, you know, we said that we kind of chilled during the heat of the day and inside out too. If you're familiar with the pixar, pixar movie came out, um, I think while we were down there I don't know when it officially came out, but we went to see it at a movie theater. There it's air conditioned, it was, um, a leather reclining seat. There was actually heat in it. I was all about it. I brought a jacket because I thought I'd be too chilly in there. We got the heat, so it was good. I almost cried. It was a great movie. I love it. I think it showcases the variety of emotions really well, so I loved it. That was fun.
Speaker 1:
Then we got into some mini golf. You know, towards the end of the week we kind of just went into the touristy stuff. There are a couple of golf courses there. I think there's really only like four or five, if you go up North a little bit more, which you can drive along the Island two to four hours. You know, if you go from end to end it's a pretty long drive. So you know we we didn't go up to the Northern Northern parks Again, that could be like a whole day, but we stuck to around. We were in the middle, kind of by Nags Head, the Wright Brothers Memorial. We were kind of in that area and we went to a couple different golf courses. There was one called Paradise Golf. That one was probably the nicest. There was two separate courses. It was like a family fun center. They had bumper cars there, karts, a little arcade and uh, the course was really nice. We went to another one I forget what it was called, but it was pretty standard and then we went to.
Speaker 1:
This is my personal favorite, uh, galaxy golf. So galaxy golf was alien themed, it was a little run down, but I loved the vibe and they played 80s music and it was just. You know, it was just something about the aesthetic even though it was a little run down, I was, I was vibing with it. So I had a good time there. And we did this during the day, believe it or not. Um, we sweated and suffered, because, again, it gets really busy, usually at night when things cool down because people don't want to be out in the sun. Okay, so we mini golfed.
Speaker 1:
Then every year we do this, we go to the elizabeth I don't know if it's elizabeth gardens or elizabethan gardens and the aquarium they're. They're in um inland, a little bit by roanoke. The gardens are beautiful. It's not my longwood gardens in kennett square, but it'll do um, it's very pretty. They have a lot of roses, a lot of walking paths. They have a greenhouse that you can buy plants in. If you're lucky, you will catch the cats that live there. There was a cat that um graced my presence last year. Um, I found out that one of the cats passed away. They all look the same. They're like black and white fluffy cats and, uh, they have like a ton of them, but I don't know if the one I saw was the one that passed away, but they're cute, but I did not see any cats.
Speaker 1:
This time you can actually go out to the ocean at one point. It'll gives you an overlook of the ocean, but there's hydrangeas and just different types of flowers. You can walk through and they have different setups and it's really, really nice. I enjoyed it. They do have a little butterfly garden as well. When we went I didn't see any butterflies. It was like butterfly week too and I was like what the heck? Where are the butterflies? So I don't know. I saw one or two flying around, but that was about it.
Speaker 1:
And then the aquarium. Aquarium's pretty run-of-the-mill. You get otters, um, sharks, different types of fish. They have a little. The biggest part is probably their turtle conservation. Um, they store them in these little like tubs and I love seeing the sea turtles. A lot of them, you know, aren't injured or maybe they got shocked from the cold. Um, you know, they have different injuries, diseases, impaction, all that stuff. They actually have a little game too, where you can like get a fake turtle and you get to diagnose it and heal it and release it back into the wild. Um, usually like 10 year olds or below participate, but I always do it as well. My turtle this year had impaction from um. Wow, why am I blanking from trash, from trash okay, on the beach and I had to help help him with that. So that was fun. But yeah, let me tell you, the trash this year was quite bad on the beach and I don't know if it's just because we've been going like when we started going, it was when COVID was a thing, so the beach was a lot less, you know, crowded. Um, there wasn't a lot of stuff open, but the wildlife was great.
Speaker 1:
We saw a lot of great things the first year we were there but it seems like each year the further we get away from kind of lockdowns and COVID, it gets busier and busier, less wildlife and plenty more garbage. We actually saw a fridge, a whole mini fridge, washed up. I know there was a couple houses that had collapsed recently from the tides, because that is a problem. You know there was a couple houses that had collapsed recently from the tides, because that is a problem. You know, the islands are always shaping and shifting. Sometimes they get reduced, sometimes they expand. It just depends on the water levels and you know weather and things like that. And some of the houses got pulled into the ocean. So I don't know if that's from that, from a boat boat we always find debris from boats.
Speaker 1:
Lots of um seaweed, lots of wood debris we um found, like a scuba diving flipper. So we found that washed up on shore. Um, I said lots of miscellaneous trash from people on the beach, generally like beer bottles, food, um, like empty food containers, things like that. But we usually try to pick it up when we can and we did find a dead seagull. That was kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:
We usually always find a couple dead animals, lots of crabs, tons of crabs that come out at night. They're called ghost crabs. They're cool, the big ones come out at night, for sure. I'm trying to think if we found anything else. Oh're cool, the big ones come out at night, for sure. I'm trying to think if we found anything else. Oh yes, the big find of the trip was there was a piece of driftwood that washed up on shore and we were looking at it. It was just sitting there and I was like what's that in there? And we pulled it out and it was a freaking shark tooth. So we found a perfect great white shark tooth, like on our first day there, and I was like, well, we're not gonna top this. So that was pretty cool. But you know, it's kind of like an inside thing for me and my husband.
Speaker 1:
Every time we go down we try to find a fully intact conch shell. Over the years we found some like big ones, um, but they're always like broken. There's not all of it there, but we want to find a fully intact conch shell, so that would be cool. And also like the mermaid type shells like you know, the kind that look like she was wearing like she'd wear on her seashell bra. Like I want to get those and I never find them intact. Um, they're. They're always like half broken. But I did find some really big ones this year that were almost complete. They were either half or three-fourths complete. So that was um also interesting, just to like find. I love to look, look at the different stuff that is there, the wildlife, the things that get washed up just walking up and down the beach, so that's always nice.
Speaker 1:
Another thing that we did was we visited the Hatter's Lighthouse. So there's two big lighthouses. There's actually quite a few along the coast. There's the Currituck Lighthouse up north, which is, you know, red brick, but then we have the Bodie Lighthouse. That's probably where most people go. It has the horizontal black and white stripes. That's around the Pea Island area, down by the Oregon Inlet. Then, if you keep going south, about an hour hour and a half, there's the Graveyard of the Atlantic, which we visited, so that's really cool. And then there's the Hatter's Lighthouse and that has the black and white diagonal stripes, kind of like a candy cane and the graveyard of the Atlantic. The reason the Hatter's Lighthouse is there is because that's where a lot of the different ocean currents meet.
Speaker 1:
So there's a lot of shipwrecks. It's very rough waters, you don't know if you're gonna have a sand barrier. It's hard to navigate, um. So there's been a lot of shipwrecks in that area over the years, not so much as of recent, but back in the day, right. And so Hattie that's what I like to call him Hattie the lighthouse Hattie, um, he was a guiding light for many of those people, letting them know like hey, the shore is here, watch out. Or like hey, you found land. And um, it's cool though, because he's going undergoing renovations right now so he it kind of sucks because you can't see him in his full glory, but they have scaffolding all around him so it looks kind of interesting. That's why we wanted to go down there to snap a few pictures and, of course, look at the gift shop.
Speaker 1:
As always, I did not walk away with a t-shirt. This year. It's probably for the best, because I have way too many t-shirts from the aquarium and like lighthouse t-shirts. But we love our t-shirts right. So that's cool, definitely worth a visit. Plus, there is a seashore there. It's actually really interesting.
Speaker 1:
There's a lot of good history about that lighthouse. Because of the land always changing, that lighthouse was actually closer to the water but they were afraid that it would, you know, get washed up over the years, so they actually moved it. I think it was around the year 2000, maybe in the 90s or 2000. And they moved that whole lighthouse. It's pretty crazy how they did it, this massive giant like cement brick lighthouse. They actually moved it from one spot to another pretty far. So you could, you could check that out, either google it or go down there to see what that's all about. Um and bode side note, bode was actually a fallout shelter at one point in world war ii. Um, when they thought the bombs were going to drop, bode was a fall fallout shelter, which I think was also really cool.
Speaker 1:
And then I will say I'm going to wrap up with this because I mean even throughout, you know, we kept that same schedule, kind of eat breakfast, drive around, maybe do something, mini golf movie. At the end of the night we would walk the beach, scan for shells, chill out, fun times. The last night we were lucky that was when the strawberry full moon was supposed to happen. So I was like, let's go At the night time. On our way back walking, we can see the strawberry moon rise. And let me tell you it was one of the coolest things. It was really big. It was pinkish, orangish color.
Speaker 1:
I got terrible pictures on my phone because for some reason phones cannot take pictures of full moons very well. They just look like blurry blobs. But in real life it was great. So I had a good time. That was the perfect end to the trip. I feel very well, rested, lots of good food. But I'm ready to get back into things. So that will wrap up my trip. I hope you enjoyed. I hope you maybe learned something. Maybe you just wanted to hear me chat about it, want to get the inside scoop. Maybe next time you go to the Outer Banks you could try some of these things. But other than that, guys, that's all I got for you today, so have a good rest of your day and I'll chat with you soon. Bye.
