Outer Banks, North Carolina

Outer Banks, NC
You Know You're
Hooked On the Outer Banks
when...

Welcome to the Outer Banks "You Know You're Hooked On The Outer Banks When..." probably our most popular page. This is a moderated page where you can get the inside information on activities on the Outer Banks. Be sure to check out all of the Outer Banks Travelogues! 
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Tell us why you are Hooked on the Outer Banks. Click here to bring up an easy-to-use form. Note: These pages are courtesy of Southeast Getaway. All postings will be published there using their form.

• My husband and I honeymooned there 25 years ago. We returned this past May to celebrate 25 years, it was as beautiful as ever. The first day on the beach the whales were in close and we could see them playing in the water. It was the only place that we went back to (after 25 yrs) that still had the beauty it did then. The people were friendly. Of course the light house at Hatteras has moved and the Wright Brother's Memorial is much bigger and nicer, and Jockey Ridge has had alot of movement, it was fabulous just like it was then. I want to move there. It is gorgeous!
  -- Donna Dewar  - Monday, June 14, 2004 at 18:33:58
• I am hooked on OBX because when we went down this May 04' we stayed in a house named Banana Wind and I had the best time in my life. My boyfriend and I climbed to the top of the Cape Hatteraus lighthouse and saw the most beautiful view imaginable. We had a fire on the beach and ran away from the crabs. It was the best vacation I ever had, and cannot wait until next May comes and I can do it over again.
  -- ashley harter  - Friday, June 11, 2004 at 13:24:56
• -It brings tears to your eyes to go to the same cottage (Marvin Minton Motel-Nag's Head) where you enjoyed summer vacations with family members over 30 years ago, some of which are no longer here.
  -You can reminisce about happy times spent on the Outer Banks so many years ago, but the memories are so vivid that it only seems like yesterday.
  -You realize your passion for the OBX was actually "inherited" from your grandfather and mother, both of whom have since passed away. (My children and I are the 3rd and 4th generation!)
  -It's the ONLY place you want to go on vacation and deep inside your heart, you wish to live there someday.
  -You feel a "special bond" with others who visit the Outer Banks because you know they can feel the magical peace & serenity that you do.
  -When a stranger rolls down their window at a stop light and asks you what the front OBX license plate on your car means and you tell them "You just have to go to find out.
  -Can't wait. My husband and I will be leaving in 9 days. It takes about 10+ hours but it doesn't seem that long and it's well worth it all just to hear the waves crashing, sea gulls overhead and the sand between your toes.
  -- Tammy Nelson  - Thursday, June 10, 2004 at 16:49:46
• My grandparents moved here to retire in Nags Head after they sold their home in Maryland. They wanted the condo they bought right on the ocean to become the place where our big family would gather, like we did in Maryland for years. Now, they've both passed away, and the condo has been sold, but the beach itself pulled first my little sister (11 years ago), and now me (this past winter) to uproot our lives from the mountains of New England and come to this island where anything is possible and where dreams really do come true. Walking along the beach on a sunshine day makes you feel healthy and alive. Sitting on the sand, after the sun sets and feeling the warmth on your toes...watching the waves in the moonlight...that's just plain spectacular. Things seem to fall into perspective. You feel peaceful and ready to handle the "real world" again after a little while just breathing. I love the Outer Banks, the people all have "their story" and the restaurants/outdoor bars offer some of the best meals and robust atmosphere ever experienced, in just shorts and a bikini top. The storms are wild, scary and fantastic to be a part of. And they say, it is here where you will find 'the answers'. Even St. Andrews Episcopal Church by the Sea is filled to capacity every Sunday...(an amazing thing this day and age) I'm hooked. I'm staying.
  -- Cindi Getek - Tuesday, June 8, 2004 at 21:52:57
• We got hooked on the OBX in 1994 after some friends encouraged us to rent a "beach cottage" in NC. I had no idea what we were getting into. So for almost every year since then we have met our good friends from Michigan there and shared a beach house. Beginning in January we start to comb the internet and catalogs for our perfect house as close to the ocean as possible. Our children have the most wonderful memories of our week in heaven and look forward to going each year even now as teenagers. My favorite acitivy is looking for the perfect shells on the beach in the early morning up in the dunes. We bring back a huge box every year and add to our landscape rock so when I look out my window I can see a little bit of the obx every day. The food, great little shops, beautiful beaches and charm of the island leaves me daydreaming often about what the weather is like on a given day or who is staying in "my" beach cottage. I can't image a summer without a week or so on the banks.
  -- Rose Pomeroy  - Friday, June 4, 2004 at 16:50:11
• After watching the film 'Message in a bottle' my dream is to visit the Outer Banks. I'm sure my future belongs there, if only in my dreams!!!
  -- Nikki Beech  - Sunday, May 16, 2004 at 17:53:03
• I have been hooked on the Outer Banks since 1992 when a friend of mine took us on a trip during Easter. I could not believe how time seemed to reverse itself and everything seemed to just slow down a little. Ever since, I bring my children nearly each and every year "home" as I call it. I am not a native of this beautiful paradise but if I have my way, I will spend my remaining days here. I know that it takes a special person to be able to handle what mother nature throws at this place and her people, but their resilience is absolutely amazing and that too is another reason why I am hooked. You will not find people like this anywhere, I can assure you.
  -- Sharon Hall  - Friday, May 14, 2004 at 11:22:41
• When you are the only person in Indiana with a license plate that reads "Hateras". Our Cabana was destroyed by Isabelle, so this year we will stay in Avon. Can't wait, Only three more days!
  -- Carol Keeley  - Tuesday, May 11, 2004 at 00:05:47
• we have only been home two days and are already talking about next year's trip. This was our first visit to the Outer Banks, we arrived in Buxton after dark so did not see the view until the sun came up the next morning. It was magical, like all my 47 Christmas mornings had been rolled into one. The whole week, schedules were forgotten and we couldn't stop smiling. There's 'something' about this place; if you come stressed, you won't go home that way. My husband and I have both remarked how even being home feels better now. This Outer Banks vacation gave us a whole new attitude!
  -- Debbie Allen - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 at 00:17:06
• Starting when I was little, like 5 or something, my family would take a couple weeks out of every year to go down to the outerbanks where we would stay, usually in avon, at the avon motel. we would go almost every year and the fishing was always great. well, we stopped going in the mid eighties and then I grew up and moved on. Well, i now live in nc, about 200 miles from OBX and my wife, kids, and me have been going to the obx 2x a year since 2001. We usually stay south of avon and rent a house for a week or 2. I love the 4x4 access and the fact that i can find a nice quiet piece of beach in about 20 minutes no matter where I am. we love ocracoke and venture over to the island just about every day. we love the seclusion and the lack of hustle/bustle. we are going again in early june and I am really getting excited. so far, i've never been stuck or had any problems on the beach, just make sure my tires are aired down and i have plenty of gas and also I make sure the truck is in A1 shape. kis love it, i love it more! :-) 
  -- Bill Zavetsky - Tuesday, April 27, 2004 at 17:39:37
• I've been hooked since a trip in Aug. 1994. It was there I found my home away from home. I discovered a more "primitive", peaceful way of life there that year...even during the "in season". To my surprise, the images and feeling followed me home that year and it was something that stuck with me, has remained in my thougths and my heart every single day, has become a part of my being. The banks have left such an impression on my daily life that since that first trip, I have taken every one of my vacations there, stayed in many rentals, in various areas of the beach from Duck and north, always staying oceanfront. I have returned every year since then, at least one time a year, introducing the banks to friends and relatives, building memories, taking along my dogs, but always finding May and Movember the optimal times for visits. The times that have become a part of me is catching the sharks and flounder from the oregon inlet bridge, hanging out there with all the friendly fishermen and trading secrets, building many great memories of fishing off the surf by the light of a breath-taking sunset in four wheel drive country, having fished the piers through just as great a sunset, having built the castles on the beach with little children who joined my efforts as they were just wandering up the beach, making discoveries along the beaches after storms when the craziest of things wash up and the speculation and learning begins. I've dug for clams in the sound, taken the ferry from Hattaras to Ocracoke with a slue of stow away sea gulls guiding us every time, have climbed the lighthouses, shopped lots of the stores - I like the smaller, less-known places where lots of the true local flavor can be purchased, eaten some of the best food I've ever had (Dirty Dicks, Awful Arthur's, Slammin' Sammy's, George's Junction, The Wharf, this list goes on...and on...and on). I have experienced watching the waters leave the sound and empty out to sea just before the winds of a noreastern hits and have spent many a night, staring into the stars above and waiting for the next shooting star to wish on. I've taken the four wheelers into what was once known as the backlands and have been chased away by a hurricane or two. Each time I have returned home, I return with another "piece of the beach". Over these 10 years of visits, I have turned my home in PA into a beach house, have remodeled the bathroom in the style of most of the beach cottages, as well as the living room and have plans for the rest of the house. I have had many pictures of different sights around the OBX blown up and framed and they decorate the walls of my house. There are seashells and nets, naticaul decor from all over the OBX in my house, my Christmas tree is decorated entirely with natural findings and store bought items...not a single room or season has escaped from the OBX. If I could...I would have already jacked my house up on stilts, parked my jep under the house, filled my yard with sand, shells, and sea oats and hung pictures of the beach on the outside of my windows. The only newspaper I get and read is the coastland times...delivered right to my door...just so I know what's happening...home away from home. Yea, the OBX are in my DNA. Until you go...you'll never know true obsession.
  -- Brenda Troup - Sunday, April 25, 2004 at 20:49:13

• I went to the Banks one time, years ago, with friends. It was magic. It was the only beach I've ever been on where I really felt like I was having an experience with the ocean. No crowds. No trash left all over the beach. The surfers were cool. Sitting on the beach late at night, the sunrise and wind pushing the remainder of a storm away, the sand crabs starting to pop out... and the Apple Uglies... 
  It was a whole different way of life down there.
  -- Deb Derbis - Thursday, April 15, 2004 at 10:14:35
• .....all you can do is wait until "vacation day" comes around ! 
  Spent many vacations in the OBX with my family when I was small starting in the mid 70's.....then for a time I didn't go......Back in 1988, though, I started going again.....My wife (then girlfriend) and I have been going every year since except 1999, because of the expected birth of our son. 
  Beginning with our honeymoon in 1996, we have rented a house on the North Beach every year in September....its just an expereince that never gets old! 
  Both of our boys (now 4.5 and 2) have taken their first "beach steps" on the OBX.... 
  Have been through 2 major evacuations, the latest which was September 2003.....we were there for 2 days and we were ordered to evacuate.....our 4x4 broke down the day before evacuation, so THAT was a disaster (Thanks Elizabeth Ford for getting us on the road!)....but even with that fiasco, we got a taste of the OBX which has left us yearning for this years trip! 
  Two words: Vacation insurance -- and if you are in the 4x4 area, make sure you have a cell phone and the number of the (only) tow truck operator. Trust me, I know. 
  Just a word to the County folks -- get that Northern Beach evacuation route opened sooner! It saved us HOURS of driving last year once it was FINALLY opened! 
  Stack Em High, Jimmy's Buffet, the Wind Mill Restaurant and the Ship's Wheel (I love "The Galley" breakfast!) are our favorite restaurants.... 
  We have seen most of the tourist sites over the years and these days just hang out at the beach or just enjoy each other's company.....the way it should be......a piece of heaven. 
  Hopefully this year will have beautiful weather and no vehicle problems! 
  Once the Outer Banks get in your blood, you are hooked.....its the ONE time of year that my other obsession, riding my motorcycle, takes a back seat. 
  But one year I hope to take my bike with me to the OBX....that will be sensory overload! 
  -- Dave Zavetsky (zavetsky@comcast.net) - Monday, March 29, 2004 at 08:36:13
• you know you're hooked when you're 15 years old and have been going since the first year you are born.. you can't decide which friend to take with you to share your glorious trip and you keep a cup af sand from last year beside your bed so whenever you miss it all u have to do is touch the sand
  -- Brandi McCormack - Thursday, March 25, 2004 at 19:16:23
• You know you're hooked when you begin to dread going because you know you will have to leave after your 2 weeks in Heaven; when, as a retired teacher, you'd be willing to go back to work long enough to pay for plane fare from Texas; when you carry a flat, smooth piece of broken shell in your purse and feel warm all over when you see it and plain emotional when you hold it. 
  -- Linda Kennington - Thursday, March 25, 2004 at 00:18:28
• I'm hooked on the Outer Banks because I like to go 4 wheeling there and drive speed boats in the ocean. Please send me some OBX stickers ASAP!
  -- Luke Phillips - Tuesday, March 23, 2004 at 21:42:15
• I have been going to the OUter Banks for 26 years. It is a long 12 hour drive but worth every bit of it. My family has been tring to talk me into Florida for years but I will not budge. The Outer Banks is the only place for me. My 7 year old son is just as obsessed as I am. I love the New York Pizza Pub and my son loves Wings. Without a doubt the Outer Banks is the best place on earth.
  -- Beth Irvin - Tuesday, March 23, 2004 at 15:32:47
• There is a magic, that can't be felt anywhere on earth. Because the ocean is somehow different there....there is a feeling, a comfort, a warmth, that I have never felt in any other vacation spot before or since...and I can't stay away too long...I have to see it..again and again, at least once a year, if not more...to see the shorelines, the whitecaps, the dunes, and even after Isabel wreaked her havoc, to see the 'Banks' come back...the familiar lighthouses, all there, all still lighting the night skylines...the sight of a full moon rising on the Atlantic...and I am sad when I leave, and reminiscent for weeks after being there....and to quote Mr. Taylor's song, 'In my mind I'm goin' to Carolina....'
  -- Michelle Yamrick  - Saturday, March 6, 2004 at 21:37:14
• When we visit one weekend every month with a 6 hour drive Friday night after work no matter what the weather is like to spend Saturday walking on the beach so I can search for shells and driftwood to bring home to the "beach retreat" I am trying to build in the corner of my living room, to keep me happy until I can move to the outerbanks and live for ever in peaceful bliss. Eating at the Dunes,Stackum High Pancakes and Dirty Dicks, and the kids love Kill Devils Corn Dogs and Custards. The delightfully friendly people at Colony IV Motel and Nags Head Inn and Avon Cottages. Only 11 days till I return to Heaven on earth and then have to wait another unbearable 3 weeks to go back again. 
  -- Sherry Miller  - Friday, March 5, 2004 at 11:19:43
• We love each and everyone of our friends, the ones who are no longer with us and the ones that are still waithing for every oct. Never have we met such people as the friends of the outer banks from the outer banks pier to bingo- to the grocerys stores we have met the best friends on the fishing unlinited fishing pier from all over the world there is no one in the world can compare with these people we just want to say thank you for sharing your part of you world with us it means more than you will ever know jp cottage's the best place on the outer banks just like family - thanks again the fuller's from ohio
  -- PATTY FULLER- Thursday, March 4, 2004 at 22:57:32
• ...is there anywhere else to go? We started going there in 1992 and have went at least once a year since then. It just seems like home. I can not say that there is anything about the banks that I don't like. Every year we go to Jockey's Ribs and they remember us. My nephew has celebrated his last 4 birthdays there! The best food on the beach! We also luv the Jolly Roger and the Wharf. I love the sound, you just seem to be in another world when you are there! My husband & I will be living there someday! Only 3 months and we are there! 
  -- liz lozano  - Wednesday, March 3, 2004 at 23:49:12
• I am hooked because from the time we leave....I am always going on OBX sites, the AvalonPier.com, and have the days counted down!!! Dunes South in South Nags Head is truly heaven on Earth and I can not WAIT to get back there!! Only 120 more days!!!
  -- Lisa Furry  - Saturday, February 28, 2004 at 20:01:48
• - When on Christmas Eve, after reading The Night Before Christmas to your four year old child, she looks up and says I want to go to the beach and chase the sea gulls , - and so do you. 
  - Why you feel proud when you see the Welcome to the Village of Waves road sign in your surfer dude college kid s dorm room. 
  - When your friends can't understand why you rave about food from places named Awful Arthur s and Dirty Dick s. 
  - When you know that the driver in the car ahead of you with the oval black and white HI sticker isn t just saying hello. 
  -- Steven Hunt - Sunday, February 22, 2004 at 14:30:36
• you go back EVERY YEAR because you cant imagine vacationing ANYWHERE else, you count the days until you are going back, you love the cake at THE WHARF and going to BIG AL'S is a tradition, DIRTY DICKS is amazing, you had a great time even though it rained EVERY day last year, miniature golfing is also a tradition and walking to FAT BOYZ ICE CREAM!!! :o) I LOVE OBX!!! 165 days til we go back!!!
  -- Melissa Tasy - Monday, February 16, 2004 at 19:34:04
• 1) I know I am hooked on the Outer Banks because one of the grocery memberships savings cards in my wallet is a Food Lion card...And the only Food Lion I have ever been to is on the Banks! 
  2) I know I am hooked on the Outer Banks when I took my 6 week old daughter there...and stayed for Gustav (2002)! 
  3) I know my family is hooked because the first time I walked, the first steps I took were on the beach in Buxton, NC (many, many years ago!!) 
  4) I know we are hooked when growing up, my family tried to coordinate our vacation with my birthday so that we could celebrate it on the Outer Banks. 
  It's a sickness, but I love it! 
  225 days (and counting) until my next visit!
  -- Erin Runkle  - Thursday, January 29, 2004 at 20:47:27
• You have just booked your week 2 house at the beach-One week only is purely for novices-and now all you can do is obsess over the beach catalogs all winter...and you just got back from a week in November. 
  -- Debra Pearce  - Tuesday, January 27, 2004 at 09:24:40
• We have been going to the Banks since 1983....and even the poor dog is hooked....you know she is hooked when you say Awful Arthur's...and she perks up her head from a deep sleep!! We dearly love the Banks ...all of us..and hope to be able to return until we are gone from this earth and then may we return to our beloved Banks home in spirit! 
  -- Mary Mount - Sunday, January 18, 2004 at 22:13:13
• I'm just sitting here with tears in my eyes reading the words of those with kindred spirits! You could never understand unless you have been there. My family and I went to Va. Beach for a couple of days this month in January and all they could say about the ocean is : "It smells like Nag's Head! I want to go to Nag's Head!" THe Outer Banks is unlike anywhere else on this earth. Troubles seem to fade there...You rediscover your family there....You make soooo many memories (all happy) EVERYONE I know that goes there counts the days when they can return. Why is this? In my opinion, its God's way of telling us that Heaven is real and the OBX is a little taste of it. Hope to see you all in Salvo this June!! Dave Cash
  -- David Cash  - Friday, January 9, 2004 at 09:22:48
• I spent most of my life only an hour away. I practically grew up on Jeanettes Pier, in fact I caught my first big fish (a flounder) there when I was four. My daughter was born in California (where I now live,) but her first experience with the ocean was in Nags Head. I will always call OBX my home.
  -- Melanie Orlanda  - Saturday, January 3, 2004 at 00:56:59
• you know your hooked when the first thing in the morning and the last thing before you go to bed is go to the pier web page and listen to the waves and looked at the beautiful view :) http://www.avalonpier.com/streamwaves.html
  -- Helen Pannell  - Monday, December 15, 2003 at 20:43:53
• I grew up in north Jersey, but my Dad, being from Boston and New Bedford, loved the ocean and so we went to Cape Cod every summer. Cape Cod got overdeveloped and we moved to Maryland (Ocean City is a horror). Returning from Chicago in 1976 (and me not having seen the ocean for 5 years) my Dad said he had found a place like old Cape Cod, but better. He said the Bankers were very friendly and the prices right. I made my first trip to pre-development Duck and was overwhelmed by the wind, the beauty the low densities. Highway 158 was a little 2-lane road then and the Causeway 1 lane in each direction. Eventually started going to Hatteras Island and every year some combination of my families, friends, in-laws etc.go for 2 or more weeks. My wife wanted to go somewhere else for 2004...I agreed but a few weeks later booked a house for 2 weeks on Hatteras. You know I'm hooked on those huge skies, star-exploded nights, ghostly winds coming off the ocean, dolphins in the surf, Ocracoke seafood, NCDOT free ferry rides, legends and lore, kayaking Pamlico and I could go on and on. How could I go somewhere else?
  -- Brian Muldoon  - Thursday, December 11, 2003 at 13:33:30
• When you come to this site LMAO
  -- Rick Star  - Saturday, November 22, 2003 at 18:41:03
• Every year me and my family go to the OBX and we can't dream of going any where else!!!:)we are HOOKED!!! One year we actually saw a whales tale!! Out in the ocean. There had just been a hurricane thuogh so it may have been lost or somthing. The hurricane that had just hit was hurricane dennis. The year of 1999. I love storms so I loved it!!:)
  And there is no one on the beach either, not like florida or myrtle beach. You can also drive on the beach and when we did (me my dad and my friend) we rented a jeep and when we hit a bump we when flying in the air!!! (WEEEEE!!!) It is so fun, I want to go now!!!!! When you go riding on the beach you can go in a kinda secret road and back in there are some wild horses!!!! COOL MAN!!!! Wild mustangs.
  Well that's How I'm HOOKED on the outer banx!!:)
  -- Karrie Hunt  - Saturday, November 15, 2003 at 12:56:05
• You know you're hooked when you haven't been there for ten years and it's the only place you could dream of spending your honeymoon...
  -- Joanne Semmelmann - Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 20:04:38
• We started coming to the Outer Banks in 1998. Duck to be exact. My mother in-law wanted to buy a house to rent out. She did find one--on the beach. My mother in-law thought it would be neat if the whole family vacationed in Duck that Thanksgiving. Since the family is so large we had to rent out another house, in addition to the one she already owns. My husband and our three children stay in the other rented dwelling, since then it has become a tradition and I have been inviting my parents and siblings down also. We haven't missed a year since then. We stay in the same house every Thanksgiving and in the spring we stay at my in-laws house. Twice a year we make the OBX our vacation spot. I wouldn't dream of staying anywhere else. It is so quiet and very family oriented. We have stayed in other resort towns--Myrtle Beach to be exact. It is so crowded and noisy we wouldn't dream of ever going back there. My kids have so many memories of going to all the lighthouses, Jockey's Ridge, the Wright Brothers Memorial and so much more. It really is a wonderful place to stay.
  -- Vicky Doherty  - Monday, November 3, 2003 at 00:05:12
• I have lived in North Carolina all of my life and until 1998, had never visited the OBX. My Mother had been in her early adult years and said that you were not a true north Carolinian until you had been to to the Outer Banks, that it was a differant world. I agree, I was not impressed with the Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills area, way too commercial for my liking, But differant strokes for differant folks. I fell in love with the Avon/Buxton area, it is truly breath taking. We always take the ferry over to Ocracoke to spend a day,and eat at the Jolly Roger! Somepeople don't like Oracoke,what a shame too removed for them to enjoy....sad, they don't know how to enjoy what the Lord created. My husband and I planned all summer to go down in Sept.of 2003 and the day that we planned to leave Isabel came in,while alot of damage was done,no one lost their life...Thank the Lord! My husband and I did make it to our beloved Outer Banks, 2 weeks later, the weather was beautiful and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse had just been reopened the day before we arrived for climbling, I was so excited that I cried. After the climb we ate breakfast at Diamond Shoals(great food) and at night we ate at the Mad Crabber(also great food) lot of places were being repaired (mostly shingles and sand,tree removal)we couldn't go past Frisco, because of the Inlet opening during Isabel, but we were able to go and buy bait from Capt. Jack and Lovey at Frisco Bait and Tackle Shop,(great couple)we also were able to fish off of the Avon pier (which is one of the very few left standing)that is always a treat to stand at the end of the pier and look back at the Island. Can't wait for next years vacation to the OBX!We are fans for life! 
  -- glenda horton  - Thursday, October 16, 2003 at 15:50:38
• Our first trip to the Outer Banks was 7 or 8 years ago, we stayed in Avon. That first vacation we experienced a tropical storm which was quite an experience(I can't imagine a Hurricane). From that point on I have been hooked. I love that the place is so relaxing, there is much to do, fishing(on my list of things to do), kayaking, Bike riding, and of course the annual trip to Ocracoke. The reason I now own a 4 wheel drive vehicle is so I can go anywhere on the beach, away from the crowd. Our dogs enjoy this also. But the # 1 reason I am hooked on the Outer Banks is the quality time I get to spend with my family. This year our vacation plans had to be changed due to Isabel(a small inconvenience compared to what the people of Hatteras Village and Ocracoke have been through and continue to go through), but I very much wanted to be in the Outer Banks. Our original house was in Frisco and the road was closed until this past Thursday, so we rented another house in Waves and still had a great vacation. I am already looking forward to next year and we just got back yesterday!
  -- Matt Gahres - Sunday, October 12, 2003 at 19:53:48
• My husband took me to this wonderful place on our honeymoon in 1998 - forgive me but I forget the hurricane that landed that year. We had a condo at Pirates Cove and were evacuated 2 days later. We did return 3 days later to some damage but not terrible. The Holiday Inn in Nags Head gave us a Ocean Front Room for a very reasonable price. It was the high light of my life. We spent one more vacation in Salto and that was it. I am sick now and want nothing more than to spend at least another spring, summer, winter or fall at this place that has stayed in my head forever....This place has meant more to me than anywhere. 
  -- Debbie King  - Tuesday, October 7, 2003 at 01:00:58
• 1) I have been there for every birthday of my life, except the year I was born. 
  2) Our family started out in a 3 bedroom villa on the sound and this year we stayed in a 10 bedroom on the beach.
  3) Driving from Cincinnati is not a bad drive at all.
  4) On Christmas morning we all talk about who wants to go next year.
  5) The servers at Sam and Omie's remember us, even though we are only there for a week a year.
  6) I remember when the Causeway was only one lane both directions.
  7) James Taylor- Carolina in my mind
  8) Kitty Hawk kites- the original store.
  9) The fact that when you tell people you are going on vacation to the Outer Banks they ask 'where is that?'.
  10) At least once a month the family will happen upon a memory and reminisce about the most recent trip or all the way back to the first trip.
  
  And of course the fact that no matter where my travels take me over the course of the year, I always count down to when I get back to Nags Head.... the sun, the sand and enjoying time with my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews and the one I love. I hope to be back next year, to a place that has stood the test of Mother Nature and only gets better with age.
  -- A Habel  - Friday, October 3, 2003 at 10:45:38
• I have been coming to the banks for 23 years. Some years missed. My first was in 1976. WOW. My heart cannot find the words to discribe the joy, comfort,and total peace of mind I have found on the banks. Most of my time has been spent on Ocracoke Island and have watched it change and grow. But still never looses it's ability to hold me captive and creating in me the desire to hold on to the breezes that finally carries me back. My memories are of a primitive, simplistic lifestyle. Swept forward by the changing of the tides.
  -- t c  - Wednesday, October 1, 2003 at 20:36:00
• After looking forward to our yearly beach house trip for 11 months, Hurricane Isabel took away our Nag's Head vacation this year. We went on down to Myrtle Beach, SC, for a couple of days, but left early because we couldn't wait to get away from there-too crowded and commercialized. Luckily, we did have vacation insurance and will get our money back for the beach house, so have already reserved it for next May - NOT hurricane season. So, stuff that won't be used in the interim is still packed in the basement and the countdown has started - again.
  -- Barb Crocker  - Monday, September 29, 2003 at 11:02:20
• We wait all year for this!!!!. Have not had lights at home for over a week, so this is a nice reprieve. We outsmarted Isabel and are in the Outer Banks at this very minute!!! Pine Island is still very beautiful. Weather is more than we could have ever hoped for. Our child will still get his annual picture taken on the same day at the same spot. Y'all come!!! You won't be disappointed. 
  -- berbice two - Sunday, September 28, 2003 at 23:01:42
• We have been going to the OBX for over 20 years. We have had our own "castle in the sand" since 1988. I think everyone should know that OBX is not part of the USA, nor is it a part of the earth. Somewhere from time and space this little bit of paradise landed in NC. I know this because nowhere else can you hire someone to paint your house and they arrive with a surf board. If the surf is up, forget painting. They'll paint at night with a flashlight, except the surf is up at night also. Then you hire a plumber and he arrives with a fishing pole - - get it. There are more important things than work. Those of us who live in the USA or on this earth, haven't quite learned that. The only chance we get at this peaceful attitude is our short stay when we vacation at OBX. And Izzy and the other hurricanes can try as they might they cannot keep us from going where our heart is. To all who love the OBX - enjoy. 
  -- Bobbe Sarsfield - Friday, September 26, 2003 at 20:41:39
• I'm glad I found this website. There is no place like OBX to vacation, and make it your family beach. I love it there for the natural beauty, the people, the restaurants, the history, the many lighthouses to see and if you have never been to Jockey's Ridge State Park, go. Awesome! There is no place like the beach to relax and enjoy the sights and sounds and wonderful smell of that relaxing ocean air. I love you OBX! 
  -- Holly Schrock  - Friday, September 26, 2003 at 13:53:41
• Three years ago my son and his friend decided to work in the OBX for the summer. Since my wife and I never visited that area (Ocean City was our escape) we decided to make the trip. Two years ago we made the OBX our vacation. Three years after we first visited, we now own our 2nd home and look for any excuse to get away. I can't explain the magnetism, but that's OK. 
  -- John Eckes  - Friday, September 26, 2003 at 10:35:01
• Even with the fury of the hurricanes, there is no place on earth like the Outer Banks. We have been coming there for years. Have stayed in numerous places, South Nags Head, Nags Head, Carova Beach, Corolla, etc. Lately, we have been going twice a year (May & Sept.) Our children are grown so now it is just my husband & I and our two Golden Retrievers, Brandy & Duncan. There are an abundance of beautiful homes that will allow our beloved dogs to travel with us available through the realtors. They adore the beach and the ocean air as we do and we are comfortable knowing they can be with us instead of making them crazy and upset at a boarding facility. They are well trained and treat our rental homes as they would our own. I applaud the realtors and owners who make this service available. Just one week prior to Hurricane Isabel (Sept. 6-13) we stayed at a beautiful home called Corolla Escape through Sun Realty in Corolla. We were totally happy, the weather was wonderful and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We find more and more that each time we have to leave, it gets harder. This time we finally decided that we will shoot for early retirement here in PA and move just as close to the Outer Banks as we can afford and spend the rest of our days there. It's as close to heaven as we have found.
  -- Margaret Scott  - Thursday, September 25, 2003 at 09:04:47
• You know you are hooked on the outer banks when there has just been a huge hurricane, your motel reservation had to be cancelled because the motel was crushed by a pier and you are now online, looking for a place to stay so you can go anyway cuz ya can't stand to stay away for another year. My heart goes out to all the victims of Hurricane Isabel, and I hope the outer banks is on it's feet again real soon. The collective hearts of the people down there are made with the strongest stuff on earth, love and hope. God Bless all of you and we will see you this weekend even if we have to sleep in the car!
  -- Marianne Duncan  - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 at 12:51:18
• that is the first time i was ever to the beach was this summer and i spent 3 days down their and i love it. i was down at the beach and to the resaunt and ate and the pear and i was up and down the beeach town raod and now i would like to go to a link to see pictures of what the storm done and also i would love to come back and spend at least a week or a month down their. i loved it.
  tiny carr 
  -- tiny carr  - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 at 00:21:01
• You know your hooked when..... you worry more about whats happening to your beloved OUTER BANKS when Hurricane Isabel Sept. 18th 2003 was blowing in rather than worry about your own property where you live that is also in the path of the storm as it blows up the Chesapeake Bay Region of Maryland. I live on a little point of land that sticks out into the Chesapeake Bay and has the Potomac River and Patuxent river on each side and as we sat through the 70+ mile an hour winds with trees snapping in half all around us, and storm surge floods and high tides and inches and inches of rain, and without power for 4 days, all I could keep saying was I hope everyone down in OBX land is OK and couldnt wait till the power came back on and get on the computer and TV and newspaper coverage to see the damage. I called Tom at the Colony IV Motel(been staying there for 14 years) to see if they were ok. The pictures of OBX are heartbreaking. I pray for all of you there for strength and patience during the cleanup and repair process. I wish I could come down and help with the clean up. Outer Banks........ I will see you as soon as they will let non-residents back in. I hope to some day BE a RESIDENT Hurricanes and all. God Bless the most beautiful place on Earth and may his hands touch and heal the land the beaches and all of you who live and love it there 
  -- Sherry Miller  - Tuesday, September 23, 2003 at 09:37:45
• We celebrated our 10th anniversary by staying at The Sanderling in Duck. It was so romantic! A whole week devoted to driving up and down the Outer Banks to see my beloved lighthouses (all of them!!), getting up at sunrise every morning to watch the dolphins swimming together in pairs (so romantic!) We're an Air Force family and we've lived literally around the world for the past nearly 20 years, and yet of all the places we could settle when we retire, all we seem to talk about anymore is going back to North Carolina!!! The Outer Banks to me will always be the closest thing to heaven I've seen here on Earth. 
  -- MJ Maxwell  - Saturday, September 20, 2003 at 06:42:42
• I've been going there since I was six, first with my parents and now with my own family. Our idea of a vacation is having as many friends and family members with us as possible. Staying at Geri's Place for the past 18 years (MP21) we have often had 7 of the 10 cottages filled with people that we know or are related to us. Knowing what we are going to be doing each day - sitting on the beach - and what restaurants we want to be sure to hit - makes it the most relaxing place on earth. My girls have grown up spending two weeks each July on the OBX. They are now teenagers and they still can't wait to go. I can't wait to go back in July. You know you are hooked when your idea of an evening out is sending people ahead to get a table at Awful Arthurs and knowing that you are still going to wait 1 hr+!! for that table.
  -- Jean Jerina  - Friday, September 19, 2003 at 10:59:09
• We have been coming to the outer banks for 24 yrs. Usually in the latter part of the summer. We were evacuated on Tues. for ISABEL, and the two days before the weather was great, warm wx, lots of sun, the sound was calm, no wind but the ocean was a little rough. We will come back to Avon, NC. Next year to enjoy the late summer weather and the great fishing, surf, sound and serenity. 
  -- Bob King  - Friday, September 19, 2003 at 10:48:26
• You know you're hooked when you:
  (1) Consider the Hatteras Lighthouse, "yours"
  (2) Recognize the exact beach access point Jim Cantorre is broadcasting from
  (3) Have scars from the giant moscito bites!
  (4) Go back every year for the last 25 years anyway! :)
  -- Dina Bochnik  - Thursday, September 18, 2003 at 12:14:17
• It is an absoultly wonderful place to vacation. If I could live there I would. You do not have to worry about your children getting lost on the crowded beaches so the entire vacation is relaxing. It breaks my heart to leave every year, but knowing that I am going the next year is always a wonderful feeling. Thank you to all the people who work down there, for making every vacation a memorable one. Can't wait to see you next year.
  -- Sharon Zimmerman  - Tuesday, September 16, 2003 at 14:14:00
• ...I never want to trade the week of time-sharing in Nags Head for any other place in the world (unlike other time-share weeks at other places). That week is for me and my family and for renewing our souls! 
  -- craig stevens  - Sunday, September 14, 2003 at 11:23:36
• we went for the first time in the summer of 2003...stayed in a monumentally huge and beautiful beach house with 9 other people..celebrated our daughter's 2nd birthday while we were there...experienced the ocean with her for the first time...went to lighthouses, an experience that we've never had an opportunity to do...walked on the beach at dusk and chased crabs and watched other families do the same and just laugh and laugh and be together...scrambled to find more food for our small army after the SEAGULLS ate the steaks right off of the grill (but only after the were cooked through!!)...
  we see OBX bumper stickers all over the place up here, 13 hours away from the Outer Banks...i wish i had gotten one while we were there. We have good memories, and while i don't know when we'll get to go there again next, i truly am looking forward to getting there again.
  -- Carol Leedy - Sunday, September 14, 2003 at 06:07:02
• I am glad to have found your site... I have not been able to take my family to the Outer Banks for a few years, but it's wonderful to enjoy your site and all the wonderful comments from others... We have come from Ohio to the Outer Banks as a family twice in 5 years. This Fall may be our first "Thanksgiving Week" in the Outer Banks. If anyone knows of an affordable place to stay (sleeps 3), please email Me. Otherwise, enjoy your stay and Best Wishes!!
  -- Michael Buser  - Friday, September 12, 2003 at 16:59:19
• After my first trip to the OBX I knew this was where I wanted to be. After 30 years of looking for my ocean home I made the financial commitment and purchased a 2d home in Colington where I plan to live permanently in 5 years. I have been on line every night to look for sites like this. I am obsessed and I can't wait to spend all of Jul and Aug and every holiday in my new home not to mention the rest of my life. 
  -- Barbara Goulet  - Monday, September 8, 2003 at 21:47:47
• You can walk on the sand even on the hottest day in July. 
  -- Deborah Balestrier  - Monday, September 1, 2003 at 08:53:27
• You know you have no hope to rid yourself of the OBX, when you take your shoes off midwinter, in your 4x4, to feel the sand you have had no heart to clean out from last summer's vacation.
  -- Robin Bishop  - Sunday, August 31, 2003 at 23:16:52
• I recently admired a T-shirt on a resident that said something like "I got crabs at Dirty Dick's". It had a N.C. address on it, I'm pretty sure of it. I am interested in purchasing a T-shirt because I like to advertise, especially if it is an "eye catcher" like yours. I have one that says "Drink Naked" from a winery in Va. Can you please let me know if it is at all possible to purchase this product. Thank You. Sincerely, Joanne Yatauro
  -- Joanne Yatauro  - Thursday, August 28, 2003 at 15:48:00
• I fell in love on the Outer Banks, got engaged on the Outer Banks and am getting married in 2 weeks on the Outer Banks. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world!!
  -- Shelly Young - Thursday, August 28, 2003 at 14:53:04
• you get back from the banks and all you can think about is when you're gonna go back.
  -- Kirk Boyd - Thursday, August 14, 2003 at 09:35:06
• you get back from the banks and all you can think about is when you're gonna go back.
  -- Kirk Boyd  - Thursday, August 14, 2003 at 09:35:06
• the water, the waves, the lighthouses, the stormy weather, the beaches, the sand, the shells, the sunset, the scent, oh, and the dining, are almost as beautiful as the love of your life.
  -- Matthew Gray  - Tuesday, August 5, 2003 at 17:53:53
• - All year I am a pastor of a local Baptist Church, I am the chancellor of a Christian Academy filled with rowdy kids and I am the founder of a Seminary where I teach in the evenings.I am the general manager of a radio station. I am married with 5 kids, 4 of which are still teenagers and you ask ME why I love the Outer Banks?
  - My wife, kids and I actually count the days when we can return for vacation. I cannot wait until my feet step off the ferry onto "my" beloved Ocracoke. I can dress in old ragged jean shorts,t-shirt and sandals.
  - No suits, ties, or dealing with people. I can fade into the background where no one recognizes me and I can just be an old ragged looking beach bum.
  - I truly believe that God created places like this, so people like me can go walking and feel the high blood pressure go away!!
  - My house this year is in Salvo 8/23---8/30 2003
  - MAYBE I'll see you there..but I bet you won't recognized me!!
  -- Dr. Dave Cash  - Tuesday, August 5, 2003 at 13:04:47
• We live on Ohio, and the only newspaper we subscribe to is the Outer Banks Sentinel. It doesn't make any difference if we receive it a week late in the mail. It still reminds us where we would rather be.
  -- Dennis Coz  - Monday, July 28, 2003 at 11:27:57
• ...of a defective gene that I'm proud to have: The "OBX vacation countdown gene". (Translation: I can tell you on any given day how many more days it will be before I go again (example: 58 days and counting)) My husband has it (though not related to me) My parents have it. My siblings have it. My kid is showing signs of it. I am just genetically drawn there. Can't help it. Don't want to help it...(I noticed that y'all have got it too!!!) Didn't think it was communicable. Heck!, it must also be catching. 
  -- berbice two  - Friday, July 25, 2003 at 17:29:30
• it's a place that brings back so many great memories! Like so many other people here I feel like it is home. Not only is the place beautiful and enjoyable but what makes the beach the best placed in the world is the people who have been there to make the memories!!! 
  -- Melissa D  - Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 21:25:08
• It isn't crowded like Ocean resorts up North. I love to comb the beach for shells and I usually find at least 50 or more whole conch shells, starfish, sand dollars, sea urchins, and other shells. I first started going to the Outer Banks 13 years ago when I was 7 years old. We stayed mostly in Nags Head and the northern beaches. It wasn't as developed then as it is now so we are starting to head further south to get away from the ridiculousely big beach houses and condos. I went to Ocracoke Island last year with my aunt for the first time and I liked it alot. I like to go surf fishing and I like to have a part of the beach all to my self. Well, I had plenty of room. No big beach houses blocking my view or tons of people elbow to elbow. It was beautiful. I am planning on going there again this year. I am staying in Hatteras this time. Again, Hatteras is another low-populated town where you can find your "own little beach". The water is very warm compared to the mid-atlantic. I also catch alot more fish on the Outer Banks than up north. Another fun thing to do if you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle, is to drive out onto the beach. You can get to parts of the beach you want to get to without having to walk 3 or more miles. The only thing I don't like about the Outer Banks is the growing population and the ridiculous beach houses and resorts they are building. I know we stayed at a motel called the Vacationer for almost 7 years straight and then one night we got to Nags Head late, about midnight and we couldn't find it anywhere. Here we finally realized that they bull-dozed it and put up 3 new beach houses in it's place. Which probably rent about at least $1000 per week and block the view. Every year we take pictures or write down different cute little motels and come back the next year to find out that they were torn down and replaced by condos. Soon the beaches that aren't reserved are going to be closed to the public(private). The only ones that will be left are the ones already owned by the park service. That is the only downfall I can see at this point. I am only 20 years old and even I can see what is happening. I love deserted beaches and peace and quiet. I just hope the southern beaches stay that way. Thanks for reading!!!!!
  -- Shanda Rippeon  - Thursday, July 17, 2003 at 15:27:56
• Since before I can remember I have been coming to the Outer Banks with my parents and to sisters, and everyone else on my Dad's side of the family. I am only 13 years old. We own our own beachhouse in Duck, and I can tell you all the names of the other 27 beachouses on our street. The two weeks we spend in North Carolina every year are always the highlights of the summer. 
  -- Jonathon Loos  - Wednesday, July 9, 2003 at 15:28:17
• My family and I have been going to OBX for 3 years and its gonna be 4 in august. The first year i went there I love it i had only been about the 2nd time i had ever been on a beach. I love waking up and being able to here the waves crashing every morning. and for months after i come home i dream about the beach and i would wake up and here the waves in my head. my family goes down every year for 2 weeks in the beginning of august. we are soo hooked that we even count down from the day we get back till the next time we go. we had recently bout condoes in manteo that are jus being built we are all so excited. E mail me bout any good stories u have from obx...
  -- Martin zackowski  - Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 22:24:34
• when after visiting here for 20 years, you find yourself building a bungalow in Manteo.....we've been here almost 2 years and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE living here. The people are so friendly...we have absolutely no regrets. Five miles from the beach and yet the nicest little town with a wonderful community feel. It's just like Mayberry, complete with Andy Griffith (he goes to our church) Please email me.....I'd love to hear from you! 
  -- Angela Sellers - Thursday, July 3, 2003 at 11:11:59
• My wife went down last Columbus Day with a friend to check out condos. She found the perfect one in Duck. Swimming pool, tennis courts, picnic area with grills. Then walk about 50 feet and your on one of the best beaches in America. We see and hear the water from our living room. It takes us 7.5 hours and it's worth going just for the weekend. All I can ever think about is when is our next trip down. It can never come soon enough. OBX is heaven on earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  -- mitchell silverman  - Wednesday, July 2, 2003 at 15:52:00
• We are leaving this Wednesday July 2nd to spend 4 days at Nags Head. Our friends are already there who have gone for the last 8 years!! I am sure, we will be HOOKED, and will for sure be staying a week next year! I love reading all these wonderful things about OBX. Lisa in oHIo~~~~~
  -- Lisa Lisa  - Monday, June 30, 2003 at 22:53:00
• Cape Hatteras is our "lost" city....we like to think no one else knows about it and we dissuade others from going there because we want to keep it all to ourselves. We dream of being stranded there for weeks....years...forever!
  -- Janet Wilson  - Sunday, June 29, 2003 at 21:21:42
• You know you're hooked on OBX when you try to find a way to have a John's dolphin boat delivered to Michigan. You try to find a reason to build an outside shower at your house. You can spot an OBX sticker a mile away and you know they're just as hooked as you. 
  -- KA S  - Sunday, June 29, 2003 at 17:57:23
• ...when you just have to get there sometime during the year - even if you spent a great week in July at one of those "other" beaches 
  ...when you start talking about it with one person at work, and your co-workers start wandering over - next thing you know, everyone is "OBXing"
  ...when trying to come up with a unique email address, it ends up including the letters OBX
  ...when it really does feel like you are coming home as you cross that bridge!
  -- Laura Atkins  - Thursday, June 26, 2003 at 15:22:22
  
• My daughters and I have been going to outer banks for 8 years. We started going with a lot of family and now just the 3 of us. We stayed for the first time in southern shores and it was truly beautiful. My daughter will be getting married June 2004 in southern shores. We went to Currituck light house, duck area, Manteo area and it was all beautiful. We will continue family vacations in the outer banks.Everyone should visit the Oakracote Island. The beaches are to die for. Beautiful white sand, tons of sea shells and no one around but you.Enjoy!!!
  -- ANN TRITT  - Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 10:36:59
• when I was little I grew up on the Outer Banks. I had the life. I would cross the beach road to go to the Mariner Motel at mile post 7 (where my dad worked), to go swimming in the pool or in the ocean. If I was hungry, I would go to the Jolley Roger's (where my mom worked) and Carol and gang would set me up with the best food every. But life went on and we had to move North. But every summer until I graduate (12 years) I spent my summer break with my grandparents on the Outer Banks. Now that I am married and working, we fly down, so that we can stay longer. When I retire I want to live in Kitty Hawk. When I first moved North nobody knew of the Outer Bank. So it makes me very happy to see that the Outer Banks has touched so many people's lives. If I could I would move back, in a heart beat.
  -- Michele Cordes  - Monday, June 9, 2003 at 12:37:02
• we drove 10 hours with a 3 year old and it was worth every second to wake her up first thing in the morning and see her face walking the beach finding shells. We will remember that for the rest of our lives. Can't wait till we visit again. Thanks OBX for a lifelong memory
  -- jim pfister - Friday, May 30, 2003 at 23:48:05
• I am so Hooked on the OBX that I went out and started my own business solely so I can buy a beach house and retire at Currituck in 7 years. 
  -- Chris Kelly - Wednesday, May 28, 2003 at 13:09:33
• Me and my friend found 2 beautiful girls , snuck off with them, completely lost track of time, and got in the most trouble of our life........but it was well worth it.
  -- Mike Brady  - Thursday, May 22, 2003 at 18:00:02
• you return from the banx.. and you can't forgive yourself for wasting so much time sleeping (6 hours a night) and showering ((4 min with hair, 2 without)). DAMNIT... thats 6 hours and 4 min i could have been at the beach longer PER day. ~Lots of love for the OBX in ontario!!
  -- Eva P  - Saturday, May 17, 2003 at 18:31:22
• We spent 16 hours driving with 3 young children, and we'd do it again tomorrow if we could! It was awe inspiring, and gave us a whole new perspective on life. Never have I seen a more beautiful place. Thank God we're Americans, and have a place this close to heaven on earth! Thanks OBX for the time of our lives.
  -- Kelly Lunsford - Saturday, May 17, 2003 at 15:20:44
• I have a watercolor painting of Sam & Omie's hanging over my kitchen table (thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law who paints!) - I can sit and count the days until the next trip. Volunteered to make the 10 hour drive to SPEND THE NIGHT and drive home the next day - to retrieve my wonderful mother in law from her sister's house (a local) - she could have flown, but I said NO WAY - fortunatly my dad instilled the virtues of a good road trip at an early age! (January 2002) Love to go into the shops in Manteo - where else can the jail inmates wander pretty much unattended picking up trash during the day (2001). It's somewhere that I can get to without a map! Goombay's Coco Loco chicken, Tortuga's Lie Tortilla Soup, anything from Lone Cedar...etc, etc, etc... The look on my kids faces when we pack the car and again when we smell the ocean before we can see it! 27 days and counting!
  -- Jill Mogg  - Friday, May 16, 2003 at 13:07:37
• You know your Hooked on OBX when you can share a Beachhouse with SEVERAL rude and unpleasant family members and still can't wait to go back year after year. LOVIN' OBX IN PA!!!
  -- Terry James  - Thursday, May 15, 2003 at 13:52:54
• it's the easiest place on earth to be happy and lazy.
  -- Dianna Holinbaugh  - Wednesday, May 7, 2003 at 10:53:01
• NEWS FLASH!! The OUTER BANKS OF NORTH CAROLINA have completely DISAPPEARED due to overnight storm!! No use to tell ANYONE ELSE about the banks! If they re-appear I'll let you all know, PROMISE! By the way, since OBX is gone Leave all your property to me. If it EVER comes back I'll sell it back to you cheap MAYBE! Seriously, SEE YA THIS SUMMER>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>OBX luvr
  -- scott miller  - Tuesday, May 6, 2003 at 03:35:38
• -You're checking the hatacam everyday just to make sure the beach is ok
  - you are actually under distress when you find out a brew thru burned down
  - you can see the crab legs in the wharf buffet in your sleep
  - you have the map all packed in the car for the july trip- in april
  -- cynthia heidtmann  - sunday, april 27, 2003 at 10:41:24
• Wanting to get hooked! Would someone please tell me if it is possible to go the last week of December - 1st week of January. What is the weather like. I have only been to the beach in the spring and summer. I really enjoy sweatshirt weather on the beach, but need to know if I need to go further south for a winter vacation. 
  -- Dee Ferree  - Thursday, April 24, 2003 at 18:59:46
• I have been going to Ocracoke every year since 1954. If you're thinking of going there, please don't. You won't like it and it is too crowded in season. Thank you.
  -- Richard Osman - Friday, April 18, 2003 at 17:06:18
• Every time I see my boss I rub it in that I've been to the Outer Banks more then he has in the passed 5 years then he has and he has a house in Kitty Hawk. OBX Lovers in Grand Haven, Michigan
  -- Mary Wright  - Tuesday, April 15, 2003 at 23:35:15
• Our trip (the third) isn't until September, it's a Friday night in April, and I'm staying home and checking out all the websites. Also, I have ALREADY been buying my personal toiletries AND putting them in my overnight bag for the trip!
  -- Barb Crocker - Friday, April 4, 2003 at 22:01:52
• After visiting all the other beaches I've been to, I can't wait to shower away the sand and ocean smell. Not so with OBX!
  -- James Jao  - Sunday, March 30, 2003 at 22:59:52
• -when almost everything read on this page u can relate to how you feel one way r another
  -when u and your best friend pack up 5 kids and head down for a long weekend in april and by sept. you have talked your boyfriend in to going down for a short 36 hour trip just to make him a believer that the outer banks is the best place in the world and then by the next july your back down to get married on the beach in front of the black pelican just to turn around and by mach your suprised with a honeymoon in kitty hawk and get to see the house you have already rented for youe first anniversary :) and before you get on the bridge you r already making a list of things u want to do in july with the kids :)
  -- helen pannell  - Thursday, March 27, 2003 at 00:52:31
• When your friends ask "Is that all you think of?" when you've mentioned the OBX for the tenth time in one conversation, and it's 8 months from vacation.
  When you start X'ing out the days on the calendar on January 1 each year.
  -- Kendra Robbins - Tuesday, March 25, 2003 at 22:55:09
• - When you buy an SUV so you can haul the cat, dog, and all your stuff for just you and your spouse to Avon and be able to drive on the beach. 
  - When you collect the catalogs from all the realtors and carefully go through each one to find the perfect house with all the amenities you want. Once found, you continue to look through all of them for just the fun of it. 
  - When every room in your house has some sort of memento from OBX in it and both of your bathrooms are done in a lighthouse theme. Don't forget the car bumper stickers and the lighthouse welcome sign outside.
  - When you live in South Jersey only 45 minutes from the nearest beach but insist on driving 7 hours to Avon instead. 
  - When you spend all day at work looking at these OBX websites when your trip is still months away.
  - When you even go as far as looking at websites for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and such dreaming of the actual drive and all the sites you'll see on the way. Even though you've driven there a million times before. 
  I could go on and on. I know, call me nuts if you want. I love OBX! 
  -- Connie Clark - Monday, March 24, 2003 at 15:10:31
• You know you're hooked when you are already looking to maybe change your house for Summer and Fall 2004 and didn't even go on your 2003 vacations yet.
  -- K Z - Sunday, March 23, 2003 at 17:23:58
• When you daily check the weather for Hatteras Island even in the dead of winter. You visit the message boards and OBX webcams several times a day. You live in Kentucky, but have had your own personal OBX shirts printed up locally. You feel a unique brotherhood with anyone whose vehicle sports a OBX sticker or tag. You count the days until you can return to "your house". You allot all vacation days for the the Outer Banks, and no longer desire to travel to other destinations. You go in the dead of the winter and hang out at the beach in hat, gloves, heavy socks and sandals, and love it just as much as in the summer. You family has nicknamed you the "bonafidebeachbum". You feel "you have come" home as soon as you arrive there.
  -- Gail McCall  - Saturday, March 22, 2003 at 14:04:15
• Live in Grand Haven , Michigan, and have made 10 trips since 1996. Just returned 11:10 P.M. last night ( March 15,2003), 17 hours straight through.. Would go back today if I could. Car plate Michigan OBX NC.. See you in December for the 100th Anniversary of Flight. March 11, 2003 was our 23 Anniversary, Renewed our "Vows" at the Corolla Chapel..
  -- Philip T. Wright Sr,  - Sunday, March 16, 2003 at 10:10:15
• On the most important test in West Virginia History on the essay question (explain why WV is truly wild and wonderful) you write that West Virginia sucks and The Outer Banks is the place you consider home.
  -- Anonymous OBX luver  - Thursday, March 13, 2003 at 21:27:31
• You know you're hooked on the OBX when you have to buy a wave sound machine to put you to sleep at night cause "there ain't no waves in NYC". You buy 6 pairs of flip flops in February and pack them in the special "OBX BOX" not to be touched before trip. You bring groceries with you on trip as food shopping is a waste of sun time. Socks? oh be serious- not before the first snow. You actually LOOK for the Black Pelican. You burn special CD's full of The Allman Bros. and Buffett for the 14 hour drive- which is done in one shot so you can meet everyone else at the "Weeping Radish" for the "We're here beer"
  -- Cynthia Heidtmann  - Wednesday, March 12, 2003 at 12:00:15
• When you are land-locked in the middle west - the thought of Outer Banks Crab Cakes are the only thing that keeps you going....
  -- Karen Coffey  - Saturday, February 22, 2003 at 14:40:25
• Even though you live in Indiana, there is No Place Like the Outer Banks! And someday it will be Home! Eleven more weeks and we will be back!
  -- Carol Keeley - Wednesday, February 19, 2003 at 21:48:55
• You are hooked even when your sister-in-law drops her checkbook off the Avon fishing dock and you spend 3 hours waiting for it to wash up on the beach (1995), or your brother's car dies at the gas station in Nags Head and you try to figure out a way to carry all their crap to Avon (1997), or when you decide to take a morning walk with your brother on the beach and leave him in charge for what beach access to go back over and ending up 1 mile past, forcing us to walk down Route 12 in bare feet to get back to the house (1997), or when your brother gets a speeding ticket in VA on the trip to OBX...doesn't everyone realize the cops are ruthless in VA (except my brother)!!!(1999) or when your brother runs over a cat in Delaware on the way to OBX, tramatizing his wife (2001)....And even after all this, you can't wait to go back the next year, with your brother. Sure hope his luck doesn't rub off :)
  -- April Andrioli  - Tuesday, February 25, 2003 at 14:21:56
• ** When you live an hour from the Jersey shore and you prefer to drive 8 hours to OBX 
  ** When your husband tries figure out how to transfer to a Post Office on the Outer Banks and find you a good paying job ("you could teach, no, you could start your own business, ahh, you don't need to make that much money, try waitressing") so you can relocate.
  ** Or trying to answer the question of "if we lived in the OBX, where would we vacation?" or "would we ever need a vacation again?"
  -- April Andrioli  - Tuesday, February 25, 2003 at 14:52:15
• You know you're hooked on the Outer Banks when
  1. You count down the number of days until the annual trek to THE BEACH because you receive frequent post cards from The Beach Fairy.
  2. You go down at least 3 times per year
  3. You consider the house you are renting to be your own home and you even drive by when you are down in the off season to peek in the windows.
  4. You have the Black Pelican webcam bookmarked so you can "go" there every night
  5. You have a collection of Adirondack beach chairs and pelicans that are taking up more and more space in your house
  6. Avalon Pier cam lets you go to the beach from your office
  7. You check the weather in the Washington Post each day and as soon as you see Kitty Hawk at 70 degrees you start whining to your friends and husband to go down
  8. You love to go down in the winter and stay in an oceanfront cottage in Kill Devil Hills that makes you feel like the winter surf is going to take you right out to sea
  9. When a great meal is walking to the Acme Drive In for a Shrimp PoBoy 
  10. You bury secret treasure and a welcome back note at your rental cottage so that when you return next year you have a treasure hunt for the kids-A map would help! Sorry Amanda!
  11. Your kids grow up with the Easter Pelican as they hunt Easter Eggs in the dunes! 
  12. Each time pelicans fly by your family yells Pelicans-Woop Woop Woop
  13. You're slightly neurotic about Your Beach-How dare those kids from next door play on the sand in front of YOUR oceanfront home!
  14. You read the Sentinal every day online
  15. You now rent 2 houses-a smaller one for the first week before you move on to your gorgeous, oceanfront home in Nags Head for week two....Go down for just one week??? Novice!
  16. You and your girlfriends sit on the beach during a heat wave in November in shorts and you are wearing crowns because we are the Beach Queens! Watch out for the off season SUVs!
  17. You bring Christmas decorations to the beach and make your Christmas card by taking a photo of a Christmas tree, beach chair, and shells/sand dollars/starfish positioned in the dune with the ocean behind! ( Should sell these!)
  18. When you cruise the for sale ads on a daily basis because now you just have to own your own place instead of renting
  19. You get a bit of a grin when you see the obx sticker on any car, anywhere and you want to talk to the drive about it
  20. When you shout "Im Here Pelicans" out the car window as you drive over the Wright Memorial Bridge to start your vacation.
  -- Debra Pearce  - Saturday, March 8, 2003 at 09:10:46
• When you take your spring break from school, drive 12 hours and share a house with your dad, your boyfriend, his dad and four of your friends in the Rodanthe at the beginning of March just so you have a beach fix even though the weather is horrible and you are going back in less then 12 weeks!!! DUCK HERE WE COME!!!!
  -- Courtney Sevier - Tuesday, March 11, 2003 at 16:24:54
• when you own a ludicrously huge s.u.v. that you have absolutely no business owning just so you can haul all of your stuff out to the hook during a one week vacation!
  -- Harry Hughes  - Thursday, February 13, 2003 at 23:12:18
• **Will go down for a weekend (anytime of year) and your from New Jersey.
  **You keep having to look at Twiddy's Beach Cam while at work.
  **You know most houses by their names.
  **You love to hear why others love OBX.
  **Know how to bypass the new $2.00 toll on the Chesapeak Expressway and do it just for fun.
  **You keep the Village Of Ocean Hill Parking Permit in your car window all year long.
  **Keep the sand in your roof top carrier for sentimental reasons.
  **Can Convince your Wife that you should by land and build a beach house when you really may not be able to afford it.
  -- Ralph Cavallaro  - Friday, January 24, 2003 at 20:43:22
• You know you're hooked on the Outer Banks when you spot an OBX sticker on a car in Tyler,TX during December and you follow it home so that you can ask the driver when he was at OBX, where he went, and how long he had been going! People with OBX stickers, regardless of location, KNOW and know that each other KNOW!
  -- John Haynes  - Friday, January 24, 2003 at 13:43:19
• When the temp hovering around zero here today... Dreaming of sitting on an oceanfront beachouse deck in Avon and the soothing sounds of the surf, rather than the howling winter winds outside. Makes it all worth the wait..
  -- Frank Smith  - Thursday, January 23, 2003 at 23:25:04
• When it's January and you've already ordered a travel guide for your vacation in July. You've already started packing and you get yelled at by your parents because that's all you ever talk about.
  -- Brandi McCormack  - Thursday, January 23, 2003 at 22:16:30
• When you have been to the Outer Banks 2-3 times every year of your 49 year life and still love it! I would just stay home and not have a vacation if it could not be there. My memories of vacations there with my parents and family, and friends, and now with my husband are priceless.
  -- Joan Meador  - Thursday, January 23, 2003 at 18:38:40
• When your crazy family scrips and saves enough for an OBX vacation. Even if it means bologna sandwiches 3 days out of the week. When your sister has a tear in her eye and your favorite nephews stew the first week in September because thisis the first week we have missedour trip in the last 6.
  -- George Edelblute  - Tuesday, January 21, 2003 at 09:50:09
• When you are 20 and have been there 15 times can't wait until the next time you can afford to go again, and you and your sister plan on retiring there (as soon as possible, forget waiting until I am 65) when you get excited to see another OBX sticker on a car in the parking garage at school, when you don't mind a little tropical storm (Gustave) because you are surrounded by friends and family and there is sea food in the freezer, when some of your best childhood memories are not of Disney World or a cross country excursion but the lazy week spent on the beach in Buxton, when for almost 105 nights straight you sat on the beach and watched the Cape Hatteras light house come on. When you are close personal friends with one of the rangers because you are there so much, when you drive 20 hours straight to meet your family there, when you don't mind black feet from the sand, there is so much more but I think that I have said enough
  -- Mary Logsdon  - Wednesday, January 8, 2003 at 21:38:31
• **PITTSBURGH & CLEVELAND cousins would rather be together in Corolla than anywhere else! Sunning, Brew-thru shirts, golf/beer, Mustang Sally's, biking, sunrise walks on beach, driving thru ocean on private beach (hoping to see horses- not yet for some of us), tennis matches, family dinners, shopping at Food Lion, planning how we can all stay forever! These memories are worth every loooong drive & cent we pay!
  -- Debbie McDonough  - Monday, November 28, 2002 at 10:30:26
• ...when you can describe how each house in Pine Island looks inside (because you've just about stayed in them all for two weeks at a time each year)...when you look back at the photographs of your child taken on the beach at the same time, on the same day, in the same spot every year...and smile...when driving off on the last day, you turn around and say: "See you again in 364 more days!!!" 9/21/2002-10/5/2002 
  -- NDM  - Friday, October 18, 2002 at 11:50:52
• you know you're hooked when you freeze a jelly fish so the kids can take it back to school for "Show & Tell"
  -- pixieluvin  - Monday, October 7, 2002 at 15:48:54
• When you just printed out all 38 pages of this site at 4 AM so you can read them to all your friends in less than 24 hours while sitting on the beach in OBX and laugh about how much they all sound like us...
  -- Nags Head Lover () - Saturday, August 24, 2002 at 04:18:17
• ...you look forward to fighting the crowds at the food lion for choice cuts of Steak.
  -- mike  - Friday, August 16, 2002 at 18:46:49
• ...It's only two weeks to go before you head there, and already you're trying to figure out how to get there during the off season.
  -- Tim  - Sunday, August 11, 2002 at 20:20:25
• You know you're hooked when after 30 years of visiting you look forward to at least another 30 more. You know how Bodie Island got its name AND you know how to pronounce it! You love exploring the side of the road graveyards on Hatteras. You remember Corolla before the McMansions took over. (August 2002)
  -- terry () - Saturday, August 10, 2002 at 15:48:31
• you know you are hooked on the Outer Banks when everytime you see the Cape Hatteras Light House you think of your father because he has taken you down there every year since you were born (1983)
  -- Beth  - Friday, August 9, 2002 at 21:40:14
• When, on your first day back to work after returning from your OBX vacation, you get in your car for the morning commute and realize you now have to start wearing shoes again.
  -- Tina - Wednesday, July 31, 2002 at 12:11:34
• You start mailing & faxing your resume to every potential employer on the OBX a week after you've returned from your vacation and have informed everyone you know that you'll soon be relocating to an undisclosed island (don't want anyone following you there!)
  -- Tina  - Wednesday, July 31, 2002 at 10:45:55
• when you start laundry after returning home and bury your face in the dirty towels, because you miss that "beach smell". Just returned today (7/28/02) from our 15th OBX trip!
  -- Deanna  - Sunday, July 28, 2002 at 22:04:53
• When you drive 12 hours on an early Saturday morning to have dinner that night at Owens, Kelly's, Awful Arthur's, (so many places to mention) or to do takeout at Dirty Dick's, spend the night and drive 12 hours back home Sunday and back at work Monday at 8:30 am thinking "when can we go again?"
  July 2002
  -- Barbara  - Friday, July 26, 2002 at 12:59:11
• You know you're hooked on the Outer Banks when you eat at The Rundown Cafe three times during your vacation week, driving down from Corolla, and every time you eat a fresh fish sandwich anywhere else in the country, you compare it to the catch of the day gamefish sandwich at the Rundown! Haven't found one to match it yet and we live in Chesapeake Bay country! 
  -- Denise Johnson  - Monday, July 22, 2002 at 11:46:14
• When you fly to St. Thomas Virgin Islands and Nassau Bahamas in the same year but the most important vacation still to come will be on the Outer Banks. 
  -- MeMe  - Sunday, July 21, 2002 at 07:40:29
• You know you're hooked when.....the minute you get back from the Outer Banks, you put in for your vacation time for next year! (5 days to go!)7/8/02
  -- Andrea  - Monday, July 8, 2002 at 17:17:55
• You know you're hooked when you've been going their with 18 relatives for 14 years straight and the family motto at the end of the two weeks is "Just shoot me and leave me on the beach!" and all the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren would rather spend their vacation with family than go anywhere else. 
  -- KuwalaT  - Monday, July 8, 2002 at 15:41:06
• When one month before your vacation all you can do at work is look at Outerbanks info on the internet all day when you have already been there 3 times. ..and you can't wait to go because it will be the first time my husband and my 1 year old will be there, but I am sure not the last. (7/2/02- will be in OBX 7/13/02)
  -- Melissa - Tuesday, July, 2, 2002 at 15:16:16
• When you quit your job because your boss won`t give you two weeks off in July to go to OBX.
  --  - Monday, July, 1, 2002 at 02:18:00
• You've been there once but HAVE to go back... went in 97, going back in 2003. I need help! Give me suggestions of where to MAKE SURE I go, best campgrounds, etc... anything you'd be interested in sharing would be greatly appreciated! Even if you just want to reminisce your favorite stories :-) my aol sn is steve7883... thanks!
  -- Steve  - Thursday, June, 27, 2002 at 12:41:31
• When you've been to the outer banks at least once a year for over 40 years ... and still miss it when you're not there. When you remember the beach before they built the bypass When it pleases you that your children love it as much as you do, and want to buy granddad's cottage back. - Allan  - 05/13/2002
• You know you're hooked on the Outer Banks when you start watching Hatteras weather in January to get ready for your July vacation.5/13/02 - Shirley - 05/13/2002
• You know your hooked on the Outer Banks....when your lease agreement for the property you have reserved for a week arrives in the mail on Saturday afternoon and your husband suggests driving it immediately the 5 hours down to the Outer Banks realtor to turn it in instead of mailing it, even though you already know that there are thunderstorms in the area and there are rip tide warnings out for the beach (because the OB weather is book marked on our computer) and we have no overnight reservations made anywhere and we GO anyway. - Sherry  - 05/06/2002
• Power walks at dawn to the gate on the beach in Corolla with your best friend, walking to Wink's so the kids can get some MORE candy, riding bikes around the Whalehead Club, an off season weekend when the tourists have left ""my beach"" and I don't see another soul, dolphins cavorting in the ocean, the beach smell as you come over the bridge, the Kitty Hawk fishing pier and your child's first catch. Cold beers and crabbing lines, great laughs, great tunes, great moments in OBX. - Julie  - 05/03/2002
• You no your hooked on OBX when the day before you go back your sick in the stomach and its not from drinking to much or the sand you leave all through the car and you no its real bad when you've been home four two weeks and you get up and get ready to go to the beach. vacs 2001 - scott fletcher  - 04/22/2002
• you know your hooked on the outer banks when you go there every other weekend to just sit on the beach - michael  - 03/16/2002
• when you have been going to the OBX since you were 7 (1990) and now 18 and can't wait till this year's trip!...when you can't wait to propose to that special someone on the beaches of Corrola!...when you know that Corrola isn't pronounced like the car...when you can't wait to take the trip with 2 other brothers, 2 parents and the family lab!...when you want to work the summer in the OBX so bad, you tell your parents you would pay for them to come and visit!...when you convince your parents to retire there! (Mike 2002) - OBX for life - 03/14/2002
• I fell in love with someone when I was at the Outer Banks when I was 16 years old. I guess destiny played a roll in it. We haven't seen each other in almost 3 years. But, we're going to in a few weeks and we didn't get in touch with each other until a few months ago. Even though we only knew each other a week I never forgot about him...always thinking about him. I guess my heart never wanted to let go. And, I'm thankful it didn't. - Heather  - 03/12/2002
• when you remember sitting around the beach fire at sunrise, with a hot cup of coffee, the wind blowing on your face, the sound of the waves crashing the shore, feeling the sand in your toes....pure SERENITY! Thank you HP! - The Fornofs  - 03/03/2002
• When you bring a cooler full of clams just to catch a striper or two - 02/26/2002
• you're hooked when you come down to Corolla to work for friends for 3 or 4 weeks and your still there 5 years later!! - jenn  - 02/19/2002
• Your hooked when you create a web page dedicated to your OBX vacation each year  -  - 01/23/2002
• When you never have a desire to visit anywhere else in the world because you've already found heaven on earth. -  - 01/22/2002
• When you roll down the windows as you cross the bridge from Manteo to the OB just to smell that smell. When during the 20 some mile drive south to your house in Salvo, you find yourself bouncing up and down in your seat like a child. When you get to your house after 14 hours straight drive time and you make a bee-line not to your room, but right to the beach. Can hardly wait for trip No. 4 July 2002. - Melanie Wagner  - 01/21/2002
• I have been goin to the outer banks since I was born, and I am not 18. I love it here enough to even consider moving there for the summers between semesters at school. - Tarah - 01/21/2002
• Been goin' since 73' and every year since I been married in 97- When the best prescription for happiness is; Squinty-eyed with sweat & suntan lotion slightly in your eyes, lookin' at the sun glare with oil-smeared sunglasses around 5pm. Slight sunburned feelin' on de shoulders, sand on your pavement heated feets. A nice wholesome beer buzz (no driving of course). an Ice cold beer in your can cooler & a hot wife feeling quite the same. That's the best repeating Hatteras Experience. Repeat as often as possible. PerryJ Fox Hill VA 2002 - PerryJ - 01/17/2002
• when you go to Nags Head with another couple and when you return decide that you will never go to Nags Head without your parents again. (June 2000).....when you go fishing and cut up blood worms and thinks that smells good just because you are on the Outer Banks Pier. - Nicki Gasper  - 01/08/2002
• when you father falls in a this'll bush trying to retrieve a Cove Realtor sign, while on his bike, to take home for a souvenir...(September of 2000, South Nags Head, MP 20, on the bike trail) - Nicki Gasper - 01/08/2002
• When you just can't wait to get your next Ugly at the Orange Blossom Bakery - 01/04/2002
• You know you're hooked on the Outer Banks when...You're from Columbus, Ohio, and after your first heavenly visit to the OBX (August 2001), upon returning home, you name your new chocolate lab puppy, ""Banks"". (And you start training him to like water in preparation for your next visit next summer!) - Amanda Richmond  - 12/17/2001
• Just got back from the beaches Oct.6th, 2001 and have reserved yet another house for Sept.21, 2002 for the entire family. All the while looking into a spring jaunt late April or early May for 2002 for 4 of us adults to get away to our special place in the Outer Banks. Hurry folks, it's getting so popular that the some realtors are taking reservations up to 2 years in advance! Don't miss out! The best place imaginable. - Robert kreigh  - 11/26/2001
• You know you are hooked on the OBX when...-You keep a suitcase packed just in case you get the urge to drive 8+ hours for a fresh seafood dinner and decide you might want to say the night...You have an email address that states your claim OBXluv2bthere...You decide that all the material things in the world are NEVER as important as seeing the sun rise and set on the Banks 6/2001....You want to quit your job, sell everything just to live in Peace and Harmony with the Earth, but you realize you need money to move there, so you half-heartily go to work each day waiting for the day when you can STAY FOREVER...Linda  - linda  - 10/15/2001
• when you're willing to move from central pato grandy, nc just to be that much closer to obx, but then think it about and realize 30 miles is still to far away )Hooked on the Outer Banks! - jma - 08/24/2001
• You know you're hooked on the Outer Banks when you can't wait to book next year's house in Avon and drive 900 miles in hot steaming traffic because you crave ""Apple Uglies"" from the Orange Blossom Cafe and Snow Crab Legs from the Mad Crabber. When you have a bumper sticker that says OBX and a tag that reads OOH YEEA. 8/17/01 - Shirl Richards - 08/17/2001
• You've been going there every year since you were a baby and at 19 you still look forward to a vacation with your parents as long as it is on the OBX...and you love sitting with your ""beach friends"" you've met over the years and doing nothing on the beach...and friends at school think your summer vacation would be boring because you don't want to go out every night and would rather stay on the beach with your bathing suit on till the sun goes down...and finally you are already looking for a teaching job down on the OBX when you still have two more years left in school! - 08/04/2001
• You know. when it's 7:00 the night before you leave for Nags Head and that you're probably not going to be able to fall asleep. - Ed Morgan  - 08/03/2001
• when you and your husband don't even have to discuss WHERE to go on vacation - just WHEN to go. - Tina  - 08/03/2001
• when you see an OBX sticker on a car in Lorain, Ohio on a Friday afternoon. Get home, get on-line, make 32 phone calls and have reservations for the following Monday in NagsHead, on the beach and you get to bring the dog! - Doug & Ilona  - 07/27/2001
• when you see an OBX sticker on a car in Lorain, Ohio on a Friday afternoon. Get home, get on-line, make 32 phone calls and have reservations for the following Monday in Nags Head, on the beach and you get to bring the dog! - Doug & Ilona  - 07/26/2001
• You're hooked when you are reading this page instead of getting ready for a trip and you are so thankful to realize that so many other people feel the same way you do about the OBX and now you know you're not crazy. You're hooked when it's 7/20/01 (today) and you don't leave until 8/18/01 and you are already packing the car with the stuff you won't need till the trip. You're hooked when you never ever would put a bumper sticker on your car, but after going to the OBX only once, you are insisting on getting an OBX sticker for your car. You're hooked when you have already planned and booked (and paid a deposit for ) your honeymoon next year in the Poconos, and you are trying to figure out if you can convince your fiancé to go to the OBX instead, even though he has never been there and prefers the mountains. You're hooked when you are sitting here writing down all the reasons you know you are hooked, even though you are running on and on, just to send this page to some sight in the internet because you know there are hundreds of people reading it who will GET IT. You're hooked when you read this sight and realize that the three days you spent in the OBX last year on your first visit ever are NOTHING compared to other people, and you are taking notes from the sight just to know what else you can do while you are down there. You're hooked when you have the pictures of your beach house book marked on the net, and you spend every day just looking at them, picturing yourself finally there. You're hooked when you haven't even left for your trip yet, and are already trying to figure out ways to stay there and never come back. You're hooked when you are still in the DC area, with 29days to go till you leave, and you can't sleep at night because you are so busy thinking about being there. You're hooked when you have to stop reading this page to go get some tissues and your cat is looking at you like you are crazy because you are crying and you don't know why you only know that you HAVE to get to the OBX soon or you will go nuts. - Misti  - 07/20/2001
• You're hooked when you have only been there once (in 2000), and you are so desperate to go again you are even willing to share a beach house with your ex husband and his family this year. You're hooked when your plans with the ex fall through so you recruit several friends for a last minute trip, then spend days finding a beach house at the last minute. Only29 days to go!!!! You're hooked when you come back from your first ever trip to the OBX, and you are so hooked on outside showers that you never again close the bathroom door at home when you are showering just to rekindle that feeling. You're hooked when you rent the beach house with your friends for this year, and have a serious crisis because it doesn't have an outside shower, but it's beautiful, inexpensive, and the only house available for when you are going. - Misti  - 07/20/2001
• When the entire year you reminisce with all of your friends and family that have been going to OBX with you for 15 years and you sit around laughing so hard you are in tears and can't wait for your 2 weeks to come in Aug. When all year you can taste a John's Chocolate and Peanut Butter Milkshake to go along with your dolphin sub. 15 years ago (r 1st year) we met a family from NJ that we keep in contact with now all year and our vacations would never be the same without the Fergie's (Fredrickson's)!When you know someone else is going to OBX that has never been and you love sitting and telling them stories and all the great places to eat and all the fun things to do! When you refer to MP 9 1/2 as the best place on - Katie Jones  - 07/19/2001
• As soon as you get there and you take the first steps in to the sand, you hear the seagulls singing and the ocean waves crashing and all you do is take a deep breath and close your eyes and feel utter relaxation instantly b/c your vacation has finally started in paradise! 8/4-8/18 - Katie Jones  - 07/19/2001
• When you live in SC & your license plate reads LOVE OBX (not to mention both of your cars have OBX stickers on them). - Cricket  - 07/11/2001
• You know you love the outer banks... When you are 22 years old, have spent you last 22 birthdays there, the past 22 of your parents 30 anniversaries there, the past 22 of your fathers 52 birthdays there, propose to your fiancé there, have the mile post in which your beach house is located on your license plate, with variations on each of your parents license plates, hang the biggest OBX flag you can find on a wall in your town house in lieu of wall paper, don't buy art because all of the sunrise, sunset, and other pictures you have taken there have been blown up and framed and placed around your house.... - July, 2002  - 07/11/2001
• When your license plate reads ""OH YEEAH"" and the bumper sticker above it reads ""Hatteras Bound"". (You'll see it the week of July 14 to 21st) - Shirley Richards - 07/10/2001
• When you realize that your only worthwhile goal in life is to stay at every rental house on Hatteras - Al Baird  - 07/02/2001
• When you get back home and feel sick to your stomach b/c you can't see two excellent philly chicks that you meet down at the OBX. How come you girls never get on!!?!?! - Ian  - 07/01/2001
• Haven't been to Duck in two years: it's two months before our July vacation (2001), and we've already booked our New Year's vacation there!!! Got to start packing! - Diane Verity  - 06/23/2001
• When you're not due to leave for Ocracoke until 6/24/01 and you've already changed your answering machine message at work on 6/1! - lynn - 06/14/2001
• You know your hooked when you go to swell.com every day and watch the live cam of Cape Hatteras, the Ocean, and the Light House. - Brian  - 06/12/2001
• you find yourself planning on getting to the OBX three hours early to sit outside at the Weeping Radish so you can have at all cool one. you can recite the menus from the fav restaurants by heart. you can see the sun rising, hear the waves crashing, see the pelicans in a solitary row skimming over the wave tops, only to realize you have to wait to actually see them, but still you don't mind. - Jeff  - 06/11/2001
• When between 1957 and 1980 you vacationed on OBX about 15times, and now in 2001, you now live in Massachusetts and will be bringing your new family to OBX to meet with all of your immediate family for a family reunion, and you feel nervous because its like going to see an old friend...looking forward to seeing Jockeys Ridge, the sand crabs, the upper shores, etc.... - Rick  - 06/10/2001
• when your 1st anniversary present to yourselves is a week(May 19-26, 2001) in the Outer Banks with your lovely wife Jen (and several wonderful friends), and that week is better than your honeymoon. ...when you realize that one of your lifelong dreams has come true, and you (a 26-year-old guy) nearly start crying at the start of the trip home. ...when for the first time you think you could live somewhere other than the beautiful hills of West Virginia. ...when Avon is not a company but rather an incredible memory. ...when you finally understand what all those OBX stickers mean, and get one for your own car. ...when you read this whole entire list before adding comments of your own! 8) (06/05/01) - Jimmy Abel - 06/05/2001
• When you go to an OBX bar to watch the Kentucky Derby with a crazy decorated hat with horses running around it and bell sand shot glasses hanging off of it, but you brought a few extra hats with you because you knew you'd be in good company! 6/01 - Julie  - 06/04/2001
• When you & your sister sit on the beach in Nags Head & she looks at you & says "" we're home. ""When you ""suggest"" a vacation to the mountains of Tennessee& everyone yells ""no way-we're going to the OBX"". When you can't wait to go to Sam & Omies or George's Junction. When you get up early EVERY day of your vacation instead of sleeping in-just so you don't miss a minute. Going into Souvineer City & the owner asks how things are in Ohio. When you tell your husband you WILL live on the OBX someday and he'll go with you or he can come to visit anytime he wants. - Carplyn Gombeda (ckimmy57yahoo.com) - 06/03/2001
• when you look for wild horses each year you visit, when you look forward so much to going that you plan college classes around your vacation week, when you only play jimmy buffet music year-round while keeping beach lights lit around your apartment, and when, if for some godforsaken reason it looks like you might not be able to go one year, you pitch a fit and decide to move down to north Carolina just to be closer to the coast. -  - 05/31/2001
• DOWNISLAND Parrot headed tunes, ice cold Beer, Suntan oil, Sunglasses, aloe gel& a fan, fishin', cigars, a really good 4wheeldrive induced sunburn, a good beer buzz on the sundeckor beach(kinda early, NO driving of course), Haze, Glare & Humidity, no problems Mon'No worries mate. all of these things contribute to my (our)addiction Ain't life grand!!!! - PerryJ  - 05/22/2001
• A bottle of OBX sand next to the computer. You know it's a great place when the college kids still want to travel to the beach house with ""parents"", instead of doing a spring break weekend. Counting the days and packing the grocery list! ILUVOBX!!! - Lori Learn  - 05/18/2001
• crying while reading, because we've been there; wishing we could die there, because it's so beautiful, just left but all ready counting down the days for our return. From Blythewood, SC a 7 hour drive that is just filled with anticipation, seems like 20 hours driving back! Memories; leaving the mainland, kitty hawk, those huge houses atcorolla, john yancey at nags head, crossing the oregon inlet, what a beautiful scene! Our house at rodanthe, going to avon food lion for groceries. bubbas bbq, soundside restaurant, ferry ride to ocracoke, howards pub, a great burger at the creekside cafe overlooking silver lake, I think i could goon forever but I can't cause we'll be back next year and then there will be new memories to talk about. God we love the OUTERBANKS!!!!!!!! - tommy  - 05/10/2001
• When you actually buy a place right on the beach to call your second home - Feist  - 05/07/2001
• You know you're hooked on the Outer Banks when: Preset #1 on your truck's stereo stays tuned to 93.7 ""The Coast"" year round, even though you're only there 1 week out of the year and live 650 miles away! (25 Apr 01) - Chris Constantine  - 04/25/2001
• when all your children's back to school clothes are OBX and when you offer your children a week in August at another Atlantic Coast beach rather than the long 12-hour trip from gloomy PA to the Banks and they cry and stomp their feet because they won't stand for any vacation other than an OBX vacation and the parents of course totally agree! - 04/23/01 -  - 04/24/2001
• When your rental is paid in full and your surfing websites in April for an August 2001 vacation. - Jody & JB Breen  - 04/22/2001
• Well... when you quit college and hitch-hike all the way from Lebanon, Pennsylvania to Nag's Head to LIVE THERE and then find a room with a wonderful, charitable person on Manteo... and then someone else in Wanchese... When you campon the beach in a gazebo looking for a wild child named Lee you knew when you were a teenager... When you wander Jeanette's Pier and work as a maid at any hotel that will have you just to have the bucks to stay... or wash dishes or sell earrings... or... and then, one day, you wake up and you're 36 and living in Texas... just waiting until you can go back again. - SueAnn Jackson Land  - 04/17/2001
• When you spend your beautiful spring break looking for a cottage for your mom and sisters in August, and postpone your research paper until the night before it's due just to look at this site. - Amanda M.  - 04/12/2001
• When your 5 year old son (with Autism) says his FIRST complete sentence and it is: ""I want to go over the shore bridge to the beach to play in the sand."" And you take him that weekend because you've been crying all week, just to hear your child speak in sentences... - Stacie - 04/11/2001
• When.... after having been to the obx many times, you go on a co. paid trip to Vail, CO., and you would still rather scrimp and save for your obx vacation.... even though you have to pay for it!!!!! - Mary  - 04/11/2001
• You keep your heat on high just so you can wear shorts. - You skip out on everything even dances to go - The highlight of your vacation was fishing and to a 16 year old girl its fun and she doesn't care what her friends think - Heather 
• When you live in North Carolina & you go to the mountains to go shopping & the beach to relax.
• When on your 15th wedding anniversary, your husband takes You out for a romantic dinner & you both have your fishing Clothes in the truck, so just as soon as dinner is over with You can go back to fishing on the beach in the moonlight. 
• When you have a tide clock above your computer and can't wait til you get back to 4 wheel the beaches to collect shells for landscaping the flower beds, even though you have 4 18 gallon bins full already, going 4-20-01 for one week and 9-30-01 for another and it's never soon enough or often enough! Could we possibly re-locate forever? buddybob  3/9/2001
• When you've been there 10 times in the last seven years, have two trips booked this year and are already thinking about two trips for 2002.....can't get enough of obx!! buddybob  3/9/2001
• When you only live two hours away but you choose to spend both vacation weeks in OBX paradise every year. When you visit The Christmas Shoppes in Manteo just to "recharge the smell" of the first time you went there. When you've seen the waiters at Big Al's stop working and sing "YMCA" while you enjoy an "Ivory Tower" club sandwich to die for (99')! When you know that you'd better NOT exceed the speed limit on the beach road. When you look forward to seeing and counting the license plates that have OBX on them. When your own license plate reads "I LV OBX". When you treasure the memory of being sand blasted while showing an Ohio relative the Nags Head Pier (97'). When the Atlantic Realty Rental Catalog is considered a coffee table book in your home. When you know what OBL means .... and you know, in your heart, that it means you! When you've still got 40 more days until 2001 vacation and you're seriously considering that it may be time to pack, you're hooked!  -- M Jarvis  3/5/2001
• You know you're hooked when you buy a brand new convertible with personalized plates (OBX NC) just to drive to the Outer Banks.-- J. Negast 3/1/2001
• When you exist in NE OHIO, have a BEACH Garden in the backyard within sand, seashells, carved seagulls set on wood pylons and a 4 ft. Hatteras light house that WORKS, then you spend all your tax returns on your next trip(s) every year, so you can plan to retire there in 14 years....to the best place in the USA!-- buddybob  02-16-2001
• When you look forward to going to Food Lion, you sit for hours staring at the R&R book, you can't wait to get to Mustang Sally's and...of course The Cotton Gin (right Mom?) Can't wait!!! -- Kell  2/9/2001
• when your personalized car tag is OTRBNKS and you live in Oklahoma (now THAT elicits puzzled looks) and your sister's personalized Oklahoma car tag is OBXbabe! :) 
  Charlene  1/24/2001
• -you live by the ocean in California and insist that going to the beach means flying all day to get to Corolla.
• -you keep a dish of Corolla sand and shells in your living room and can tell a story about each shell.
• -just remembering sun rises or sun sets can bring tears to your eyes.
• -you've been to every beach from New Jersey to the Florida keys and know for certain that Corolla is best. 2001
• When you live in Minnesota and you want to go home to the outer banks.
• when you go every year for 20 years straight and are still not tired of going! (
• ...when you check the web site for the weather channel EVERY day for the Outer Banks!  
• ...when you have spent 16 years in the Air Force and traveled all around the world as an Air Force Thunderbird Team Member (for 3 of those years)----and Cape Hatteras is STILL your favorite place to go on vacation! (Sure do miss eating those great subs at The Sandwich Shop near Buxton!) 
• ...when everything about this page makes you relive the best memories of your life and you realize that you'd give up almost anything to go back
  ...when your lifelong goal is nothing more than making enough money to guarantee yourself a vacation and retirement at the ob and you're not even halfway through college
  ...when the sight of the jar of seashells you collected on the beaches of corolla on your bedside table is all you need to make you smile 
• ...when you walk in to see different realtors to discuss terms, knowing there is no way you can swing it.  Yet, there is still always that slim chance that the "money fairy" will bless you with her touch. 
• ...when you suffer from temporary ( Yet severe) manic depression for an entire month after leaving, and on one occasion had to be committed to the psych. floor of the hospital, for  what is now called post-Hatteras  shock syndrom 
• ...When you spend every birthday at the OBX (AUG 5 98) (Corey Max Maldonado)
• ...when you invite your boss to go with you on a weekend fishing trip just so he might let you out at noon on Friday to get an early start. 
• ...when you know the exact mileage door-to-door to the tenth of a mile(629.8 miles) from your home in Ohio to your home in Nags Head and don't mind making the trip four times a year, all in one day, for the past five years with two dogs in tow. We spent our vacations in Nags Head with our children and an assortment of friends and relatives since 1974 and fulfilled our dream to own our place in 1993. "Summer Sweet" is sweet! 
• hen your husband gets a tatoo of the Hatteras Lighthouse on his forearm.
  ...when you take the only vacation time you have coming all year to make two trips a year.
  ...when you spend Easter Sunday at Avon enjoying the ocean views. 
• hen you are willing to spend a week with your whole family:Mom, sisters, brother, sister-in-law children, neices and nephew just to be able to spend a week in an ocenfront house in Duck. and you do this every year. 
• ...when your six year old daughter says "When are we going to our house in North Carolina" and she is speaking of the house we've rented in Duck every year since she was born. 
• ...when the suns coming up, sparkling on the water, your fishing line is wet, and your four year old daughter has spent the last hour racing around your feet, picking up shells, and constantly talking.  And you have a picture of this taken by some friends and use it as your computer's wallpaper.  And you sigh every time you see it!  Oct. 1997-coming back same time in '99. 
• ...when you stumble across this page after surfing the web for OBX info for endless hours and days at work and realize there are others out there who love OBX as much as we did on our first vacation there in 97.  At least now I know I'm not crazy with this obsession!!! 
• ...when you begin to plan your summer vacation each year the questions is not "where should we go", but "when should we go"
  ...when you see an OBX bumper sticker on vehicles all year and feel connected with the driver
  ...when you have found yourself reluctant to tell friends how wonderful the Outer Banks are because you don't want it to become too popular
  ...when all you can think about all year is how long until your week at the Outer Banks!!
  ...when you drive up and down beach road trying to figure out a way you could "relocate" and still be able to pay the bills
  ...when 5 weeks before your annual vacation you are reading this website trying to satisfy your yearning 
• ...when you've anxiously waited to go to Ocracoke and your parents refuse to take you back because you've been there too many times the way it is. 
• ...when you are a native Clevelander but consider yourself a local, have visited or lived on the Outer Banks since you were 12, now live in Oklahoma and have OBX & WRV stickers on car, OB calendar & lighthouse pics as decor in home & office, and are raising daughters to love the Banks as much as you do! 
• ...when you live only 2 hours from Ocean City, Maryland and you are one month away from your third year in a row of vacationing on the Outer Banks. 
• ...when you tell the kids, ages 12 and 9, who have been to the Outer Banks every year of their life, that we can fly to Florida's gulf coast for vacation this year (1998) and see the beach where Mommy went when she was a kid... and they say "No way! We won't get to see Frank and Fran at THE beach in Avon and eat breakfast at the Froggy Dog!" Well...this year will make it 21 years in a row for me at the OBX. 
• ...when you make your SCREEN Name OUTRBANKII so every time you use your computer you think of the most BEAUTIFUL PLACE in the WORLD!!!!! (My wife and I WILL make our RESIDENCE there the day We RETIRE) 
• ...when you've reserved the newest built house for 1998 from Resort Realty but you really wouldn't care if it were a refridgerator box...so long as the box were oceanfront
  ...when in May you know which days of your September 1998 vacation are going include visit's to Weeping Radish, Awful Arthur's, Bad Barracuda's, etc. 
• ...when you hated the idea of a beach before your own honeymoon and all year after it you think about Jet Ski's and Boogie Boarding
  ...when you saw Dolphins swim past you at Hatteras with your new wife and go gee, I wish I was with them
  ...when a seagull named frank went EEEUGH and you said honey what was that? 
• ...when you start counting down the days in November and your vacation is in July... 10 days to go (Liz)
• ...when you convince the airline stewardess to let you carry on your beach umbrella all the way from Tucson, AZ so you'll have it in Corolla Light! 
• ...when you drive 5 hours JUST to go to Chili Peppers restaurant. 
• ...when you can think of nothing else from the time you get there until the next year when you come back.   As soon as you get out of the car and run down to the beach the stress disappears, and life is good!!!!. (Julia) 
• ...when you've just gotten back from Hatteras and Ocracoke and are trying to figure out how to find employment and living quarters there so that you can go back and stay 
• ...I know my husband, Jerry is bad off when after we get home and he has had his first full day back at work, he comes in and says "These shoes are all over my feet!!!" 
• ...when the only time you feel like you're getting close to home is crossing the Wright Brothers Bridge, and Michigan is just where you go to earn money. 
• ...When you start counting down the days (8 months in advance)till the big trip.  The first two weeks of July are the best time of your life with all your friends you have meet fishing in Nags Head. 
  When you here the wind is blowing east and all you want to do is go King fishing. 
• ...When you are driving home from the mall at 9:30 at night and your mom says to you  "If we left for Nags Head right now we could get there at 3:00 am  and only have 12 hours until it is time to pick up the key at the local Sun Realty office and walk into our summer haven!"   ( only 24 more days!) 
  When the main focus was of your dinner conversation is  the guessing game invented by your family : Where in Nags Head am I?
• ...when you've been visiting the Outer Banks every year since you were 5 (now 29), were proposed to on the beach in Duck under the moonlight (1995) and in 1996 spent your honeymoon there...and we'll continue our yearly tradition! 
• ...when you talk your employer into paying for an all expenses paid company trip!!!!!! (Peggy)
• ......when you read this page and have to wipe tears out of your eyes.
  ...when you read the classifieds all year long looking for a job
  ...when you long to live in that house by the 'old swimmin' hole
  ...when you can't concentrate because all you can think about is your next trip to Nags Head
  ...when you've been going there for 35 yrs (since I was 1) and people say, don't you ever want to go somewhere else and you just shake your head and feel sorry for them! 
• ...ALL OF THE ABOVE!!! 
• ...when you don't have to order your calendar this year cause you have a cottage for the 3rd week in August and you'll just pick one up when you're down there 
• ...when your brand new 4 wheel drive S.U.V. sinks to its chasis while driving on the beach near the bridge to Hatteras (didn't know to lower the pressure in my tires)! 
• ...when you take a photo of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse and blow it up poster size and hang it above your bed. so that each night you fall asleep to the lighthouse framed against that beautiful outer banks blue sky 
• ...when after being dropped off by the wonderful tour operator at Cape Lookout and realizing that I have forgotten the wine glasses, we search and find the perfect shells for sipping "Chardonay on the half shell" while staring at the deserted beach and the setting sun with my loving wife and our best friends. 
• ...when you don't know how you will make it through a whole year and you have a terrible aching in your heart because you are unable to go. 
• ...when you get your rental magazines in december and count out the days until june (anonymous lover of the Outer Banks)
• ...when you're willing to save all your change so you can by artwork from the Morales Art Gallery to have warm memories to get you through the cold winter.
• ...when standing on the beach next to a bonfire in hatteras, you've exchanged the words "i love you" for the first time with your companion because everything just felt right. 
• ...when you discover this site while you are at work and start reading the coments out loud and your co-workers all laugh and accuse you of writing every comment!!!
  ...when no one you work with asks you where you are going to go on your vacation. They already know! 
• ...when after a 3-day weekend in March (98), the first thing you're doing at work is looking up OBX job opportunities on the internet, wondering if you could make your car payments on $6.50 an hour and just camp somewhere til October 
• ...when your family is there with a friends family and the oldest son of their family loses the car keys in the ocean--while you're on an island and the last ferry is leaving in 20 minutes (1989)
  ...when you're 14 and you meet a boy and correspond for 4 years after that (1990)
  ...when you were taught hang gliding, by your brother --one of the instructors. 
• ...when you remember having the time of your life jumping from the dunes at 6 years old in 1971, and now in 1997 you find yourself standing on the same beach watching your 6 year old boy falling in love with the island, just as you did many years before. Another generation is hooked! 
• ...when it's July and you order a custom made fishing rod at Frisco Rod & Gun and Bryan asks you when you need it, you say: "I'll pick it up next June." 
• ...when you go into someone's basement that is filled with Outer Banks images and you scream " Hatteras " and feel like they are stealing something that's 'yours'. 
• ...when you actually enjoy fighting traffic while driving South on Route 13 on the Delmarva peninsula because you know you're heading toward the Outer Banks! 
• ...when you and the kids start looking for craft ideas for all the beach treasures you'll find, starting in january! 
• ...when your listening to the radio and you hear a song and you think, "Wow I heard that song for the first time at the O.B." 
• ...when you're son (now 22) says "I can't make it to Disneyworld but I'll be ready for Nags Head. Can we go check out the 'catch of the day' at Oregon Inlet?" (bonnie)
• ...when you fell the "migratory call" to Southern Shores the starting the first day of February! 
• ...when you took the kids in '96 on a well-loved trip through New England; went with the kids to Disney World and toured the south in '97; and offered them a trip to a ranch in the west for '98, but all they wanted was to go back to the Outer Banks for vacation... and you agreed. 
• ...when you read this page once a week because you're feeling "homesick" for Kill Devil Hills and all of the memories that the Outer Banks have brought you. Only 5 more months til' my vacation!!!! 
• ...when You attend a college soley for the reason it is only two and a half hrs. from Nags Head (any closer and I would have failed out!)
  ...when your mom tells you to just "think of Kitty Hawk" when you're a little girl and having a nightmare
  ...when your first real kiss is on the beach in Kitty Hawk and you cry all the way home to PA
  ...when your parents buy a house in Nags Head so your family can spend almost every holiday there!
  ...when you cry tears of joy coming over the bridge into Manteo and cry tears of sadness on the way back
  ...when you've been vacationing there since you were three and can't wait to take your own children there--when you have them... 
• ...when it's only February and you're crying because August and the Banks are still 6 months away!
• ...when you name each of your Awful Arthurs T-shirts by their year... and wonder about this years color.. 
• ...when you watch the weather channel (from Pa.) each time a storm comes up the coast, just so you can see live pictures of Duck and Nags Head. :) 
• ...when you find this page and begin to cry because you understand every comment.
  ...when the only place you're truly happy is in Hatteras and you live in Mansfield, OH for the other 51 weeks of the year. 
• ...when you remember that the road to Duck ended in Duck! spent every summer since 1970 w/the exception of a few years in the 80's OBX. is my "home"
  when you pass Wright mem. and remember where the Circus Tent used to be..!
  when you start to think about your next dinner at Elizabeth's Cafe and it's only December...
  When you call in January for tee times at Seascape and Currituck for August of 98, so you can be the first foursome and be back on the beach at 11:00 a.m. 
• ...when you are willing to drive 12-1/2 hours, starting in the dead of night, so that when you get there it's the middle of the most glorious afternoon that you've ever seen and you don't miss a minute of the sight of the sand and waves. And all you have to do is close your eyes and you're on the OBX and can see the inside of every shop and beach house that you've ever stayed in for the past 15 years. And part of the Christmas tradition at your house is picking out the cottage you want this year
• ...when you go to the "Down Under" and buy a light house picture right off the wall because you can't take the real ones home! 
• ... when you haven't been there for 20 years and you can still remember how it smells.
• ...when you protest wearing socks in indiana in the dead of winter so that you feel like ocracoke and you throw shells in your driveway from" emily" and leave your best friend in ocracoke five months ago and she"s still there working at the pelican 
• ...when you waited 13 years for your honeymoon and when you got it it was at the OB and now all you can think of is how to make enough money to have a house on Ocracoke and still pay your PA mortgage. 7/4/95 & 6/22/97 
• ...when you meet someone at work who also goes to Hatteras and you spend an hour surfing the web about Hatteras instead of doing your work!!! 
• ...when all the people in the house you have rented for the past six years get together over Thanksgiving to plan out the menu for your July vacation and then start buying the dry goods the following day.
• ...when you DID have a wedding on the beach in front of the Round House, and your dress is WAY to tight 'cuz the house is across the street from Johns Drive In! 
• ...When your boyfriend-1988(who's now your husband, & 10 years later) takes you there on vacation EVERY YEAR camping at Cape Woods Campground in Buxton(the best campground on the island). Even the dogs look forward to going and playing on the sand and swimming in the surf. Some day this will be a permanent home for us, some day! (Doris)
• ...when you read the fish report every morning at 6:30am & then you call your wife & say the fish are biting so let's go!!! (michael t)
• ...when you DID have a barefoot wedding on the beach in front of the Round House and your dress is WAY tight 'cuz the house is across from Johns Ice Cream (anonymous)
• ...when you are proud that you know the name of any resturant owner. Especially Gus at Mulligans. 
• ...when your 11 year old is thinking about retiring at OBX
  ...when you never unpack the beach stuff 
• ...when you've been going there for so long and told enough friends about it that you wont tell any more because it'll get too crowded
  ...when all you can think of is going to Art's Place for the best burger in the world and the best people in the world.
• ...when you risk losing your house and getting wayyyy behind on your bills just to have a week in whalehead 
• ...when it has been 10 years since you have left a footprint in the sand, but you can still smell the air and feel the sea breeze. I miss you Ocracoke, badly. Life keeps getting in the way.....but someday, my friend, someday..... 
• ...when when you check this web site a few times each week--any little bit of new information being savored--or, your ears perk up anytime you hear the words "outer banks," be it a newscast, an overheard conversation, etc. 
• ...when you keep seashells in glove compartments and other places in your van for a yearround reminder of the Hatteras summertime paradise. 
• ...when you insisted on spending a week with your husband & no kids, and it's your 40th b=day, and all your relatives and friends are mad they can't insult you with a party and we sit at AWFUL AUTHURS and sing ME @ JULIO DOWN AT THE SCHOOLYARD and get a free pitcher of beer and a peck of oysters. 
• ...when the two most important weeks on your calendar are labeled "Finals" and "Outer Banks"
  . . when you purposely don't refold the package so the cookies will get that lovely beach-sogginess texture
  . . .when you are poring over the Outer Banks web page instead of writing up your paper (which, incidentally, is on the feral horses of the Outer Banks)
  . . .when it's November in central NY and you are desperately wishing the 9 inches of snow outside was sand, that the hills were Jockey's Ridge, and that the frozen-over lake was really Oregon Inlet 
• ...when at 1:00AM your wife finds you sitting on the edge of the surf, and ask's what it is you are doing and your reply is "enjoying the fresh air"
  ...when you wake with a throbbing finger,blood on the previous nights clothing,and you begin to remember how much "fun" you and your buddies had "catching" sand crabs
  ...when these memories will help get you through a long hard winter in the Northeast 
• ...when you know, (& have know for years) that at 35 years old....this is where I want to live.....forever....watching the dolphins and the pelicans. Miss the free roamin horse of Corolla, but I'll still be back in June 
• ...when your personalized tags read: LV DUCK! 
• ...when you can spend an entire afternoon at "Awful Arthurs" sitting at the raw bar enjoing delicious fresh seafood and cold beer. 
• ...when your husband informs you that he can't make his Birthday Weekend Trip-1997 to the O.B and you ponder the moral question of just going yourself! 
• ...when someone offers you an all expense trip to England and you actually consider turning them down because you don't want to miss your week in Kitty Hawk. 
• ...when you have to take your fiance to Ocracoke to make sure she likes before you marry her.....on Ocracoke.
  ...when you DO give up a $65K job to manage a campground on Hatteras
  ...when you have been spending vacations, weekends and any other available time in the OBX since you were 3 years old (now 34)
  ...when your entire living room is decorated in OBX pictures, lamps, sea shells, and any other paraphenalia you could find in the OBX. 
• ...when you leave the sand from Cape Point in the floor of your 4X4 over the winter. (JP)
• ...when you name your water loving labrador Hatteras, what else? now that i've graduated college, i don't want to go to grad school, i want to go to the outer banks!!! i've been going since before i was born! 
• ...when you already have 1998 vacation to obx planned and you still have 21 more days unitl your 1997 obx vacation 
• ...when you read this wonderful page and realize that you're not the only one who cries on the way home.
  ...when you get home from a wonderful family vacation on the OB and immediately your daughter-in-law gets out the books to find a great house that we can all share again next year. (now the whole family, in-laws included, is hooked on the Outer Banks!! 
• ...when the food you ate in the outer banks becomes the gold standard for all restaurant food eaten since. 
• ...when you've been there, done that...but can't wait to go back and do it again. 
• ...when you get the chance to witness the best dolphin show on earth and it doesn't cost you a dime. 
• ...when you can sit on the beach wrapped in a wool blanket and still have the greatest day at the beach! 
• ...when you're home and you hear about a hurricane heading for the OB and you long to be there in the middle of it! (
• ...when you can't find your fishing pole, look for a total of 5 minutes, and then decide, I guess I'll just have to stop at Bob's and pick up another one.
  ...when When you either have to walk around in long sleeves and long pants, or your underwear for the week because your wife has packed everything on Monday to leave on Friday night. (Billy B.)
• ...when you're planning for a barefoot wedding to be held on the beach at Corolla. (Billy M.)
• ...when the only T.V. show you watch when you're in the Outer Banks is the real estate infomercial, while you're dreaming about the day when you'll own your own OBX home! Fortunately our DREAM came true in May '97, in Corolla. 
• ...when you have dinner at the Back Porch in Ocracoke three time during a one week vacation. 
• ...when you drive 10 hours for baked goods because Beach Bites is your favorite Bakery 
• ...when instead of doing your computer work, you search and make up a list Beach Homes you want to stay in next year, and the next year, and the next year............ 
• ...when you're forced to leave Hatteras because of Hurricane Bertha after only 2 days and you make a reservation for next year.
  ...when you buy pictures of the lighthouse for every room of the house.
  ...when your friends in PA think you're nuts for passing up the crowded and expensive Jersey shore and you smile and say "We love it down there." 
• ...when ou realize every password you have at work has something to do with the outerbanks!
  ...when youand your spouse are leaving the beach, driving on the beach road and you see a shed and say "we could live be lifeguards and live in that shed!!"
  ...when you get engaged at the Pink Elephant Put-Put and you can't imagine any other place on earth you would have wanted it to be! (Stacey Nelms)
• ...when your airplane obsessed husband agrees to fly you and the kids to the Billy Mitchell airport for the day, and you set on the beach eating sand-enhanced sandwiches, just so you can all get your "Outer Banks" fix in the dead of winter. 
• ...when every dream you have for two weeks after you get back is about the banks
  ...when you get back and seriously think that there should be an Outer Banks support group for those of us who just can't this place out of our heads!!! 
• ...when you can't imagine ever taking a shower indoors ever again!!!
  ...when your reason for wanting to retun to Whale Head Beach is to find the perfect sand dollar.
  ...when you compare the tan that you got on everyother vacation to the one terrific one you got on t he "banks"
  ...when you fell in love for the first itme in 1988, and every year since (1997) the feeling gets stronger
  ...when you refer to the "Anderson" as home.. 
• ..wwhen you've managed to find a way to get to the beach three times a year...no scarifice is to great!
  ...when you haven't missed a year since 1978
  ...when you remember your weeks at the beach, but not what you had for supper last night
  ...when you get tears in your eyes when you cross the bridge onto the Outer Banks, and the tears spill out on the way back north! 
• ...when you have a t-shirt to commemorate every hurricane you survived.
  ...when you stop by Olde Christmas at Rodanthe to see if Ben got his kidney transplant yet. 
• ...when you convince your wife that you just "have to have" that 1997 F-150 4x4 to go fishing on the sand at Oregon Inlet and, by God, she thought it was a pretty good idea!And when your kids, 11 and 5, start practicing their casting by "fishing" in the front yard weeks in advance. 
• ....when your Last Will and Testament specifies you want to be cremated and your ashes scattered into the Atlantic Ocean from Ocracoke (1997). (Marty D.)
• ...when you have spent so many combined vacations at the Outer Banks that you can honestly tell people its your second home 
• ...when you remember the time you ate a piece of Key Lime at Bubbas and liked it so much you paid $17.00 for a whole pie.
  ...when your willing to travel 9 hours (last 3 on the bridge) in 100 degree temperatures to get a snow cone at Frisco. 
• ...when you still have your Corolla bracelets from past years hanging on the mirror in your car.
  ...when you drive around the community while you're on vacation and pick out the house you want to rent next year. [and then call for reservations the minute you get home. 
• ...when your, now, wife says "I will" at a local restaurant and you havn't missed a year since with her. 
• ...when you watch the Weather Channel only to see what it's doing in the Outer Banks today
  ...when you pass the aquarium department in Wal-Mart and flashback to the Wharf 
• ...when you realize that this year you have to send for your 1998 Outer Banks calendar and you start to cry 
• ...when you're heading back to the Outer Banks for the 15th straight year (last five at Corolla Light) with the same three families and all six children haven't ever missed a year since they were born.
• ...when an all expense paid week in vancouver has ruined your outer banks summer vacation! 
• ...when you've spent the last five years convincing yourself that "yeah, sure, I could find a REAL job in the Outer Banks" 
• ...when you can't afford to go so you spend all of your spare time looking at rental books and searching the internet for pictures of the ocean and the beach. (Carolyn)
• ...when you just can't seem to get back "into the swing of things" at work or home and you keep thinking about the lighthouses you visited just last week, today is 070297. Michigan is a long way from The Outerbanks, but we'll be back! 
• ...when we're keen world travelers, here for the experience and instead of driving through the night to Utah or paddling the Grand Canyon the only place we go is Ockracoke! Do we need help? 
• ...when you leave at 5:00pm for a 13 hour drive just to get that extra day on the beach 
• ...when you make up your "countdown to 'da beach" calendar in December for a July vacation.
  ...when you start planning next year's vacation before this year's is over.
  ...when you have been to the 'Banks four years in a row and realize that you haven't even scatched the surface of great things to do.
  ...when all you want to do is go to Wings and buy all the crap you can afford and then go to the Carolina Seafood House and stuff yourself at the buffet.
  ...when Thanksgiving and Christmas with the family includes planning for next year's Outer Banks vacation. 
• . . . when you step on a prickly pear cactus trying to break into your locked house (because everyone assumed that someone else had the key), then you go to the realty office in your dripping wet, sandy beach togs to get a key, and then you make your reservations for next year while you're there. (Michelle)
• ...when you've taken a week's vacation since the early sixties at the following locations:
  Nags Head, NC - 30 years
  Florida - 1 year
  (June '97 - Jabur)
• ...when you have 4 weeks to go until your O.B. vacation, you already have the garage full of your stuff to take and you get on the oregon-inlet.com page to hear the surf, just to put you to bed. counting days until its time to go...oh and call in sick on the friday before you leave just to get a jump on the traffic! (yeah right) 
• ...when you only have 6 more hours until you leave for ocracoke and you just have to read the comments here because it seems like I have 6 weeks to wait. (Rhonda Traut)
• ...when you live eight blocks from the so called "Hot" VaCa spot of Pennsylvania "Lake Dereire" But feel happier setting in a boat during a rain storm in the middle of Roanoke Sound. 
• ...when you have nothing better to do than sit and read messages on your computer about how people are hooked on the Outer Banks. 
• ...when you know the Outer Banks roads like the palm of your hand, even though your on the other side of the continent. (Anonymous lover of the Outer Banks)
• ...when you travel there from London every year. 
• ...when you are planning a wondefful visit to Cancun for your honeymoon but you are also planning the next years visit to the Outer Banks. Any comments from NE Ohio? E-Mail us! 
• ...when you spend your honeymoon, 10th anniversary and every vacation for the past 16 years in the Outer Banks and still yearn for the sound of the waves crashing on the beach. 
• ...when you find that most of the clothes in your wardrobe say Cape Hatteras on them
  ...when you look up this web sight at least once a week, just to hear about your "heaven on earth". (Anonymous lover of the Outer Banks)
• ...when you evacuate for Felix during the summer of 95 with beautiful sunshine and the worst traffic jam of your life, you sing along with Jimmy Buffett changing the words to the volcano song to hurricane and planning next years trip back 
• ...when you haul home a gallon pickle jar full of outer banks sand to run your fingers thru in the dark cold months of winter then each year hubby suggests you get a fresh jar full. 
• ...when it's important to you that your email address is the name of a fish 
• ...when you spend all week catching crabs and by the end of the week you've made friends with the guys in the bucket and let 'em all go! I'm 36 now and haven't missed a summer since I was 10. My daughter's four-for-four years and counting. .. 
• ...when you set up your friends with a vacation for June and you're extremely jealous because you have to wait for yours until July. God, I miss Corolla!!! 
• ...when you and a bud leave you home (5 hours away) at midnight to catch the best surf on the east coast in the middle of November just to find that theres no swell to be found. But your still just stoked to be there. 
• ...when you plan vacations to all the other trillion places in the world you have yet to see and just as you are ready to send in the deposit, you call Resort Realty to rent a cottage for the 34th year in a row in South Nags Head instead; I guess the London trip will have to wait yet another year. 
• ...when you and your spouse discuss leaving your professional careers and home to bus tables at the Froggy Dog and rent a room in Avon 
• ... when you compare every cheeseburger in Pennsylvania to the ones you've had at Art's Place in Kitty Hawk. No one even comes close.
  ...when your kid's baseball coach asks everyone on the team to try to be at all the game and postpone vacations if possible. SEE YA AFTER MY VACATION COACH!!!!!! 
• ...when Frisco camp ground feels like home and you actually look forward to the cold showers and sand in your bed.
  ...when you know the name of every store on highway 12 from Avon to Hatteras.
  ...when you can get a bearclaw from any doughnut shop in Erie, PA but you know the best ones come from the Gingerbread House in Frisco.
  ...when you know not to wear sweat smelling suntan lotion to the beach because you'll be chased by those pesky moster bummble bees. (Andrea)
• ...when, after the most wonderful vacation of your life (May 3-11, 1997!!!), you spend the next week searching the internet for jobs close enough for you and your honey to drive to after you relocate...
• ...when you can step out of your car at the KH rest area and all the tension leaves your body
  ... when a friend at work (in the D.C. area) asks where you want to get dinner, you answer "CHILLI PEPPERS!!" and then you both consider it VERY seriously (three words... "Habanero BBQ Ribs")
  ...when you start thinking that a four and a half hour commute to work (one way) isn't COMPLETELY unreasonable
  ...when you start mispronouncing the name of a certain type of Toyota... you know the one...
  ... Hooked? You betcha... 
• ...when you lie in bed at night and all you can hear is the soft crashing of the waves outside your camper at Frisco campground, then realize you're in your own bed in Pennsylvania and you still have 3 more long months until you cross the Oragon Inlet Bridge. (Andrea)
• ...when you just got back yesterday, surfed until finding this page, and cried while reading the comments. (Lisa)
• ...when you have a picture of the point in your locker at work and you go to your locker 3 or 4 times each day to see the point!
  ...when your kids refuse to go any other place on a family vaction and they are 20, 25, and 29 and you then know you raised them right . 
• ...when you buy a dolphin ring at South Moon Under, wear it on your left ring finger and make sure the dolphin's nose is pointed to the right (south).
  ...when you live 70 miles from Ocean City, MD and drive 6 hours for the past 13 years just to hear the surf along the Outer Banks coastline.
  ...when you've spent the last 15 years trying to find an old college friend just to thank them for introducing you to the Outer Banks. CINDY CROW WHERE R U??? 
• ...when you convinced your husband to purchase semi-oceanfront property up in the Northern Beaches (without roads) and the property went DOWN in price....BUT, you don't care because your dreaming of the day you'll build your own HOME on that property!!
• ...when you're sitting at your computer at work and you have a pile of work to do but instead you are reading comments from kindred souls and thinking "just a little over one month to go and I'll be there! I CAN'T WAIT!! 
• ...when you live in maryland and have a copy of the albermarle area yellow pages and you call penguin isle because you think that the owner may know the owner of the house that you stayed at for the last two years and you can't find his number. and your thrilled because you're right and your getting the week that you wanted at the house that you wanted. ahhhh! does it get any better than this? 
• ...when you have only been to the Outer Banks once and don't want to leave, so you convince your husband (which wasn't hard to do) to buy a home in KDH."Our Home away from Home"
• ...you know your vacation is really beginning when the Hatteras/Ocracoke Ferry backs out of the ferry terminal, heading south!
  ....and the you know it's all over when the Northbound Ferry leaves Ocracoke behind...and you strain to catch one last glimpse of that wonderful island. Thank goodness for next year!!! 
• ...wwhen in June of '95, you're willing to sing "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" over and over again for 750 miles to keep your 1 year old daughter happy...just so you can make the trip in one day and not miss a single minute of "beach time"!!!!! 
• ...when you find out that if you are accepted to a very competitive program at a university that you will not be able to take your OB vacation next year, and you actually consider not even applying so that you won't have to miss the highlight of your year. (Anonymous Lover of the Outer Banks)
• ...when you take your family to the Hatteras man drive in for three meals a day. 
• ...when you get home from work and talk about this web page and your husband says he was in it yesterday too (what are the chances?) (Sharon)
• ...when you were the only non-residents who stayed in Avon through the hurricane (even though you were scared to death and the bed was shaking so violently it felt like you were in the exorcist) and now your taking all your friends with you this year to experience it for themselves! (Sharon)
• ...when you finally act upon all your dreams and make the big move! Come visit the outer banks, even if it's only via my home page. http://home.interpath.net/geofczyk 
• ...when you pass the seafood section of the local grocery and you think of the catch of the day at the great salt marsh in buxton and realize that NOTHING can replace it. 
• ...when your wedding's in two months and you need the money to purchase a new bed BUT you'd rather blow it all on an Outer Banks honeymoon! 
• ...when you start spending week-ends "practicing" for this years vacation by sitting on the deck and telling beach stories in March.
  ...when your sister e-mails you on a daily basis to let you know how many more days till we go to the beach starting in December. [And you already know] 
• ...when all you think about is riding the waves of the Atlantic Ocean just off the shore of Avon, Hatteras Island, and building giant sandcastles with your family. 
• ...when you sit in your living room looking up at your_mcharles_waterfield shorebirds from Knots Island_Drift wood from the Ocean_Star fish you found on the beach_Bayberries you picked up at Duck_Family reunion pictures celebrated every year at Nags Head_Just wishing you could hear the sound of the ocean and feel the breeze deep in the heart of Texas without getting into your car and driving 23 hours to your most favorite vacation spot in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD THE OUTER BANKS. 
• ...when you've watched 4th of July fireworks from your deck in Avon and theyre going on at The Cape Hatteras Light House Pure Heaven! (pookiemy)
• ...when the only thing you want for your birthday (March) is to be able to pay Twiddy the first half of the rent on that little piece of July heaven
  ...when your children cry every time they see a likeness of Hatteras LIghthouse
  ...when every Gordon Lightfoot song on every tape you own reminds you of a certain place along the road to Duck
  ...when you feel an uncontrollable urge to hug the clerk at the Texaco station along 158
  ...when you walk into the Twiddy office and yell "HONEY, I'M HOME!!!!!!!!!!!! 
• ...when you call the pirates cove marina to make charter reservation and you get the girl on the other end to hold the phone outside so you can listen to the january sea breeze!! 
• ...when you have moved to Florida "The Sunshine State" from the Outer Banks for a "real job" and you can't understand why people don't wave back to you as your riding your bike on a "Back Road" with your dog. 
• ... when you spend 8 summers there as a kid, 20 years pass, you move overseas and, upon returning to the U.S., go to the outerbanks for vacations and then send your kid to camp in the outerbanks. 
• ...when you bookmark the Outer Banks web pages just to hear the ocean and sea gulls in the winter. 
• ...when your idea of heaven is sitting in Howard's Pub on Ocracoke, sandwiched by two hurricanes(summer 1996), watching the weather channel... and i still couldn't hook the ring! i'll try again this summer, gawd i miss ocracoke. 
• ...when you sit in your living room looking up at your MCHARLES...when you wait all year just to have a piece of shrimp cheese cake at "the great salt marsh" (ron miner)
• ...when you go to work sick in order to save every minute of leave time to spend at your "other home" in Kill Devil Hills,
  ...when you have the Outer Banks Sentinal mailed to Maryland so you can keep up with what's going on, e.g., lunch specials at Awful Arthur's and food specials at Food Lion,
  ...when you finally get back in March and you know it's too cold to sit on the beach but you drive out to Oregon Inlet anyway, unfold the sand chairs and watch the ducks go North. 
• ...when you hang a picture of the lighthouse in your car just so you can look at it everyday.
  ...when you find that you are obsessed with finding Cape Hatteras sights on the internet just so you can find out whats going on there in the middle of winter. (Andrea)
• ...WHEN YOU CAN CLOSE YOUR EYES AND IMAGINE THE SUN RISING ON THE HORIZON AS YOU LOOK OUT FROM THE DECK OF YOUR "OCEAN DREAM",AND YOU CAN SEE THE BIRDS FLYING IN A PERFECT V-FORMATION, ACROSS A DEEP BLUE CAROLINA SKY. WHEN YOU HEAR THE SOUND OF THE WAVES ON THE SANDY SHORE OUTSIDE YOUR WINDOW, AND THESE VISIONS ALONE CAN REMOVE YOU FROM ANY PAIN OR ILLNESS YOU MUST ENDURE, AND HELP YOU REMEMBER WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD WE LIVE IN, NO MATTER WHAT EACH DAY MAY BRING OUR WAY. ( FROM SHELLEY LOEB, MISSING THE PEACE AT THE BEACH)
• ...when your wife asks you to build an outside shower in the middle of February, in West Virginia. 
• ...when you not only know who the "Pig Man" is but consider him to be a friend (The Adams Clan)
• ...when "outer banks" is just another way to spell "my heart" 
• ...when you sit in Pennsylvania and think constantly about fishing at my favorite spot the point 
• ...when you wish your E-mail address was the same as your home address...
• ...when you ride around Penn State University with a bumper sticker that says "I'd rather be in Hatteras"!!!!! 
• ...when you beg your parents to let you go and even tell them they can pay for the house with money from your savings account! (Katrina)
• ...when you blindly pay $5 for an 8 oz. Blizzard at Dairy Queen
  ...when no matter what caution flags are up that day, you still go in the water
  ...when the wind blows in the window, while you lay on cool sheets with a scorching sunburn
  ...when you dream in the shower at home that you are in an outside shower feeling the breeze off the ocean 
• ...when all you can think of is a paradise where you are expected to do nothing, but be your true self. 
• ...when the waves are so large that it is dangerous to swim.. but you do anyway 
• ...when you go there to visit friends in '95 and in '97 you're still there (anonymous)
• ...when you not only know where silver lake is but you use the lighthouse at silver lake at sunset for your wallpaper! http://lighthousegetaway.com/lights/banks.html  
• ...when you can't wait till the blues start running again!! 
• ...when you create an IRC channel called #Hatteras on StarLink so you can get fishing reports and swap fish tales real time with others who are hooked on Hatteras. 
• ...when you tell your friends that the best $10 you ever spent was the toll for the Cedar Island/Ocracoke ferry in 1987! 
• ...when you know where Silver Lake is. 
• ...when one vacations over all you can do going home is talk about your next one on the outer banks, and all you think about is the sea oats blooming on hwy.12 from whalebone junction to buxton. 
• ...when you get the bill for the deposit for your cottage in the mail and you start the countdown on the calendar. then you look at the picture of the Hatteras light on your living room wall and you can hear the sound of the surf. It wont be long now!!!! (donald e. 
• ...when you begin planning your final get together with high school buddies for the Summer of 1998 in January of 1997...
  ...when you can't wait to get to Corolla to wait in line at the Food Lion, just because you know when you walk out the door, you'll smell saltwater and not garbage cans...
  ...when you can't wait to get to Corolla to race Go-Karts, even though there is a track 5 minutes from home...
  ...when you can't wait to drive down Route 12 with the top off and your hair blowing in the breeze, and then you realize your car door is frozen shut...
  ...when you are eating Alaskan King Crabs and imagining them coming from Currituck Sound...
  ...when you are sitting in traffic going to work, and realize you go to make the money to rent that vacation home every year... 
• ...when all you think about is King fishing on Nags Hear Fishing Pier.
  ...when you sleep with you fighting rod right next to you.
  ...when you start planning out you summer vacation in January. 
• ...when you name your hard disk volumes, Kennekeet, Avon, Buxton, etc. 
• ...when you have your favorite heaver just steps from the front door, it's January and you are just waiting for a break in the cold weather or an excuse to head for the Point. 
• ...when you spend your days trying to convince your wife and five young children that the best way to get them through schools and colleges is to take your 20 year police pension, sell the house, live mortgage free, and relocate to wonderful Manteo, close to Pirates Cove and the rest of the banks. 
• ...when your friends give you FIVE lighthouses for Christmas
  ...when your wife says "Tough, so you have to work; I'm going to the beach for the summer!"
  ...when you spend all of your working time devising ways to spend your summer at the beach, too! 
• ...when your heart pounds when you look through the rental books and stay at the same house every year. And you know how to pronounce Corolla! PA is just a place to work to make the money to return. I miss the horses in the a.m. 
• ...when your work station has release Blues and Frank and Fran's bumper stickers on it. 
• ...when you buy a jeep soley to use for driving on the beach. You dream of hooking up you fishing poles(With a cooler) to the front.
  ...when you type this message on Christmas eve and dream you were there in stead of being in Pittsburgh.
  ...when you plot ways (playing the lottery) of gaining enough money to own your own charter service at Oregon Inlet.
  ...when you go outside in a foot of snow insert your sand spike. Sit down and dream of fishing in may.
  ...when you plan your wedding and the best part is the honeymoon on the Outer Banks. 
• ...when you never miss a day talking about the Outer Banks; you live in Pennsylvania; and your kids who live in California call your place in Rodanthe "home" and that's the only place they visit. (They never come to PA.) 
• ...when you drive 902 miles to spend a 3 day weekend fishing in the NORTH BEACH SURF FISHING TOURNAMENT and smile and say:the pizza was good and a 10 inch long cod won it all !!! 
• ...when your two-year old daughter gets up in the morning and says "I want to go to the Beach!" and outside your window it's snowing.
  ... when you bought Pat McGee's CD when you saw him at Kelly's last June, and you listen to it every other day because it gives you that same feeling you had when you were there.
• ...when you look forward to the winters on the outer banks for the excellent shell hunting and fishing conditions w/o the competition of other tourists.
  ...when you make the 700 mile round trip from DC every weekend only to return back to work for the week long enough to make money to do the next weekend trip.
  ...when you consider your trip back from the beach your "weekly commute to work", only to return "home" on the weekends.
  ...when you count the years, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds until you can retire and move to the outer banks.
  ...when you seriously consider leaving your 70k a year job (yea right) so that you can move to the outer banks and clean cottages for a living.
  ...when you start making plans for the "replacement" house that you will build *when* the next hurricane blows the existing one away.
  ...when you spend more than 20 minutes thinking of ways to fill out a form that truly describes just a few of the ways you're hooked on the outer banks. 
• ...when each time a strong gust of wind blows in PA. all you think about is windsurfing the Canadian Hole
  ...when the first time you visit the Outer Banks and realize that it is Heaven on earth.
  ...when after your last visit (2 summers ago) you realize that your fishing rod holder is still fastened to the front of your truck
  ...when your E-mail adress is Outer Bank@aol.com
  ...you realize that becoming a beach bum on the Outer Banks has much potential 
• ...when you reply during an interview: "The training I will receive here is my ticket to the beach town of my choice." Then, when orientation classes begin, a different OB garment is worn daily. (I'm sure glad my new boss is into beaches & Buffett, and thinks I will never get the hell out of Phoenix) 
• ...When you sit on the beach and watch the moon rise out of the ocean. 
• ...when you buy two of the same OB tee, cap, sweat or whatever. one to wear now and one for a backup. 
• ...When you're stuck in a little grey cell on the Hudson River and the only way to Hatteras is via the internet... 
• ...when the first thing you install on your new vehicle is your North Carolina Beach Buggy Association license plate. ( #8633 ) ( Also gets some of the oddest questions such as " exactly what the heck is the NCBBA " 
• ...when you pull into Grandma's driveway on Christmas Eve and in one last attempt at Christmas manners in reminding the kids not to ask for presents, you say "What's the rule, kids?" and they reply "No one allowed on the beach without an adult!" 
• ...when you drive down Route 12 looking for that brand new Jaguar that says "Beach Broker." 
• ...when you're hooked when you change your tags to read LV DUCK (Dianna Strader)
• ...when every Thanksgiving means the Outer Banks and every family wedding picture has the Atlantic Ocean in the background. 
• ...when the only good picture of yourself is the one where your holding that 35 pound Red Drum... the one you released.
  ...when you have a 79 Jeep Wagoneer with a front and a back porch that you only take off for inspection. Circa 1994-1996 
• ...when You go to Nag's Head. And you know, you never take that road to the national seashore. The right, at the light. The road that you say, I want to go there but you don't for many years. When you do go down that road you are hooked. Do it on a Harley. You can't beat it with a stick.
• ...when the only place you want to spend your 40th birthday is on the Outer Banks and toasting to the next 40 at Howard's Pub in November 
• ...when you have decided to come to the Outer Banks to begin a business and were able to convince your wife of 25 years that she should stay in Upstate New York and complete her teaching career. 
• ...when you and your spouse of 25 very happy years cannot wait five more years to retire to the Outer Banks so you decide to temporarily live 540 miles apart so that one of you can open a business on the Outer Banks while the other one continues to work up north until the business is up and running. 
• ...when you keep a well-worn copy of "Sunny Day" magazine (that freebie you get at the Food Lion) in your nightstand - just to take out and look at when you need an Outer Banks fix. (Remember when the Wharf's buffet included Crab Legs? My copy of "Sunny Day" still has 'em pictured! yum....) 
• ...when I knew my family and I were hooked on the Outer Banks when we started reminiscing about the Beach Barn as if it were our own vacation home, and when we all started using the slogan from Bob's Grill t-shirts: "Eat and get the hell out!" We're so hooked we bought our own place this year. 
• ...when your 3 year old says he wants to go to HIS beach house in February and you're there by the end of the week. (Liz)
• ... when you get up every morning looking at the post cards on the refridgerator and those lovely magnets as it's snowing outside " makes me want to come back to a simpler kind of life. "outer banks"I will find a way to come to your shores & live there!!" 
• ...when you carry small shells in your pockets as a reminder of your real house on Avon (larry)
• ...when you've been married for 15 years and the only vacation that you took without the kids was to go house hunting on Hatteras Island. The boys can't wait to see it! 
• ...When in spite of the fact that you are a confirmed night owl, you start to get up at 6 every morning just to see the sun rise over the ocean!
• ...when your midwestern license plate reads "OTR BNKS" and NOBODY knows what it means. 
• ...when Hurricane Fran moves toward the North Carolina coast and you leave the Weather Channel turned on 24 hours a day. Then you have to call your mother (who vacations at the Outer Banks with you each year) after every tropical update to discuss the latest hurricane coordinates. 
• ...WHEN YOU SPEND THE MONTH OF MAY AT KITTY HAWK AND CELEBRATE YOUR DOG SKIPPY'S BIRTHDAY AT JOHN'S DRIVE INN 
• ...when The only worn out catalogs in your house are from B & B, Twiddy and R & R...... 
• ... When you live at the Banks three summers in a row and let your Scottie wake you every day at dawn to watch the sunrise and the dolphins play. And you threaten every tourist who stomps on ghost crabs! 
• ...when your 17 yr old daughter has a surfboard in her bedroom, and you live in Michigan. 
• ...when you scream at Alec Baldwin everytime you see "The Hunt for Red October" cause YOU KNOW that a sub would never fit into Oregon Inlet...
  ...when every year it gets harder and harder to go back to the place you live in - isn't it obvious that the Outer Banks are your REAL home?
  ...when you get excited near Williamsburg because you could swear you can already start to smell the saltwater and the cedars.
  ...when you go back after a ten year abscence and still know where everything is, then cry when you realize the Galleon Esplanade is gone.
  ...when you're Christmas tree has only The Christmas Shoppe ornaments on it (beach themed. of course...)
  ...when your fondest memories of childhood involve your Dad and going backstage of the Lost Colony, and surf casting/body surfing with the dolphins at 5:30 a.m.
  ...when you throw away the book "Outer Banks" cause the author OBVIOUSLY didn't do her research.
  ...when you stop in real estate agents office the third day you get there, and spend the rest of your vacation planning your move. 
• ...when you wait several weeks to propose to your girlfriend in Hatteras while the sun is setting over the Pamlico. 
• ...when you realize it's the only place you are able to REALLY relax once a year 
• ...when you tell the wife you want to sell the house and move to manteo, and you are still sober !!! 
• ...when you talk with friends who vacationed with you at the outer banks, all they want to talk about is the OB even though we now all live in different states. 
• ...You know your hooked in Hatteras Village when the Realtor, (Dan) stops by to say hello. He even knows your first name. 
• ...when you look forward to driving 950 miles to stay a week in the OBX in January. 
• ...when you spend thousands of dollars going on a trip to the carribean beaches and come home saying... "It's just Not the Outer Banks" 
• ...when the mantle above your fireplace is filled with your collection of conch shells that you found on the beach in Nags Head. And you are looking for a coffee table with a glass display case in it to display the rest of your Outer Banks sea shell collection. 
• ...when you run the Hatteras Inlet 5 time in a 24 foot Grady White during a small craft advisory just to hook two marlin at once and loose them after 5 seconds. But still can't wait until next year when you can bring &1000 worth of new tackle to try again. Have you ever seen a 24 foot Grady White get airborne? 
• ...when every anniversary, birthday, vacation, July 4th, Christmas, Memorial day, Labor day, Fathers day, Mothers day and any other day you can think of is spent in Hatteras.
  ...when the only place you have been in 13 years is Hatteras
  ...when all you can think about is selling everything you have and moving to Hatteras 
• ...when Hurricane Bertha is bearing in on the outerbanks and you leave for vacation anyway! 
• ..when you have been to the outer banks the same week in june for 12 years. And you spend every waking hour on the Nags Head fishing pier!! 
• ...when you start a count down calendar for your end of August vacation in January.
  ...when you have your walls plastered with pictures, calendars, lighthouses and paintings from there. You also have 35 shirts with Outer Banks.
  ...when every year you come back you want to get a job down there. 
• ...when you know every mile post and what is located at each one 
• ...when most of your web surfing is spent looking for Outer Banks URL's! 
• ...when I call the Outer Banks every day to see what the weather is like. Also, when I call just to hear that sweet Carolina accent! 
• ...when I get a craving for good seafood, I make a sales call somewhere on the OBs and while I'm there I visit Billy's Fish House for a meal that consists of delicious fried tile fish and the biggest local softshell crabs on the islands....Yum Yum:) 
• ...when you thought you were getting away for your honeymoon, but everyone found out we were coming to the outer banks, so 28 people decided to join us! (including parents!) 
• ...when you return from your annual two week vacation and immediatly search the net for: beaches...sales...outerbanks... sand...ocean sands...sunshine 
• ...when you still have Pigman's BarbQue sauce on your shirt (and in your mind!) - 
• ...when you live there and wherever else you go the air stinks! 
• ...when the Outer Banks is the only place you've been on vacation for the last 23 years!!! 
• ...when the only milkshakes you will drink come from John's in Kitty Hawk! (Craig "home sick in CLT" Dough)
• ...When you realize a trip to Europe will interfere with your two weeks at the beach!
  ...When reading this list brings tears to your eyes and you have to call someone who cares and share with them.
• ...When you only watch the weather channel at 50 min past the hour
• ...when you have things made out of driftwood hanging on your walls
  ...when you call the people staying at your house the week after Bertha to make sure your house is still standing
  ...when you look forward to digging your annual giant hole in the sand. 
• ...When every picture in your office is of a lighthouse
  ...When all of your passwords have something to do with the 'Banks
  ...When you can't decide each year whether to rent your favorite house in Whalehead beach again, or your favorite house in Frisco again
  ...When you cry that the horses have been moved from Whalehead even though it's what is best for them
  ...When your life goes to heck and you get comfort from your Outer Banks memories 
• ...When people say we're crazy for having a place where we have to worry about hurricanes every year, and we just give each other that knowing look and say "It's worth it!" 
• ...When you name your new kitten Frisco 
• ...when you spend every waking moment trying to scheme some way to uproot your entire family and spend the rest of your life with fishing rod in one hand and your butt firmly planted in the sand...only occasionally budging and then only for Awful Arthurs spiced shrimp... 
• ...when you get kicked out of Buxton two years in a row from Hurricanes' Felix and Bertha and your response is to book TWO weeks in the hope that you can salvage one of them 
• ...when you have to make a trip from Columbus, Ohio to have lunch at Chili Peppers. If you haven't tried it, make sure you do! 
• ... when on Tuesday your wife and her sister start scouting out the house they want for next year
• ... When you watch the weather channel just about the whole time that hurricane Bertha was about just to see of Ocracoke Island stayed afloat. 
• ... when I keep getting booted off by women with two syllable names {Emily and Bertha} and still come back !! 
• ... when you get to the end of this page and have tears on your cheeks and a knot in your belly and consider jumping in the car and going for it. 
• ... when you've grown up as a "military brat" with no roots to speak of, but you consider the Outer Banks "home" as it's the one place you go back to and feel safe, year after year after year!! (and because of this, you get married at St.Andrews by-the-sea in Nags Head - my newfound "home town"!!!) 
• ... When you've been to Cape Hatteras annually for over 30 years. 
• ... when you use all of your available leave (sick and annual) to take trips for job interviews because you have finally decided to move to a place you can't seem to get out of your head! 
• ... when you are willing to drive all night just to watch the sunrise over the Oregon Inlet on your way to Buxton. 
• We know it's time to go back to Hatteras Village when the sand stops dropping from out dash. Gone down for twelve years, now going twice a year. 
• ... When you agree to vacation with your family and you don't even like them that much! 
• ... when you visit the Duck News Cafe every night to view the spectacular sunsets over the sound! 
• ... When you arrive for this years trip and it as though you never left. 
• ... when you head over the Herbert Bonner Bridge in an icestorm -- headed TOWARD Hatteras Island to see the snow geese! 
• ... when you keep telling your son next year its disney world and you end up in nags head. (
• ... When you honeymooned at Hatteras in '80, lived in AK, VA, Korea, SD, Holland, Germany, and now MT but it's still the mention of the Outer Banks that stirs your blood. 
• ... when you can spent hours at Ace Hardware in Avon studying lawn movers when you're surrounded by nothing but sand.
  ... when you drive you spend hours in traffic lines to get to an Ockracoke Beach, when there is one right outside your door. 
• ...When you constantly crave a shrimp scampi pizza from Corolla Pizza but live in N.J. 
• ...When you live in Cocoa Beach FL. 45min. from Disney,MGM,Epcot, Universal,Bush Gardens,Sea World,Pleasure Island,Wet & Wild, The Orlando Magic,and The Solar Bears. And you find yourself still wondering when your going to get back to the place you used to live for about what was a two year vacation there. (Scott Lawson)
• ... When Beach Week on the Outer Banks is over and your only comfort is in the fact that you will be returning a week later with your family.
  ...When you have dreams about watching the surfers from Avalon Pier at 7:00 at night. 
• ...when one of your main goals is to get this year's Brew-Thru t-shirt for the tenth year in a row.
  ...when your children are the same age as when you first vacationed there. 
• ...when fishing in the sound six skates glide by just touching your legs. 
• ...when you are dedicated to maintaining the GREAT fishing for future generations, so you release the big ones and keep only a small one or two for that day's supper. 
• ...When you count hte good times by how many kids you're friends have! Every one concived at NagsHead! six and counting! 
• ...when all of your passwords for computer are related to Nags Head. I can't think of a better place to get away from it all! Can't wait until the 4th of July. From Janet Small in Virginia wishing I was in Nags Head.
• ...when you start counting down the days until next years vacation before you've gone home. 
• ...when your homepage contains a link that says: "Where I'd rather be..." and it points to ...
  ...when the major theme of your office decor is 'Banks, including the lighthouse map, the shipwreck map, some shells and driftwood, and copies of the info on the Corolla Light... 
• ...When you have your senior pictures taken by the Nags Head pier by Walter Gresham.
• ...When the power goes off on the entire island and you're sitting on the upper deck of your Avon retreat and the sky is darker than you've ever seen it, the moon brighter, and the sound of the surf the most relaxing you've ever heard! 
• ...when you call the Outer Banks weather and fishing information line year round just to imagine being there again 
• ...When your hand is as big as a balloon from getting stung and you don't care. 
• ... when You call the people who own the house you rent in January, just to make sure that you can have the house the third week in July;
  ... When trying to discover what the best 25th anniversary gift would be for your parents and you decide it's a week in Nags Head;
  ... When you find sand in your closet in Virginia and wistfully think of sunny days and warm nights in Nags Head.
• ... when After too many years without a trip back, you read everyone of these comments and the tears are running. And I am a 46 year old male. 
• ... when you love making the decision whether Saturday's night dinner will be a strombolli from Rocco's or the Fish Fry at the Hatteras Fire Hall. 
• ... When you are debating whether to cruise to Bermuda or go to Corolla and Corolla keeps winning the straw poll. 
• ... when you get mad at all the "tourists" crowding YOUR BEACH, and then remebering that you're from Virginia too... 
• ... when you live just four miles from the Pacific Ocean in beautiful San Juan Capistrano, and all you can think about is flying 3000 miles to the Atlantic Ocean to meet your three children, two children-in-law, and three beautiful grandchildren at the same house in Corolla each year!! 
• ... If it's Thursday - year around - you drive 185 miles - to get to your P. Cove weekend retreat - cause it's home; (and you know your boat has missed you). 
• ... You can't bring yourself to throw out the 10 sand buckets of sea shells you've collected over the years so you go buy you kids new buckets.
  ... when your Husband wants to spend father's day driving to the Outer Banks to go fishing. 
• ... When you dream of opening the windows and heading over the bridge to freedom - nobody knows the phone number at your cottage and even the water tower in Duck looks good. (
• ... when you drive straight through from NYC to meet your extended family, in-laws and all, for the first ever annual vacation, only to be greeted by a hurricane, drive home one day later, and STILL agree to go the next year.
• ...When your favorite VCR tape is the two hour tape you shot of the surf
  .....You won't throw out any Kitty Hawk Sports shirts no matter how torn or small they are.
  .....You find yourself extolling the virtues of oysters. 
• ... When your two dogs won't get out of the van because they know it is time to go to the Outer Banks (oops! they saw our beach chairs get put in the van) 
• ...when you have more Outer Banks phone books at home than your home town phone books.
  ... when you go shopping at the Food Lion and won't buy something because it weighs too much and you'll probably be the person to carry the HEAVY bags up all those stairs at the cottage. Cases of Molson Golden Beer don't count! 
• ... when you have the departure times for the Cedar Island Ferry on your Netscape Bookmarks. 
• ... When your in the office with the outer banks map framed on your wall and find yourself day dreaming of next years trip and retirement to the banks. 
• ... When you have the Apollo 9 view of the Outer Banks poster on your office wall; and bore visitors by having them look at the picture with a magnifying glass so they can see the Wright Bridge.
  ... When on snowy days you replay every hole at Nags Head in your head. 
• ... when you really wish the whole world used the "mile-post navigation system" 
• ... when an annual Memorial Day weekend trip starts out in 1991 with one house in Corova and about 15 good friends and is now up to 7 houses in Ocean Hill and about 115 even better friends. 
• ... when on your second trip, you find out the place you've been renting is for sale, and even though it is damaged by Hurricane Emily, you go and buy it! 
• ...when you hear the words OUTER BANKS, you feel the water at your feet and the spray on your face, your mouth waters for the food (and the drinks), your body cries out for the "rays",....you close your eyes and you are there ! Then some turkey rouses you from your reverie and you almost cry cause you're not. 
• ... You go down to the beach before you ever unpack.
  ...You arrive before the cleaners leave.
  ...You go to the Outlet Mall in Nags Head to shop for school supplies and clothes every year.
  ...You waste about 30 to 50 dollars on Outer Banks stuff.
  ... You eat at the same restaurant every year on the day you get there.
  ... You arrive at your house before the cleaning people leave. (Paul)
• ... The only personal home videos you own are of your trips to the Outer Banks, and you watch them constantly. 
• ... when its april and you have been there five times already this year 
• ...When you go to the Club House Cafe and talk with Eric and Kari. Then two weeks later realize that you haven't left. 
• ...when your net address stands for Southern Shores. 
• ...When you won't eat pizza unless it's Van's 
• ...when you live less than 2 hours from the Pacific Ocean, but still spend summer vacation at the Outer Banks.
  ...when you give birth to a baby in Oregon, but get her baptized in Ocracoke. 
• ...when your girl friend says "Mike,honey, why don't we honeymoon in Hatteras" (and you say) "Where is that"? and she says an island where maybe we can't get off !!!! (whoa neighbor)!!! (14 years later:)
  -when you flip a 32' camper on the way home and the kids say: "Mom & Dad can we please get another camper and go back"? -and you go back for 11 straight years!!!!!! (and counting).
• ... when every piece of clothing that you own has an Outer Banks emblem.
  ... when just hearing the words "Outer Banks" brings tears to your eyes.
  ... when you begin to plan your entire life around getting to the Banks. 
• ... When you take off your watch coming into Hatteras, two weeks go by, you can't find it and you don't care! 
• ... When you purchase your first home without ever seeing it.
  ... When you can't wait for Sam & Omies to open for the season.
  ... When you won't tell your friends back home where you go on vacation.
  ... When you realize that you don't have to go home.
• ...You want to get married in Dare County even if it means at the jail where the magistrate is. (Submitted by Vern Sullivan for his sister Marybruce Lennon, who lives in Manteo (and isn't online) and says that You're really hooked on the Outer Banks when...)
• ...When you can't wait till you get to Manteo to have your 4X4 Inspected at the Goodyear Store!! 
• ...When you arrive home to find that the inside of your 4X4 beachmobile is an inch thick in sand, and you decide to leave it there til you can return it. 
• ...when you have stood in line for over 2 hours at the Wharf restaurant at least 10 times!! (
• ...When you are so excited to go to the Outerbanks, that you are already dreading the trip home... 
• ...When all the shirts in your closet have the "Pirates Chest of Ocracoke" logo on them! 
• ...when every Saturday you say, "Let's go to Howard's Pub for lunch!"
• ... when you can describe the actual houses on Cape Hatteras because you've been up in the Hatteras lighthouse at least 20 times.
  ... when you know exactly what time the good swells hit because you've surfed there countless numbers of times 
• ... when you find out what "sand stakes" are for your tent and why it's important to use them :-) (
• ... when you live 150 miles from salt water, but drive 450 miles instead and your house has saltwater rods and reels in every corner, N.C. citatations on the walls next to the pictures that accompanied the citations, next to the pencil drawings of all the lighthouses, next to the Graveyard of the Atlantic map, above the coffee table of seashells that has a hardened blowfish in the middle of the collection. Hooked, ouch just stepped on another one that we're getting rigged for our July trip. (
• ... when you hope the Oregon Inlet brige will fall again and you will be stranded on Hatteras Island for an extra week 
• ... When you find a tree frog in Nags Heads, take it home and call it Orville. (PS. Orville is still doing fine, thank you!) 
• ... When you turn a 2 day Easter vacation into a week by taking 2 sick days and a personal day (so you don't need a doctor excuse) to spend a week at the Outer Banks. 
• ... When your web browser's bookmarks are jammed full of Outer Banks pages! 
• ... You visit the Outer Banks and purchase not one, but several Hatteras Lighthouse stickers just in case you buy another car before your next trip to the 'Banks.(JME)
• ... when you got an "I'd rutha be fishin in Nags Head" bumpa sticka, stuck it on your car, and tried to peel it off for your next car when you sold the old one 4 years later. 
• ... you sit around evenings trying to figure out how you can sell your home and move your heavy-population-dependent business down to a small oceanside resort community 
• ... When you rent the same house every year because it feels like home. 
• ... when the wind blows east all you think about is king fishing.
  ... when your basement wall is all fishing gear and pictures of Nags Head
  ... when you met all your new friends on the Piers of the outer banks
  ... when you want to have your wedding on Nags Head Fishing Pier
  ... when all you think about is getting back as soon as you can 
• ... when you know that the "t" in Manteo is silent
  ... when you know that when the speed limit says 50, that means 50 not 51! 
• ... when you start counting down the days until the next visit on the way home. 
• ...When you start to think about making the 540-mile, one-way-trip on every possible three-day weekend 
• ... you've already purchased and packed your wardrobe for the next trip!!!!!
  ...You have an outer banks lighthouse collection in every room!!!!
  ...You fight with your kids over the sand and shells collected from the last vacation.....
  ...You have a lighthouse tattoo over an old surgery scar!!!!
  ...Your bathroom is decorated in beach.....
  ...You install an outside shower and fish cleaning table at your primary residence..... 
• ...When pictures of North Carolina Lighthouses and maps of the Outer Banks begin to replace pictures of loved ones on your walls. 
• ...You know you're hooked on the Outer Banks when you know how Bodie Island got its name. Do you? 
• ... You know you're hooked when you leave the white sand in the bottom of the shower in the motor home, for more than three years. In the middle of a lake effect snow storm you pretend it's a sand storm. You mark off the days till spring break on the calendar. You know for sure you're hooked when you sit in front of the computer on a blustery winter day and write about where you really want to be but aren't. 
• ... When you think the Awful Arthur's commercials are great! (ribbet..)
• ... 'Taking in a Show' means seeing the Lost Colony for the 23rd time.
• ... You know that Corolla isn't pronounced like a popular car model.
• ... You know where to get a good beer in a dry county.

Are You Hooked? Tell us how!

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