Family Fun in the Outer Banks

Staying in a reasonably priced rental with the beach across the street, kites at the ready and kitchen that was equipped to handle our adventurous ventures into crabbing.

Quick Tips:

DO rent a house. What a bargain. We had four adults and three children. Total cost for a roomy three bedroom house was ,200 for two weeks! That's not even a night for all seven of us! Plus, we were able to cook up (and grill up!) some great meals with the local seafood easily and cheaply procured.

Best Way To Get Around:

A car is handy to see the variety of sights available to you. But a handy bike path runs along beach road, and certainly there are miles of beach ready for your bare feet.

I''ve said it already that there''s no better way to visit the Outer Banks than to rent a house or condo. You can''t beat the price or the luxury. Most houses have quite a few amenities. We opted for a house with an expansive deck, gourmet kitchen and a fenced-in yard for the dog. Ah, and that''s a significant benefit to renting a house. Many here do allow dogs for an approximately $75 fee extra, and if your dog is like our dalmatian, s/he will adore the beach!

Best way to find the perfect rental is to search on the Web. We rented from Joe Lamb and Associates, but there are several rental agencies: Sun Realty, Hatteras Realty, etc. Most have deals, too, especially if you go early or late in the summer months. The first two weeks of June when we went were considered "off season," which saved us some money.

Ah, you want to guzzle down a few icy beers in the great outdoors, but you and your honey have those kids to deal with, don't you. Well, then come to the Weeping Radish in Manteo. From Nags Head, it's a five minute drive, and the best part about it is that it's a brew pub with several great beers AND A CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND!! That's right, you can sit outside swilling down cold ones and watching your children amuse themselves on a playground within view.

The food there is quite tasty--sort of a Bavarian theme with a variety of sausages and other easy to like fare, such as our favorite appetizer: warm, soft pretzels with mustard. Surprisingly, this branch of Weeping Radish (there are others in the nearby vicinity) does not get a lot of business in early June, so we felt as though we had the outdoor seating area pretty much to ourselves. And, it was a nice, shaded area perfect for taking a break from the hot sunny beach.

We didn't get to Bubba's this vacation, but I have to include it because it is so far off the beaten path that people need to be educated on it's fine fare.

Walking into Bubba's is like taking a step back in time. The mouth-watering smell of hickory smoke, (or is it mesquite) fills the air inside and out from the authentic grilling that Bubba and his staff do.

Inside the rustic, log-cabin-looking restaurant, the fare is simple: BBQ in any form you'd like. And despite it being about an hour's drive south of Nags Head, many would say, and do say, it's worth the trip. Slightly hard to find, this place is an institution with locals and tourists (that is, if the tourists can find the joint).

So, grab lots of napkins, order plenty of cold ones and get ready for the best, smokiest BBQ you will ever experience. (Coupons available in some of the handy dandy coupon books that they give you while vacationing in the area.)

I've always wondered what the desert is like, and I guess this is as close as I've come because you can walk quite a ways only encountering more and more sand on these hilly dunes where many kite flyers congregate, hang glider shoot off of a particular hill and kids are treated to a faux sand castle made of concrete and a sand facade.

This is a big kite-flying hangout because of the soft, yet blustery winds. However, many who decide to trek the dunes are there merely to walk and watch. Not the serious hiker's trail, but it's certainly great for a parent with children who may or may not wear out. And, of course, it's absolutely free (kite not included).

Without a doubt, this is the best place to come for seafood that you can grill up at your rental. I challenge anyone to find a better selection of seafood and at more reasonable prices. The only place we were able to beat the price was from a wholesaler we heard about on the radio that was located in Manteo and worked out of a shack, selling soft-shell crabs for less than $1/crab. (That was a deal!)

But, here at Austin's, you have a wide assortment of truly local fish (whole or filets), crabs (hard, soft, picked or stone), clams, oysters (even in June!) and friendly folks to guide the uninitiated. A rather luxurious (might I add gourmet) wine selection prevails as well. We went to several seafood markets before realizing how great we had it in our neighborhood. Austin's is located probably somewhere near Mile Post 10 on the main drag, and there's a huge caged shark sitting right outside. Surprisingly, it doesn't FEEL like a tourist trap.

Admittedly, we've had better success crabbing on previous trips to Nags Head, so I'm not sure if the area is over-crabbed, if it was the time of year, or if we were on the wrong side of the overpass. However, this setup for crabbing is pretty good, and we did catch enough crab to pick and stuff it into a fish, so no one complained.

What's nice about this location is that it's for the lazy crabber. You don't have to stand in a swamp. You can set up on a sort of pier that includes restrooms. Best tip though is to go when it's cooler out. Maybe the heat was not only getting to us, but the crabs as well.

In any case, all you have to do is put your stinky chicken out there and wait for the crabs to come into your trap. We pull ours up every five minutes or so, and if you're lucky, as we've been in the past, you'll have a crab or two each time.

Have a bucket ready and carry a big set of tongs. Those claws can hurt!

Amazingly enough, they never seem to run out of beach in the Outer Banks. Depending on your beach needs (i.e. how crowded you like your beach), you can find a section that is just right for you. Further north, around Duck, Corrolla, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head, it is clearly more populated than further south. If you head southward toward Ocracoke, you will feel as if you the beach is your own personal real estate. And, in fact, camping at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is an AMAZING experience with the ocean just over a dune from your campsite.

The Outer Banks can boast five terrific lighthouses, so if you're a lighthouse buff, each one has a story to tell. Set aside an entire day for the lighthouse tour, and you can eventually get to them all. But, start your tour early because lots of folks like to visit the lighthouses, and sometimes you may have to wait in line for a view inside. Also, not all the lighthouses allow you to climb to the top.

The Ocracoke lighthouse even has a museum, and special nature talks with park rangers, so if you only have time for one lighthouse, it's probably the best to visit.

If your child likes dinosaurs, she or he will be begging you to play a round at this relatively nice miniature golf course. The holes are relatively challenging for putt putt, I suppose, but you know, putt putt is putt putt in my book. For a cloudy afternoon activity, it's not a bad idea for the kids. It was my four-year-old's first venture into this, so he was pretty enthused, and loved the dramatic dinosaurs and waterfalls. You be the judge. It's the typical miniature golf course with gee gaws.

Grrrrrr. Enough of the human side of the Outer Banks. Let me tell you what a five-year old dalmatian likes best.

First may I say that Nags Head is probably my very favorite rrrrrff place to vacation. I'm taken to the beach at least once or twice a day where they let me run off leash as long as I'm near my master or mistress, playing in the ocean or sitting by them on the beach. Ahhhhhh, the freedom.

And, did I tell you there are crabs there? Woof, woof, woof!!!!! Wowee, once you pick up their scent, they're easy to find and boy are they fun to chase. You sniff, sniff, sniff. Then, dig, dig, dig. Maybe dig a little more, and they just pop out and they have these claws that just start clicking at you. It's great. You try to give them five, but they're just crabs, so they don't understand. That's when the chase is on. It's great. My mistress calls them ghost crabs. I just call them fun.

Gads, and just when you're getting a little tired of the crabs, you can swim in the ocean a bit. Okay, so it's a little difficult with the waves, but you can chase them too! And then my master, who thinks he eats too much on vacation, will take me for a run along the beach. That's when I have to be on leash, but it's worth it. Great runs.

By that time, I'm pretty tired, so I need to rest up for the great food that I know the family will eat later and hopefully drop on the floor or slip me a tasty morsel or two.

Yeah, this Nags Head place is terrific. I got to go crabbing with the family, play in a fenced in yard, and explore a house that had animal scents that only I could pick up. That's what I call a grrrrrrrr-eat vacation.