Vacation Part 1: OBX

I spent my last week of glorious, glorious vacation in North Carolina in the Outer Banks (OBX)! We drove down Friday night/Saturday morning, for about a 13 hour road trip. We stayed on the island of Manteo, in my friend Michelle's condo. Her condo was about 2 minutes away from the beach and was sandwiched in between a few canals, so it was very pretty, to say the least!

Our view from our window! 

As soon as we got to the OBX, before we took naps or unpacked, we went STRAIGHT to the beach! Us pale Michigan kids needed some good ol' Vitamin D, after being inside studying for finals, so the beach was absolutely perfect.

After we got done at the beach, we went to the grocery store and got our food for the week. We made this trip CRAZY budgeted. The cost to stay in Michelle's condo was $100 total (split 6 ways: $17 each, woo!) and the cost of transportation was just gas (about $100 each)...so, overall it was extremely innexpensive. To cut costs even more, we decided that we would make our own lunches and some of our dinners. We each partnered up. The first night (which was Cinco de Mayo), Michelle and Jack made tacos, bacon guacamole, and chips/queso....delicious! 

 

 The next day, all of us were RIDICULOUSLY sunburned. So, we decided to make it an indoor day at the local aquarium.

That night, we ordered pizza. I went out to pick it up...and when I got back, my awesome friends had this set up for my (early) birthday!

The next day, we decided to be educational and went to visit the Wright Brother's Memorial! 

That night, we decided to make a bonfire and roast marshmallows. Unfortunately, we all fail boy scouts. We could get the fire started, but it kept going out. So, we came up with a more.....creative....way to make S'mores.

The next two days, we went back to the beach! Michelle had bought a...special drinking toy, which we decided to use! We also tested our skills at sand castle making!

On Tuesday, we also went to this amazing all-you-can-eat sea food buffet. It was so tasty. I ate far too many crab legs, but they were fantastic! I want more now.

After our sea food buffet, we went to a really unique store. Its the "Brew Thru", which is a drive through liquor store! Who knew that could be legal?

At 6 AM on Thursday morning, we packed up our cars and (sadly) drove out of the OBX. It was a really amazing vacation, but alas all good things must come to end. Luckily we weren't driving straight home. Instead, we went on to DC!!!