Outer Banks, North Carolina

Outer Banks Day 3: Avon / Rodanthe / Nags Head

September 23, 2021

We road tripped from the Jacksonville / Camp Lejeune area up to the Outer Banks in April and had a blast exploring these barrier islands!! Make sure you check out our 5 day itinerary, read about our 1st day on Ocracoke Island and our 2nd day on Hatteras Island before reading this post about our drive up the villages on Day 3.

This morning we had the most amazing breakfast at The Inn on Pamlico Sound!! We decided to do a bit of kayaking on the sound before checking out. I really wanted to try the apple crazies at Orange Blossom Bakery & Cafe down the street… but I decided to go around 10am after kayaking and lost out on them because they are famous and sell out really quickly! =( Don’t make the same mistake I did and go first thing in the morning!!!

Our first stop on the drive up north was the Ugly Mugs Coffee Shop in Avon. I had hoped to visit Kinnakeet Clay, a small pottery store right by this coffee shop, but they have very limited hours and were sadly closed that day. I will definitely be ordering something from online soon!! Anyway, with our coffees in hand we stopped to see the rickety Avon Pier and spent a few minutes on the beach.

Next we drove up to Rodanthe and stopped to see the famous Inn At Rodanthe! Of course I did some digging on Google to see what it looks like on the inside and I found out it can be rented out!! We also tried visiting the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station but didn’t realize you had to pay to go in. Then we tried the Rodanthe Pier but we found the parking too pricy, so we skipped them both. After those fails we decided to get a snack… so we stopped at Uncle Franks OBX for some bomb hot dogs and continued on.

We did a pit stop at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and walked a bit to stretch our legs. Afterward did a short stop at the Bodie Island Lighthouse. Then we continued on all the way to Kill Devil Hill to check into our AirBnb. We rested for a bit then headed down to the Jockey Ridge State Park in Nags Head. This state park is home to the tallest living sand dune on the Atlantic Coast. We had dinner at Mama Kwan’s Tiki Bar & Grill and ended the day with some mini golf!!

Wow that was a lot… it was a very full day, now enjoy scrolling through all the photos!

Avon

Rodanthe

^^ We stopped to see this famous house! It served as the hotel in Nicholas Sparks Nights in Rodanthe film! ^^ ^ My husband had the Chicago Dog & I had the Carolina dog, which is buried under all that pulled pork! ^