Man killed by sharks at Kill Devil Hills

Man, did you all read about this? A tourist found a man dead at Virginia Dare Road and the autopsy revealed...a shark ate him!

It seems I just got back from the Outer Banks just yesterday....oh I miss it so much (maybe not the shark part but thank goodness I didn't know about the possibility of becoming someone's dinner at the time).

I remember Virginia Dare Road...just trying to think if it was the road we needed to take to see something or the name just stuck in my mind. I had no idea there were sharks in the water, but this proves it!

While I have you on the subject, I've got...taddddaaa...pictures! I've got so many, I think I'll divide it into 3 parts.

First, the Outer Banks is beautiful. If you want to see miles and miles of beach, this is the place to go. Our plans were to stay over at Nags Head and use the rental to drive to other places. I knew I wanted to see the Cape Hatteras lighthouse which was an hour away and I knew I wanted to see the Wright Brothers exhibit, plus there was the biggest dune on the east coast there in Nags Head and I wanted to see that. Plus, eat. Eat and eat. We did more eating than anything else, I think.

So anyway, since we were only staying a couple of days, beach houses were out as you could only rent them for a week at a time, plus this was a last minute trip and it's nothing like trying to plan a vacation in a few days so we opted for the Ramada Inn. Here's what it looked like:




















Thought I had a better picture of it, but this is as we were sliding into the parking lot. My daughter said Nags Head wasn't what she pictured. She pictured more like here on the island but instead it reminded her of Pigeon Forge, TN. because of all the tourist shops.

Anyway, we unloaded and when we got to the room, how do I want to put that. They weren't impressed. For one thing, it was small. We had two double beds for 3 people which I knew when we signed up for it but there was nothing else available (might I add we made reservations the night before so pickers can't be choosers).

I made the best of it and started unpacking while the kids were sitting around looking kind of let down. Granted, it looked nothing like the hotel at Myrtle Beach. But it was a room and I tried to keep up their spirits.

We had a balcony which overlooked the ocean. Again, nothing like Myrtle Beach with the palm trees, pool below, wide open beaches, but this is what it looked like:




































I guess it's not that bad, but nothing like this:




















Or this:



















Or this:



















Those last pictures were taken at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a few hours south...now that was a beautiful place.

But this hotel did have a few perks. We were tired and hungry so instead of searching for a restaurant, we decided to eat in the hotel's restaurant. Well, it came with entertainment. While we were waiting for our overly high priced food to arrive, it seems there was a line dancing class in progress. Yehaw. Take my word of advice. Order take out.

After that exciting adventure, we rode around to the different shops and bought t-shirts. It was getting late so we headed back to the room. I'll be back tomorrow with pictures of the Cape Hattaras Lighthouse, the Wright Brothers Museum and the tallest sand dune on the east coast which I climbed. Believe It. Or Not.

Mytle Beach Vacation '09

Okay, okay, stop yelling. I was coming! Would you like to see pictures of our vacation in Myrtle Beach now?

I had never been, never ever. I'd been to Florida so we passed it to our left, but never did we even think about going to Myrtle Beach until someone blogged about it. I must write to the North Carolina tourism people and tell them how valuable blogging is.

So it was BF, his 14-year-old daughter and I. My kids stayed home and watched the doggies (I promised them a trip to the Outer Banks this upcoming week as a matter of fact...always vacationing, that's the way to do it). I had a very relaxing time...spent most of the time in the pool or on the beach. I thought it was kind of strange there wasn't much else to do right there and that you'd have to drive a few miles to see anything, but maybe next time when we have more time.

The hotel was BEAUTIFUL. Here it is right here:


Here it is when you walk across the street:

And here is the back of it:

We were on the sixth floor and if you look directly to the middle, you can see our room. It was a really gorgeous place to stay. Inside (I forgot to take pictures of this), there was an indoor waterpark, slide and everything...I felt like a little kid again!

Now this one above is when you stand on the balcony and look down. I used the zoom on this because it wasn't that close, but you can see how we got to the beach from the hotel. To the left of that wooden walkway were rows of chairs you could sit on but it was too hot. Everyone either was at the beach or in the pool.

This is below our room. If you click on any of the pictures, btw, they'll get larger and you can see them better. This pool was the bomb. What was really neat was all I had to do was look out from the balcony and I could see if there were a million people in there or two or three. The best time to go was 9 a.m. and 9 p.m...barely a soul then, but in the middle of the day, you better be prepared.Get a load of those palm trees!


One of the beach scenes. One thing that is confusing the heck out of me is where was the sea gulls? I'm so used to having sea gulls everywhere, especially at the beach and all I saw was one. Don't know whether it was the fact it was too hot or what but that was really strange. And...no shells...I guess they were there but no good ones. I still loved it, though.


Ahhh, the beach. Nature's playground. Fun in the sun. It was PACKED.

Oh yeah...I'd definitely do it again....