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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Where should we vacation in the Outer Banks?
DH's family usually does one week-long beach trip every year where we all rent a big house at the beach. We are trying to plan 2012 now and they are thinking NC. I have never been (except for Wilmington). I know some of the places are more touristy and crowded than others but don't know much about individual areas.
We are going to have a full house of couples, several teenagers, and then a handful of small children. Most of us are homebodies and perfectly content lounging around the pool/beach, but it would be nice if there were a few things close by, particularly for the teenagers to do. We stayed in Sandbridge, VA last year which was nice because it was quiet but VA Beach was close for outings. So something kind of similar? Any recs?
Re: Where should we vacation in the Outer Banks?
Cooper where in OBX do you guys stay?
Also I wouldn't be completely nuts to take a 7 month old baby? Right?? Tell me normal people do this.....
Carrie, if you're looking for opinions on taking a baby, I can relay what it was like when my friend took her son (he was 7 months at the time!) on our Emerald Isle family vacation last year, and what she felt afterwards... it's not so great, though
Let me have it.....
I just wanted to add some links
http://www.twiddy.com/homes/duck/snow-geese-dunes/mi-casa-su-casa.aspx we stayed in this house for a few years, it was AWESOME, but then our numbers grew
and this is the one we stayed in last year http://www.twiddy.com/homes/duck/sea-pines/white-sands-ii.aspx and it was great!
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w -- BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w -- BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
BFP#4: 07/12, M/C 5w3d -- BFP#5: 12/12, EDD 08/18/13
Decorate This
John was about 9 months when we went and it was awesome. It was a great place to relax with him and there were so many sets of hands that gave us breaks to go off and enjoy some time alone. It is very residential so we took a morning walk around the neighborhoods with him. I brought my Beaba baby cook so I still made his food there, and it was awesome to just be able to BF and not pump. It is so family friendly I think it's an ideal place to take Sean and baby remy.
Oh and we usually stay in Duck, but we've stayed more north before, but I like Duck.
We took DD on our big family beach vacation when she was ~ 7 months. I didn't think it was a big deal at all, but I didn't have a toddler to contend w/ either. The house we rented (in SC) had a little "apartment" on the top floor w/ 2 BRs, sitting room w/ TV, and a mini-kitchen. It worked out well. It was so great that DD had take 2 naps a day, but it was nice that my MIL was there and she never wanted to put DD down (and my nieces and SILs were big helps too). I thought it was fun.
DH's family used to go to OBX every year for Thankgiving, but its sort of fallen by the wayside the last few years. We normally stay pretty far down in Frisco or Buxton and there is almost no commercial development until you get to Hateras Village. I would stay farther north, closer to Nags Head or Kitty Hawk for a more active group.
At the time of the trip, my friend had a 7-month old, D, and a 3-year old, M. We stayed in a house that had a walkway that led straight to the beach, so you couldn't get much more convenient of a location... but my friend said she'll never again take a baby to the beach.
It was just... a hassle. It's not relaxing to fight to keep him from eating a pound of sand. It's not relaxing to try to meet the wants/needs of the toddlers (because ours was there, too) who are fighting over sand toys and want to go play in the water while the little one just wants to be held and it's hot and humid and you're sweaty and just want to read a book.
It was a lot of gear to lug up and down the beach each day - the canopy, the chairs, the towels, the toys, the baby tent, the food, the water, the books. It may be different at the beach you end up going to, but on EI, you could not leave your canopy set up, so the guys had to go down every morning and set it up.
We'd spend a long time getting down there, getting things set up just so only to sit for a couple of hours before the whining and unhappiness began, and then we had to drag everyone and everything back inside to wash up, make lunch, and go down for naps.
There were four adults and three kids, so there wasn't a lack of helping hands. It was just not an ideal situation. With a larger group it may be even easier and I know people do it all the time, so your mileage may vary, but I know my friend said she'll never do it again. They're hoping to have #3 before summer 2012 and they won't be taking their annual trip to the beach that year.
Ditto this- my parents sold their house that was in the town just north of Buxton my senior yr of college. While gorgeous down there it was a serious haul and not much to do, or places to go out to eat, etc. Nags Head is very developed and I know a lot of groups of families that rent huge houses in Duck w/ a pool, and then split it, take turns cooking, etc.
Dani thanks for giving me your take on things. I can see how some of those things would be challenging. Some of that stuff we dealt with on our beach trip last year (DS was 11 months)...like we would get all of our gear down to the beach, he would sit there for 20 minutes before fussing and then we would just end up going back to the house. But we will have 8 adults (all who love kids), four college age/teenage kids (all who love their nephews) who were practically begging to take DS off our hands last time, so I think it might be manageable. I'm leaning towards going.
Also I just realized I can't count. I will have an 8 month old, not a 7 month old. What did you think of Emerald Isle? Its one of the places they are considering.
Sounds like you guys will have a great time! I'm sure all of the extra hands will help a great deal, and S will likely have a blast with so many people to play with.
Emerald Isle was okay for DH and I. It's low-key, but there are still a handful of things to do (a local aquarium, movie theatre, lots of restaurants, mini-golf). The beach wasn't overly crowded and it didn't have that drunken party feel of OC or that choke-you-on-our-resort-feel of Myrtle Beach. My friend's family has been going for years and they love it, but DH and I would have preferred more options for other things to do.
We go to Avon every year (check out hatterasrealty.com) and love it. I took the twins when they were 7 months old and my son when he was 9 months. Never had a problem - in fact the kids sleep better because of the ocean air and being out in the sun. Good thing about Avon and using Hatteras is that there was a pool and club house about 4 blocks away, so if it was too windy we could go to the pool.
We did bonfires, kite flying, just cookouts and games with the adults. Lots of fun
This is the town where my parents had their house. I consider it to be pretty remote. It's gorgeous- but definitely very quiet- I can't even consider Avon to be a town or village.